US History II Chapter 27 The Postwar Boom Section 1 Postwar America

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US History II Chapter 27 The Postwar BoomSection
1 Postwar America
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• Readjustment and recovery
• By the summer of 1946, 10 million men and women
  had been released from the armed forces.
• The Impact of the GI Bill
• To ease service mens return to civilian life,
  Congress passed the Servicemens Readjustment Act
  or the GI Bill of Rights, in 1944.
• The GI Bill offered partial tuition payments for
  their education, one year of unemployment benefits

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• GI Bill also offered low-interest, federally
  guaranteed loans.
• Millions of young families used these benefits to
  purchase farms or to establish businesses.
• Housing Crisis
• 1945 1946, severe housing shortage faced by
  returning veterans.
• Many lived in cramped apartments or moved in with
  relatives.

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• Responding to the housing crisis, developers such
  as William Levitt, used efficient, assembly-line
  methods to mass-produce homes.
• Levitt said his company could build a house in 16
  minutes.
• Levitt offered homes in small residential
  communities surrounding cities. These
  communities became known as suburbs.
• These homes cost 8000.

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• Levitts first postwar development was built on
  New Yorks Long Island and was named Levittown

Aerial shot of Levittown
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• Redefining the Family
• Tensions created by changes in mens and womens
  roles after the war contributed to a high divorce
  rate.
• 1950, more than 1 million war marriages ended in
  divorce.
• Economic Readjustment
• After WWII, US changes back to a peacetime
  economy.
• 10 days after Japans surrender, 1 million
  defense workers are laidoff.

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• During the war, the Office of Price
  Administration, (OPA) set maximum prices for
  goods.
• June 30, 1946, price controls ended, and prices
  skyrocketed.
• As prices spiraled upwards, post war salaries
  were less.
• To stop inflation, Congress re-instituted
  controls on prices and wages to easily convert to
  the peacetime economy.

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• Trumans Inheritance
• Harry S. Truman suddenly becomes president after
  Franklin D. Roosevelts death in 1945.
• Truman had the ability to make difficult
  decisions and to accept full responsibility for
  them. A sign on his desk read The Buck Stops
  Here.
• Trumans two challenges the rising threat of
  communism and restoring the American economy.

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• Truman Faces Strikes
• Facing higher prices and lower wages, 4.5 million
  discontented workers went on strike in 1946.
  After 750,000 steelworkers returned to work after
  an 80-day strike, 400,000 coal miners went on
  strike. 18 days later two railroad unions
  announced they would strike and stop rail traffic
  throughout the nation.
• Truman asked Congress for authority to draft the
  striking workers and order them back to work.

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• Before Truman could finish his speech to
  Congress, the railroad unions gave in.
• Had Enough?
• Americans were ready for a change after dealing
  with shortages, rising inflation and labor
  strikes.
• Republicans asked, Had enough? Voters replied
  in the congressional elections of 1946 as the
  Republican Party won control of both the Senate
  and the House for the first time since 1928.

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• Truman Supports Civil Rights
• September 1946 Truman meets with African
  -American leaders to get their top priorities.
  Those were
• federal anti-lynching law
• abolition of the poll tax as a voting requirement
• establishment of a permanent body to prevent
  racial discrimination
• When Congress didnt pass these measures, Truman
  established a biracial Committee on Civil Rights.

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• July 1948, Truman issued an executive order for
  the integration of the armed forces, calling for
  equality of treatment and opportunity without
  regard to color, race, religion or national
  origin. In addition, he ordered and end to
  discrimination in the hiring of government
  employees.
• At the same time, the US Supreme Court ruled that
  courts could not bar African Americans from
  residential neighborhoods.

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• Republicans Take the Middle Road
• 1951 Trumans approval rating sunk to 23 percent.
• 1952 Presidential election, Truman doesnt run.
  Democrats nominate Governor Adlai Stevenson of
  Illinois. Republicans nominate General Dwight D.
  Eisenhower.
• I Like Ike
• Eisenhower took the lead, but hit a snag when his
  running mate, Richard M. Nixon was accused of
  profiting from a secret fund.

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• Nixon, using the new medium of television, made
  his checkers speech. He denied any wrong
  doing, but did admit to taking a gift from a
  political supporter.
• Nixons speech saved the Republicans. They won
  55 percent of the popular vote and the
  Republicans narrowly captured Congress.
• Walking The Middle of the Road
• Eisenhowers presidential style was to keep a low
  public profile and to work behind the scenes to
  accomplish things.

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• Although he followed a middle of the road course,
  he could not side step the issue of civil rights.
• 1954, US Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Board
  of Education of Topeka, that public schools
  should be racially integrated. Eisenhower felt
  the federal government should not be involved in
  desegregation and he privately disagreed with the
  Brown ruling.

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• However, in 1957 when the Arkansas governor tried
  to keep black kids out of an all-white high
  school, Eisenhower sent federal troops to ensure
  that the students arrived safely in the school.

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• The mid 1950s were a time of peace , progress
  and prosperity. Americans returned to normalcy
  and a higher standard of living.
• Please that everythings booming but the guns,
  voters flocked to the polls in 1956 to re-elect
  Eisenhower by the greatest majority since FDRs
  win in 1936.
• To many of the nations citizens, the American
  Dream had finally come within reach.