1. 19 – 1 Vocabulary/Identification
G.I. Bill of Rights
suburb
Harry S. Truman
Fair Deal
Dixiecrat

2. Chapter
Postwar America

3. Millions of veterans face problems as they return to civilian life
GI Bill of Rights
Free education
Unemployment benefits
Low-interest loans
Returning veterans used loans to:
Buy homes and farms
Start businesses

4. Housing Shortages Shortages arose as veterans returned
Problems included:
Cramped apartments
Living with relatives
Solutions included:
William Levitt
Low cost housing, built using the assembly line concept.
Development of “suburbs”, where housing sprang up in communities surrounding cities.
Starter houses cost $7,000

5. Housing Shortages Solutions included: Government responds by:
Financial support to clear out slums
Build low-income housing units (Projects)
Increased public funding for public housing.

6. Redefining the Family
Changing roles between men and women create problems as women struggle returning to more “traditional” roles of homemaker and wives.
Dramatic increase in divorce rates
By 1950, more than 1,000,000 war marriages end in divorce.

7. Economic Concerns
U.S. government cancels $35 billion in war contracts.
Within 10 days of Japan’s surrender over 1 million defense workers laid off.
By March 1946, unemployment reaches 3 million.
Office of Price Administration ends price controls.

8. Economic Concerns Run away inflation creeps in.
When controls end on June 30, 1946, prices soar 25% overnight.
Consumers stood in lines to buy scare items like sugar, coffee, and beans.
Prices continue to rise for next 2 years until supply catches up with demand.
Workers earn less than during the war years.

9. Economic Concerns Government steps in and reestablishes;
Price controls
Control of wages
Controls on rents
Economy begins to recover because of;
Pent up consumer demand,
Many Americans had money to spend,
Which brought about a need workers as new industries developed.

10. Economic Concerns Labor unrest threatens recovery.
Facing lower wages and higher prices, 4.5 million workers went on strike in 1946.
Strikes included the following industries;
Steel workers
Coal miners
Railroad workers

11. Economic Concerns Truman’s response included;
Authorizing the government to seize mines,
Threatened to take control of the railroads,
Threatened to draft striking workers into the army, and ordering them to stay on the job.

12. Economic Concerns Had Enough???
Republicans make gains in the 1946 elections.
Pass Taft-Hartley Act
Over Truman’s veto
Overturned many labor rights won under the New Deal

13. Social Unrest, Discrimination and Racial Violence
Racial violence erupts in the South.
In 1946, Truman creates President’s Commission on Civil Rights.
Recommendations included;
Federal anti-lynching laws
Abolition of the poll tax
Prevent discrimination in hiring
Federal legislation to eliminate discrimination in voting
Integrate the armed forces

14. The Election of 1948
Democrats nominate Truman despite being blamed for social, economic and labor problems.
Democratic Party splits over Truman’s emphasis on civil rights.
Dixiecrats are formed
Southern whites for a States’ Rights Party, nominating North Carolina Senator Strom Thurman as its candidate.

15. The Election of 1948 Progressive Party Republican Party
Discontent over the “liberal left”, former vice-President, Henry A. Wallace leads his supporters out of the convention.
Republican Party
Nominates New York Governor, Thomas E. Dewey.
Dewey was widely viewed as the clear winner in the election.

16. The Election of 1948
“Give’em Hell, Harry” was Truman’s campaign slogan.
Travelling around the country, Truman accused Congress of;
Failing to act on reforms, including:
Higher minimum wages,
Extended Social Security coverage,
Federal aid to education and
Public housing.
“Do-nothing, 80th Congress”

17. Chicago Daily Tribune 11/3/48

18. Truman Wins
With victory in 48, Truman introduces his “Fair Deal”, an extension of FDR’s “New Deal”.
Fair Deal calls for;
Compulsory health insurance,
Crop subsidy to aid farmers,
Increase minimum wage,
Expanded Social Security coverage and
Flood and irrigation control projects.

19. Truman Wins
Republicans, joined by Dixiecrats and some Northern Democrats defeat health insurance and farm subsidies, but pass other measures.

20. Republicans Take Control
Concerns over Korea and China spells defeat for Democrats in 1952
Eisenhower/Nixon win the 52’ election despite charges against Nixon of receiving payments from an illegal “slush fund”.

21. Nixon Responds to Allegations

22. Make No Waves… The Era of Modern Republicanism
Eisenhower Administration –
Avoids controversy at all costs.
Civil Rights Movement is Born
Brown v. Board of Education
Rosa Parks
Civil Disobedience

23. Ike’s Accomplishments
Balance the Federal Budget and cut taxes
Raise minimum wage,
Extend Social Security and unemployment benefits,
Increased funding for public housing,
Backed creation of interstate highways,
Department of Health, Education and Welfare

24. Homework
Page 640
Questions 2,4,5