Chapter 41—Peace, Prosperity, and Progress

Why are the 1950s remembered as an age of affluence?

41.2 Postwar Politics

Rocky Transition to Peace

Fair Deal--Truman’s package of reforms

Economy adjusts to peacetime--govt. cancels contracts, price controls lifted

Inflation soars but wages don’t increase

Labor unions strike

Taft-Hartley Act—placed limits on the power of unions Outlawed closed shop

Banned sympathy strikes

Upset Victory in 1948

Democratic Party split into 3 factions:– Democrats: Harry Truman

– Progressives: Henry Wallace

– Dixiecrats: Strom Thurmond

Republican Party—Thomas E. Dewey

Truman’s ―whistle stop‖ tour helped him win narrow victory over Dewey

Most of his Fair Deal reforms blocked by Congress

Ike Takes Middle of the Road

1952 Election—Republicans nominate Dwight D. Eisenhower

– Supreme commander of armed forces during WWII

– Head of NATO

– ―I Like Ike‖—campaign slogan

Eisenhower’s presidency

– Supported ―modern Republicanism‖

– Expanded Social Security; massive peacetime arms buildup

– Worried about ―military industrial complex‖

1952 Election

Dwight D. "Ike" Eisenhower's campaign slogan "I Like Ike" epitomized the swell spirit that defined American culture in the 1950s.

Consumer Demand Spurs Economic Growth

Due to large savings and twice as much real income for many families than in the 1920s, Americans began spending more than ever before.

Consumers were spending money in different places (shopping centers).

To encourage spending, businesses used advertising and offered credit cards.

Businesses used planned obsolescence to encourage spending by introducing new products.

Consumerism1950 Introduction of the Diner’s Card

All babies were potential consumers who spearheaded a brand-new market for food, clothing, and shelter.

-- Life Magazine (May, 1958)

Consumerism

Economy Shifts from Goods to Services

General Motors became the first U.S. corporation to earn more than $1 billion/yr

GM workers received regular wage hikes tied to a cost-of-living index.

New companies sold franchises, or agreements to operate a business that carries a company’s name and sells its products (McDonald’s, Holiday Inn)

Franchises

Workforce Shifts from Blue to White-Collar Workers

For the first time, white-collar workersoutnumber blue-collar workers.

Growing middle-class

Marriage Boom to Baby Boom

More people were marrying and at younger ages.

Rise in marriages led to increase in number or babiesBaby Boom

More diapers, baby food, homes, cars and schools needed for children

Baby BoomIt seems to me that every other young housewife I see is pregnant.

-- British visitor to America, 1958

1957 1 baby born every 7 seconds

Baby Boom

Dr. Benjamin Spockand the Anderson Quintuplets

Family Roles—Working Dads, Stay-at-home Moms

Dr. Benjamin Spock, leading child-care expert of the day, wrote Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care

Television brought the ideal family to life on screen

Number of women attending college dropped, many drop out to marry

Well-Defined Gender Roles

The ideal modern woman married, cooked and cared for her family, and kept herself busy by joining the local PTA and leading a troop of Campfire Girls. She entertained guests in her family’s suburban house and worked out on the trampoline to keep her size 12 figure.

-- Life magazine, 1956MarilynMonroe

The ideal 1950s man was the provider, protector, and the boss of the house. -- Life magazine, 1955

1956 William H. Whyte, Jr. The Organization Man

A a middle-class, white suburban male is the ideal.

Television1946 7,000 TV sets in the U. S.1950 50,000,000 TV sets in the U. S.

Television is a vast wasteland. Newton Minnow, Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, 1961

Truth, Justice, and the American way!

Television – The Western

Davy CrockettKing of the Wild Frontier

The Lone Ranger(and his faithfulsidekick, Tonto): Who is that masked man??

Sheriff Matt Dillon, Gunsmoke

Television-Family ShowsThe Typical TV Suburban Families

The Donna Reed Show1958-1966

Leave It to Beaver1957-1963

Father Knows Best1954-1958 The Ozzie & Harriet Show

1952-1966

Suburbs and Sunbelt

New planned communities, like Levittown, are providing needed housing for middle-class

New suburbanites were white, middle-class (homogeneity)

More and more Americans move to Sunbelt—warm-weather states

Suburban Living

$7,990 or $60/month with no down payment.

1949 William Levitt produced 150 houses per week.

Suburban Living:The New “American Dream”

k 1 story high

k 12’x19’ living room

k 2 bedrooms

k tiled bathroom

k garage

k small backyard

k front lawn

By 1960 1/3 of the U. S. population in the suburbs.

Middle Class Dream; Interstate Highway System

More people commute to work from suburbs led to more production and sale of cars

Cars become a status symbol

In 1956, Congress authorizes construction of Interstate Highway System

Creates new roadside businesses (gas stations, motels, restaurants)

The Culture of the CarCar registrations: 1945 25,000,000

1960 60,000,000

2-family cars doubles from 1951-1958

1956 Interstate Highway Act largestpublic works project in Americanhistory!

Å Cost $32 billion.

Å 41,000 miles of new highways built.

1959 Chevy Corvette1958 Pink Cadillac

The Culture of the Car

First McDonald’s (1955)

America became a more homogeneous nation because of the automobile.

Drive-In Movies

Howard Johnson’s

The Culture of the CarThe U. S. population was on the move in the 1950s.

NE & Mid-W S & SW (“Sunbelt” states)

1955 Disneyland opened in Southern California.(40% of the guests came from outsideCalifornia, most by car.)

Frontier Land Main Street Tomorrow Land

Advances in Medicine

Dr. Jonas Salk created a polio vaccine

Antibiotics being used to treat diseases

Life expectancy increases

Nuclear Energy and Computers

Nuclear energy used to generate electricity

First electronic digital computer, called ENIAC, can perform 300 multiplications per second

Transitor allows for smaller and more reliable computers

Progress Through Science1951 -- First IBM Mainframe Computer

1952 -- Hydrogen Bomb Test

1953 -- DNA Structure Discovered

1954 -- Salk Vaccine Tested for Polio

1957 -- First Commercial U. S. NuclearPower Plant

1958 -- NASA Created

1959 -- Press Conference of the First 7American Astronauts

Atomic Anxieties:

“Duck-and-Cover

Generation”

Atomic Testing:

1946-1962 U. S. exploded 217 nuclear weapons over thePacific and in Nevada.

Progress Through Science