Readjustment and Recovery  Goals for postwar America  To make social, economic and political adjustments following World War II  Provide homes for soldiers returning from war and the growing population

 Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944 (GI Bill of Rights)  Education assistance  Unemployment benefits  low interest, federally guaranteed loans

Suburbs

Levittown  Developers- William Levitt & Henry Kaiser  Used assembly-line methods to mass produce houses  Bragged they could build a house in 16 minutes  Homes sold for $7,000  Many returning veterans used their GI Bill to buy these houses

Standard North American Family (SNAF)  SNAF: the adult male is in paid employment; his earnings provide the economic basis of the family- household; the adult female may also earn an income, but her primary responsibility is for the care of the husband, household, and children.  During the war women were the primary breadwinners for their families  Family values politicians preach today

Postwar Inflation  Economic readjustment  War contracts canceled after Japan surrendered  Millions of defense workers were laid off unemployment increased  By march million people were looking for work  Prices for consumer goods raised 25% because of demand  Did not go down until the supply caught up with the demand  Worker income was down

Economic Recovery

 Consumer accumulation of wealth and a desire to spend  $135 billion in savings  Postwar consumer production  Consumer wants  Demand triggered more production  More production more jobs  “the affluent society” John Kenneth Galbraith  Continued defense spending  The Marshall plan created foreign markets for export

Harry S. Truman  “The Buck Stops Here”  Challenges  The threat of communism  Restoring the economy after the war  Worker strikes

“Had enough?”  1946 Elections  Republicans gained control of the Senate and the House  First time since 1928  Passed the Taft- Hartley Act

Civil Rights  You should have notes from the movie on this!

1948 Election  Dixiecrats  Southern Democrats that broke off from the main Democratic party to form the States Rights Democratic Party  Nominated Governor J. Strom Thurmond of South Carolina as their presidential candidate

1948 Election  Truman wins reelection  “Give’em Hell, Harry” campaign  Called a special session of Congress to pass laws that would provide economic aid to the American people, they didn’t listen  Took his case to the people  Would later be called Truman’s Fair Deal  “whistlestop campaign” “Do- nothing 80 th Congress”

“I Like Ike!”  1951  Truman’s approval rating 23%  Stalemate in the Korean War  McCarthyism on the rise  Faced with these obstacles Truman did not run for reelection  General Dwight D. Eisenhower (Ike)  “plunder at home and blunder abroad”  Issues  The spread of communism around the globe  The growing power of the federal government  Corruption in the Truman administration  “Dynamic Conservatism” “Modern Republicanism”  Government should be “conservative when it comes to money and liberal when it comes to human beings”

“Checkers speech  Only gift he had accepted from a political supporter