Chapter Twenty-Seven America at Midcentury, 1952–1963

Chapter Focus Questions 1.What characterized post-World War II prosperity? 2.What was the ideal of suburban life? What was the reality? 3.What characterized the emergence of youth culture? 4.What were the criticisms of television and mass culture? 5.What characterized foreign policy in the Eisenhower years? 6.Who was John F. Kennedy and what was the promise of a New Frontier?

American Communities: Popular Music in Memphis

Memphis Memphis was a rapidly growing segregated city with whites and blacks of various classes. Elvis Presley listened to both “white” and “black” music. Sam Phillips, a white producer, recognized that Elvis could sing with the emotional intensity and power of black performers. Elvis blended black styles of music with white styles to help create a new style of music. Rock ‘n’ roll united teenagers and gave them the feeling that it was their music (and misunderstood by adults).

27.1: American Society at Midcentury

A. The Eisenhower Presidency 1.President Dwight D. Eisenhower inspired confidence and adopted a middle-of-the-road style. 2.He ran the government in a businesslike, cooperative manner, pursuing policies that helped private companies and allowing practices that harmed on the environment. 3.He also rejected calls from conservatives to dismantle the welfare state. 4.Although his presidency included two brief recessions, he presided over an extensive increase in real wages.

Presidential contender Dwight D. Eisenhower hosts a group of Republican National Committee women at his campaign headquarters in Ike’s status as America’s biggest war hero, along with his genial public persona, made him an extremely popular candidate with voters across party lines. SOURCE:© Bettmann//CORBIS (BEO36973).

B. Subsidizing Prosperity 1.The federal government helped subsidize this prosperity by providing loans for homes and assisting the growth of suburbs. 2.One of the first planned communities was built by William Levitt and encompassed 17,000 homes, without a single African-American resident. 3.The federal government: a.paid for veterans’ college education b.built an interstate highway system c.following the Russian launch of a satellite spent millions on education

An aerial view of 1950s tract houses in the suburban development of Levittown, New York. Mass production techniques were key to providing affordable housing in the new postwar suburbs—but they required a “cookie cutter” approach to architecture, with little or no variation among the houses. SOURCE:Getty Images,Inc/Hulton Archive Photos.

C. Suburban Life 1.Suburban life: a.strengthened the domestic ideal b.provided a model of the efficient, patient suburban wife for television 2.Suburban growth corresponded with an increase in church attendance. 3.Popular religious figures stressed the importance of fitting in.

FIGURE 27.1 The Growth of the Suburbs, 1950–70 Suburban growth, at the expense of older inner cities, was one of the key social trends in the twenty-five years following World War II. By 1970, more Americans lived in suburbs than in either inner cities or rural areas. SOURCE:Adapted from U.S.Bureau of the Census,Current Censuses, 1930 –1970 (Washington DC:U.S.Government Printing Office,1975).

D. California and Suburban Life California came to embody postwar suburban life, with the cars connecting its components.

FIGURE 27.2 L. A. County Population 1920–80

E. Organized Labor and the AFL-CIO 1.In the mid-1950s, trade unions reached a peak of membership and influence, especially in the Democratic Party. 2.The merger of the AFL and the CIO marked the zenith of the unions. 3.Total membership numbers declined after 1955 but new inroads were made in the public sector.

F. Lonely Crowds and Organizational Men 1.Critics found the suburbs as dull and conformist— points that obscured the real class and ethnic differences found in many suburbs. 2.David Reisman said that Americans had become overly conforming, less individualistic, and more peer-oriented. 3.C. Wright Mills wrote how people sold not only their time and energy but their personalities.

A crowded commuter train in Philadelphia, ca The rapid growth of suburbs in the postwar era made commuting to work, either by mass transit or auto, a routine part of life for millions of Americans. SOURCE:Getty Images Inc./Hulton Archive.

G. The Expansion of Higher Education 1.The postwar baby boom was paralleled by a tremendous expansion of higher education, assisted by extensive federal aid. 2.Colleges accepted the values of corporate culture with 20 percent of all graduates majoring in business. 3.Students tried to conform to the corporate values.

H. Health and Medicine 1.Immunization begun during the war continued after peace. 2.New medicines, like antibiotics, and new vaccines against diseases like polio allowed many Americans to live healthier lives. 3.Doctor shortages, however, meant that poor and elderly Americans and those in rural areas lacked access to these improvements. 4.The AMA did nothing to increase the flow of new doctors and discouraged any national health insurance.