The Postwar Years at Home - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

1 / 56
About This Presentation
Title:

The Postwar Years at Home

Description:

The Postwar Years at Home 1945-1960 Postwar Changes in the USA Economic prosperity in the years after World War II brought many changes to American life: Shift from ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

Number of Views:250
Avg rating:3.0/5.0
Slides: 57
Provided by: BlackmanH
Category:

less

Transcript and Presenter's Notes

Title: The Postwar Years at Home


1
The Postwar Years at Home
  • 1945-1960

2
Postwar Changes in the USA
  • Economic prosperity in the years after World War
    II brought many changes to American life
  • Shift from blue-collar to white-collar
  • Credit cards, televisions, fast-food
  • Nuclear power for energy, faster automobiles
  • Suburbs, rock-n-roll, beatniks, baby boom

3
The Postwar Economy
  • In the postwar years, the economy prospered the
    GNP and the per capita income the average
    annual income per person, nearly doubled from
    45-60
  • Businesses also prospered and a few large
    corporations dominated many industries, forming
    conglomerates corporations of smaller unrelated
    businesses, to protect themselves from economic
    downturns eggs in a basket

4
Business Expansion
  • Another type of business expansion came in the
    form of the franchise a business that contracts
    to offer certain goods and services from a larger
    parent company McDonalds
  • Less risk involved owners sell a product that
    is usually well-known
  • Fast-food restaurants, clothing stores, and other
    franchises began popping up

5
(No Transcript)
6
Technology Transforms Life
  • Advances in technology, such as television,
    computers, transistors, and nuclear power also
    spurred industrial growth as businesses met
    demands for new technologies
  • All of these new technologies helped Americans
    save time, but also quickened the pace of life

7
Impact of Television
  • One of the greatest symbols of prosperity during
    the 1950s was the TV
  • The Golden Age of Television

8
(No Transcript)
9
Computers Nuclear Power
  • With the development of the transistor in 1947,
    huge computers (developed in the 1940s), could
    fit on desktops
  • Transistors are tiny circuit devices that
    amplifies, controls, and generates electrical
    signals
  • The use of atomic energy to create energy also
    changed the US also see the creation of
    nuclear-powered subs (USS Nautilus)

10
(No Transcript)
11
(No Transcript)
12
Medicine and Social Ideas
  • Medicine also took giant leaps in the 1950s
  • Dr. Jonas Salk new vaccine for Polio (FDR??)
    virtually eliminated that dreaded disease (20,000
    dead/year)
  • Dr. Benjamin Spock new book detailing raising
    children advocated that women should stay at
    home with the kids NOT work outside the home

13
Workplace Shift
  • The postwar years also saw changes in the work
    force
  • Before 1950s, more Americans worked in
    blue-collar jobs (manual labor), but because of
    machinery, and the purchase of new advanced
    products, more Americans shift to white-collar
    jobs (professional and service-related jobs
    managers, technicians)

14
GI Bill of Rights (1944)
  • Unlike WWI vets, WWII veterans were able to
    expand their economic opportunities with the help
    of the Servicemens Readjustment Act of 1944 (GI
    Bill of Rights)
  • This law gave low-interest mortgages to purchase
    new homes and also provided for vets to go to
    college or graduate school helped push more
    people into white-collar jobs

15
BABY BOOM!!!
  • A growing economy (more ) and more affluence
    (extra ) also helped increase the birthrate,
    causing a baby boom in the 1950s and 1960s
  • From 1945 to 1961, more than 65 million babies
    were born in the US
  • This extreme growth of families also pushed
    families away from crowded downtown areas outward
    into the suburbs

16
(No Transcript)
17
William J. Levitt
  • Because most Americans saved their money during
    the war (chose to and rationing), Americans could
    afford to buy their own homes and did
  • One developer used mass production techniques for
    the mass building of what he later called
    Levittowns (communities)

18
(No Transcript)
19
Levittowns and Conformity
  • These Levittowns forced the idea of conformity
    on people same houses, same cars, same-ness
    even toward ethnic groups
  • The growth of suburbs was also sparked by the
    passing of the Interstate Highway Act of 1956
    created over 40,000 miles of interstate highways
    made traveling easier

20
Credit Cards and Debt
  • Eager to cash in, gasoline companies began
    offering credit cards
  • The Diners Club (1950) picked up on this idea of
    credit and by the end of the decade, American
    Express and later Visa would appear all
    encouraging consumers to buy beyond their means
  • Because of this, consumer credit debt rose from
    8 b (1946) to 56 b (1960)

21
The Word is CONFORMITY
  • During the 1950s many Americans lived comfortable
    lives after the Depression and WWII, people
    valued security and comfort over individuality
    led to ideas of conformity
  • The young people, called the silent generation
    were content to enjoy their parents affluence
    rather than become involved in world affairs

22
Youth Culture
  • Smart businesses seized the opportunity to sell
    products to this new youth culture and more
    teenagers had money to spend (guys part-time
    jobs, gals baby-sitting)
  • Magazines and TV shows tried to stress conformity
    (bobby socks, leather jackets) but many of the
    youth began to rebel against conformity

23
Resurgence in Religion
  • The 1950s comfort and security also sparked a
    resurgence in religion as many flocked back to
    churches (Billy Graham)
  • Some of this was in response to the struggle with
    godless communism and some looked to religion
    to find hope during the threat of nuclear war

24
Resurgence in Religion
  • In God We Trust was required to appear on all
    money
  • under God was added to the Pledge of Allegiance
  • Common phrases also supported this idea The
    family that prays together stays together
  • By 1960, 95 said they felt connected to formal
    religious group

25
Traditional Roles
  • Conformity to traditional roles was the norm
  • Men were supposed to go to school, find jobs and
    wives, and support their families
  • Women were expected to play a supporting role in
    their husbands lives keep house, cook meals,
    and raise children

26
(No Transcript)
27
Dr. Benjamin Spock
  • Many parents turned to pediatrician Dr. Benjamin
    Spock for advice advocated that women should
    stay at home with the kids NOT work outside
    the home
  • And many women followed this advice and stayed at
    home raising the families and supporting their
    husbands

28
The Feminine Mystique
  • But there was a major portion of women following
    WW II that did NOT want to give up the
    independence and money there were earning
  • Betty Friedan, in 1936, wrote The Feminine
    Mystique, a novel critical of the culture that
    made it difficult for women to choose alternative
    roles

29
Youthful Rebellion
  • Even with conformity being challenged, most women
    still worked as secretaries, teachers, nurses,
    and sales clerks, NOT professional jobs
  • There was also a youthful rebellion of conformity
    as those young people felt confined and looked
    for a style all their own -- James Dean, Elvis
    Presley, and ROCK-N-ROLL

30
(No Transcript)
31
Rock-and-Roll
  • Many of those youths turned to music to express
    their rebellion, becoming fans of rock-and-roll
    music, especially the songs of Elvis Presley, the
    Beatles, and The Rolling Stones
  • Most adults though, hated this music, believing
    it would cause immorality, drug use, and that it
    was listened to by both blacks and whites these
    adults were still comfortable with segregation

32
Beat Generation -- Beatniks
  • Members of the Beat Generation launched a
    different challenge to conformity these
    Beatniks (writers, artists, etc) promoted the
    idea of spontaneity acting at a moments notice
    without planning
  • They stressed spirituality release from a world
    of money and property

33
Beatniks Jack Kerouac
  • These beatniks challenged traditional patterns of
    respectability and shocked most Americans with
    their very open sexuality and their prolific use
    of illegal drugs
  • Author Jack Kerouac, considered the leader of
    this movement, wrote books detailing his ideas
    and experiences of a spontaneous life of freedom
    and openness

34
The 1950s Mood
  • The 1950s saw a major change in the attitudes and
    moods of Americans
  • More free time to pursue fun stuff
  • Valuing of prosperity and security leads to
    conformity and importance of religion
  • Conformity leads to challenges to it
    Rock-and-Roll
  • Traditional roles for women/men

35
Truman and the Economy
  • Becoming President just as WWII was ending, Harry
    S Truman faced the challenges of Americas
    reconversion the transition from a wartime to a
    peacetime economy
  • While America was at war, the people had limited
    access to consumer goods, but when the war was
    over, the people wanted the stuff and they wanted
    it quick

36
(No Transcript)
37
Truman and Labor Strikes
  • When Truman removed the price controls, prices
    soared, but wages did NOT the people still
    couldnt afford the stuff and many workers
    strike
  • Truman was upset at the demands of unions and
    workers felt would lead prices up more and he
    actually proposed drafting striking railroad
    workers into the Army (1946)

38
Taft-Hartley
  • Congress rejects that idea, but passes the
    Taft-Hartley Act in 1947 which gave the President
    powers to force the workers back to work (those
    in very important industries)
  • It also required union leaders to sign loyalty
    oaths
  • Truman vetoed the law, but Congress passed it
    over Trumans veto

39
The Fair Deal
  • Like FDR, Truman wanted to extend the New Deals
    goals The Fair Deal this govt-sponsored
    program included more benefits for workers,
    national health insurance, and control over
    atomic energy
  • The Fair Deal (and Truman) ran into serious
    opposition from Congress (even within his own
    party D) who rejected most of the Fair Deal

40
End to Army Segregation
  • Truman also moved to increase civil rights for
    A-A by ordering the US armed forces to end
    segregation in 1948 and by banning racial
    discrimination in the hiring of federal employees
  • His beliefs on racial issues hurt Trumans
    support with both parties (Democrats/Republicans)

41
Discontent of Truman
  • The public also picked up on the discontent with
    Harry, with slogans such as To err is Truman
  • Trumans support fell from 87 approval in 1945
    to 32 in 1946, and would drop below 25 in
    1948-52
  • The result of midterm elections in 1946 (Senate,
    House) was that Truman was not seen as an
    effective leader

42
Election of 1948
  • Truman decided to run again in 1948
  • He had no reason to expect victory, especially
    since his own party split apart with southern
    Democrats forming the Dixiecrat Party and
    nominating Strom Thurmond (S.C.) and liberal Dem
    going to Progressive Party and nominating Henry
    Wallace
  • Republicans ran Thomas E. Dewey

43
Election of 1948
  • Truman began whistle-stop campaign across the
    nation and was seen as the peoples man
    friend of the commoners
  • Even with increasing support, no one believed
    Truman could/would win
  • But he did, and Dem gained control of Congress as
    well little success

44
(No Transcript)
45
22nd Amendment
  • Republicans, long out of the White House, began
    to argue to term-limits on the Presidency
  • Pushed for a constitutional amendment, which
    passed easily
  • 22nd Amendment, adopted in 1951, limited a
    President to serving two (2) terms, or ten (10)
    years

46
Election of 1952
  • Truman could have run again in 1952, but decided
    against it, Dem choose Adlai Stevenson, governor
    of Illinois
  • Republicans get Dwight Eisenhower, IKE, along
    with VP choice Richard Nixon to run in 1952

47
(No Transcript)
48
Dwight D. Eisenhower (IKE)
  • This War Hero man of action became the man
    of the people as popular support for IKE was
    helped by the first television political
    commercials
  • Eisenhowers candidacy hit a snag in Sept 1952,
    when newspapers found that VP choice, Richard
    Nixon, had a special fund (), set up by rich
    supporters

49
  • Nixon came under attack for accepting gifts
    from businesspeople totally 18,000
  • Nixon went on radio/TV and insisted they were
    legit funds but did say he had kept one gift
    a cocker spaniel puppy named Checkers The
    Checkers speech helped save Nixon!!
  • Ike wins by more than 6 million votes

50
(No Transcript)
51
Ike and Modern Republicanism
  • Ike used hidden hand presidency directed the
    action from the side and delegated much power and
    authority Cabinet members held great authority
  • Ike began to promote Modern Republicanism that
    included cutting spending, reducing taxes, and
    balancing the budget
  • Ike, like other Rep, favored big business

52
Modern Republicanism
  • Modern Republicanism sought to encourage and
    support corporate America
  • Ike was unsuccessful at balancing the budget, and
    his cuts in govt spending caused the economy to
    slump
  • This caused revenues (tax ) to drop and
    increased deficit spending, instead of decreasing
    it

53
Election of 1956 and Beyond
  • Ike was re-elected in 1956, but the economy
    continued to go south, with 3 recessions in 53,
    57, and 60
  • Despite economic troubles, Ike helped the country
    maintain a mood of stability and continued to
    support the economic (job) security of Americans
    (New Deal Social Security)

54
(No Transcript)
55
NASA
  • With the Soviet launch of Sputnik in 1957, Ike
    responded by creating the National Aeronautics
    and Space Administration (NASA), as an
    independent agency for space exploration
  • Ike and Congress also signed the National Defense
    Education Act

56
  • The NDEA was designed to improve science and math
    instruction in schools so that the US could meet
    the challenge from the Soviets train the next
    generation of scientists
  • Provided millions of to college students
    (low-cost loans) if they would become teachers,
    and for public schools to build science
    facilities
Write a Comment
User Comments (0)
About PowerShow.com