1. History 17C The American People, World War I to the Present

2. The Fifties

4. Themes: For most Americans, the Fifties were a decade of unprecedented affluence, yet millions of Americans were prevented from fully partaking of the American Dream

5. Themes: On the surface, conformity and passivity prevailed, but below the surface there was considerable dissatisfaction with the status quo

6. Prosperity in the 1950s

7. Fuller Employment Rising Home Ownership

8. Federal involvement in private economy increased citizens’ purchasing power and solved problem of underconsumption

9. With Cold War came renewed government spending on military production

10. ... which led to civilian spin-offs

11. GI Bill of Rights (1944) helped to lift millions of Americans into middle class

12. Those left behind

13. Suburbanization was facilitated by GI Bill loans

14. William Levitt... and by revolution in construction and marketing of housing

15. Levitt’s mass-production techniques

16. “Levittown”

17. Levittowns

18. Life in the suburbs

20. Science fiction movies

22. The cult of female domesticity

23. Betty Friedan 1963

24. World War II legacy: Myth and reality of “Rosie the Riveter”

25. Women’s Employment, 1940-1970 YearPercentage of Women in Paid Employment 194025.4 195029.1 196034.8 197043.3

26. Women’s Employment, 1940-1970 YearPercentage of Paid Workers Who Were Women 194024.6 195027.8 196032.3 197038.0

27. Women in Higher Education

28. Allen Ginsberg Jack Kerouac The “Beats”

29. Rhythm and Blues

31. Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1953-1961

32. With Vice President Richard M. Nixon Eisenhower was highly popular with the general public but less so with liberal intellectuals

33. Eisenhower’s Army Background

35. With Prime Minister Winston Churchill With Gen. George C. Patton

36. Eisenhower’s Army Background With Gen. Douglas MacArthur During the Bonus March, 1932

41. Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1953-1961

42. Ike and Mamie Eisenhower host a state visit by the Khrushchevs, 1959 Eisenhower and foreign relations

43. 1954—Declined to bail out the French in Vietnam Eisenhower and foreign relations

44. ... and allowed communists to take over northern half of Vietnam Eisenhower and foreign relations

45. Eisenhower’s failings Appeasing Sen. Joseph McCarthy

46. Eisenhower and Marshall

47. 1954—Army-McCarthy Hearings were televised, causing McCarthy to lose public support

49. Lack of leadership on Civil Rights Eisenhower’s failings

50. Citizens of Topeka, KS, protesting school segregation Brown vs. Board of Education, 1954

51. Nettie Hunt and Daughter Nickie on Supreme Court Steps, 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education, 1954

52. Emmett Till case, 1955 Mose Wright (Emmett Till’s Great-Uncle) and Mamie Bradley (Till’s Mother)

53. Arrest of Rosa Parks, December 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott, 1955-1956

54. Martin Luther King speaking at Holt Street Baptist Church, December 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott, 1955-1956

55. Jo Ann Robinson and other local black women activists Montgomery Bus Boycott, 1955-1956