1. Post WWII America Chapter 23 sections 1,2,3
Truman & Eisenhower domestic issues
The AFFLUENT SOCIETY
THE OTHER SIDE OF AMERICAN LIFE

2. Pres. Truman
After WWII ended, many Americans feared a return of the Great Depression. During the post war period, the US economy continued to grow.
The Post War US Economy
The G.I. Bill (Serviceman’s Readjustment Act) – helped boost the US economy.
Gave funds to war veterans to buy homes, attend college, & start businesses.
2. Inflation- because so many Americans were now demanding consumer goods & buying them, inflation rose (cost of goods went up).
3. Labor Strikes- workers in auto, steel, electrical, and mining industries went on strike for higher wages.
Truman ordered government seizure of mines & pressured mine owners to give in to wage demands.
Threatened to draft striking railroad workers to get them back to work.
1946- The Republicans took control of the House & Senate & & passed laws to weaken labor unions.
The Taft Hartley Act (1947)- allowed states to pass “right to work laws”, outlawed “closed shops” or practice of forcing business owners to hire only union members—Truman vetoed & Congress passed anyway.

3. Truman’s ‘Fair Deal”
When President Truman took office, he proposed a series of laws to continue what FDR had started with the New Deal. Truman called his OWN plan THE FAIR DEAL.
Expand Social Security, raise the min. wage, federal funds to insure full US employment, increased public housing, and national healthcare.
1948- Truman asked Congress to pass a Civil Rights law to protect the right of African- Americans to vote, abolish “poll taxes”, and make lynching a federal crime.
Republicans & Southern Congressmen were able to block many of these laws.
The Election of 1948
Most “experts” & others gave Truman little chance of winning a second term.
The Divided Democrats in 1948
‘Dixiecrats”- group of southern democrats formed the States Rights Party in 1948 because Truman had wanted a Civil Rights law.
Liberal Democrats—frustrated by Truman formed the Progressive Party & nominated Henry Wallace.
Their nominee Strom Thurmond of SC

4. The Election of 1948 Republican- candidate NY Gov. Thomas Dewey
Democratic candidate– Harry Truman
States Rights Party candidate- Strom Thurmond
Progressive Party candidate– Henry Wallace
Time Magazine predicted a Thomas Dewey landslide win TWO WEEKS before the election!
Truman traveled around the US campaigning against the “Do Nothing Congress”
Truman surprisingly won the election with help from African-Americans, workers, & farmers.
Democrats also won back control of the Congress
Fair Deal Successes
Raised min. wage to 75 cents/hour, extended Social
Security to 10 million more people, public housing.
Truman mockingly holds up a newspaper that
Had predicted a DEWEY WIN

5. President Eisenhower
Pres. Eisenhower (Republican) cut federal spending, supported business, funded a massive highway building project, and extended some of the NEW Deal programs.
The Korean War ( )- consumed our resources & ended Truman’s Fair Deal.
1952- Truman declined to run again.
The 1952 Election
Republicans nominate Dwight D. Eisenhower “I like Ike”--slogan
Democrats nominated Ill Gov. Adlai Stevenson
Eisenhower WON
Eisenhower Governs America
wanted to balance Republican conservatism on economic matters with activism in areas that benefitted the whole country-- “Dynamic Conservatism”
Appointed business leaders to head cabinet departments (Sec. Defense-former head of GM)
Cut some Depression era programs OR cut spending on them.
The Federal Highway Act – most massive federal government spending program supported by Pres. Eisenhower.
Built 40,000 miles of interstate highways (I-40 & I-77 INCLUDED).
Cost $25 Billion over 10 years.
Social Security- Eisenhower extended SS to 10 million more people
* Won reelection in 1956

6. The ‘Eisenhower
Interstate System”

7. The Affluent Society
Chapter 23 section 2

8. Abundance in America,
The 1950’s was a time of great affluence for many Americans.
the average income of US families tripled.
John Kenneth Galbraith- wrote The Affluent Society - he claimed that our post-war economy was a “phenomenon”.
Growth of the Suburbs
After WWII, mass produced suburbs grew up around cities.
Levittown- (NY)- one of the first mass produced suburbs.
Bill Levitt mass produced hundreds of similar looking homes in a potato field 10 miles from NY.
Suburbs provided inexpensive housing
People wanted to escape the busy, crime ridden city life to raise kids in suburbs.
G.I. Bill allowed veterans & families to buy in the suburbs.
US gov’t gave tax breaks for those buying homes.

9. Abundance in America, 1945-1960 The Baby Boom (1945-1961)
From – 65 million children were born in the US= “THE BABY BOOM”
A child born every 7 seconds.
Why?
Young couples had delayed marriage & home buying during WWII & Korean War.
G.I. Bill now encouraged families to buy homes & start families.
US culture (magazines, radio, TV) celebrated parenthood, pregnancy, families
The Changing Workplace
More Americans worked ”white collar jobs” than ever before.
1956- white collar workers outnumber “blue collar workers” for 1st time.
Most white collar workers worked for ‘Multinational Corporations”.
1950’s saw increase in number of “franchises”- a person owns several store in a chain store operation.
Employers wanted workers to “conform” and nor be “free thinkers”

10. Scientific Advances, 1945-1960 Electronics The Transistor
1947- scientists developed the “transistor” (a tiny device that generated electric signals)
Makes it possible to miniaturize radios, calculators etc.
2. The First Computers
1947- scientists working for the US Army developed ENIAC (EARLIEST COMPUTER IN US).
ENIAC- made military calculations for the Army; as large as a small house.
Years later- UNIVAC (computer used by business) was developed
3. Medicine
Radiation therapy & chemotherapy to treat cancer
CPR to save lives
Tuberculosis- came to an end through new antibiotics & blood tests to detect.
Injectable Polio Vaccine (by Jonas Salk)- injectable vaccine.
Oral Polio Vaccine- Albert Sabin - most widely used; polio virtually gone

11. New Mass Media Television
Regular T.V. Broadcasts began in the early 1940’s but, there were few TV stations and TV sets were expensive.
By the late 1950’s- small black & white TV’s sat in living rooms across the nation.
3 types of TV Programming: Comedy, action, & adventure.
Popular TV Shows- “I Love Lucy” starring Lucille Ball & Desi Arnaz
Some comedy TV shows began as radio shows in the 1930’s & 1940’s LIKE : The Jack Benny Show & Bob Hope.
Variety Shows- “Toast of the Town” by Ed Sullivan
Quiz shows were popular- Like $64,000 Question & “21”
Dragnet– a police detective show.
TV popularity hurt movie attendance
The Movie Industry Responds
Featured 3-D movies
Cinemascope- showing movies on large, panoramic screens.
Radio captured audiences of people traveling in cars more & more.

12. New Music & Poetry
Many young people in the 1950’s wanted to separate themselves from their parents by listening to different music.
Teens began to spend vast amounts of $ on entertainment
Mass media enabled teens across the country to experience the same music & culture.
Rock & Roll
1951- Alan Freed (a disk jockey) noticed white teens buying African-American Rhythm & Blues music. Freed convinced the radio station to play that music.
Rock & Roll- music based African-American rhythms & sounds formed a new music.
Early Rock & Roll - Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, Bill Hailey & the Comets
Elvis Pressley- early teen Rock & Roll star– later known as the “King of Rock & Roll”.
Rock & Roll contributed to a growing “Generation Gap” between young & parents.
New Poetry & Writing
The Beats – a group of poets & artists in the 1950’s highlighted the generation gap.
Criticized the society of conformity in the 1950’s

13. The Other Side of American Life, 1950’s
Chapter 23 Section 3

14. Poverty Amidst Prosperity
During the 1950’s about 20% of the American population did not share in the prosperity.
Mostly people of color in the inner cities and whites in the Appalachia areas
Poverty and Prosperity
1950’s- the US Middle class expanded.
30 million people lived below the poverty line.
Poverty remained hidden to most Americans
Michael Harrington- The Other America – pointed out the poverty that existed.
The Inner Cities
Poverty was most visible in inner cities
1950’s- “white flight”- whites began to move to the suburbs after WWII– left the inner cities.
White Flight left cities “Black, Brown, and Broke”
The US government tried to help cities with “URBAN RENEWAL”
Urban renewal built new high rise apartments for poor residents= became violent places
US Government evicted residents when they began to earn higher incomes.

15. Groups Struggle African-Americans
By million African-Americans had moved from the south to the north for economic opportunities and escape racial violence in the South.
Northern states also had patterns of discrimination in schools, housing, and salaries.
1958- Blacks salaries were 51% of what whites earned.
Hispanics
1950’s & 1960’s- the Bracero Program brought 5 million Mexicans to the US to work on farms & factories.
Most returned home---350,000 stayed in the US and lived in poverty as migrant farm workers.
Native Americans
By the 1950’s, Native Americans made up less than 1% of the US population
They were the poorest ethnic group in the US
Native American families earned $1000 less than African-Americans.
After WWII-the US Government wanted to force Native Americans into mainstream American life= THE TERMINATION POLICY.
The GOVERNMENT ENDED ALL OFFICAL RECOGNITION OF Native GROUPS AS LEGAL ENTITIES= Indians Placed UNDER AUTHORITY OF STATES= Indians ENCOURAGED TO MOVE OFF RESERVATIONS and move to CITIES.

16. Appalachia
Mountain region from NY to Georgia.
Poverty stricken in the 1950’s & poor diet and lack of medical care
Coal miners displaced by mechanization= high unemployment.
1.5 million people left Appalachia for cities for a better life.
Juvenile Delinquency
Juvenile crimes increased in the 1950’s.
saw a 45% rise in juvenile crime rates.
No one seemed to know why this increase occurred
Possible ideas about causes: Increased TV watching, racism, poverty, rising divorce rate, lack of discipline etc.
Cut across all social and ethnic lines– majority of car thieves were from Middle Class families.
Alarm Over Education
After the Soviet Union launched Sputnik in 1957, Americans were fearful we were falling behind in Math and Science education.
National Defense and Education Act- US government vowed more money for science, math, and foreign language education.