1. Module 13: The Postwar Boom
Lesson 1: Postwar America
Lesson 2: The American Dream in the Fifties
Lesson 3: Popular Culture
Lesson 4: The Other America

2. Challenges of Peace Problems of Demobilization
Fear of another Depression
9 million men and women out of service
Cuts to government war purchases
Back to laissez-faire

3. Government Steps In Before Problems Arise: Role of Pres. Harry Truman
1944: GI Bill
Loans for vets to go to college, create small businesses, buy homes
Employment Act of 1946
Goal of full employment, full production, stable prices
Council of Economic Advisors
Advises the President on economic policy
War factories converted/Army surplus sold

4. BUT…Problems Remain… Some did lose jobs to returning soldiers
Fair Employment Practices Commission abolished by Congress
Originally prohibited discrimination in government hiring
Consumer prices increased = Inflation
Some labor unrest
1946: 5 million workers strike
Taft-Hartley Act of 1947 = Anti-labor unions
Sun Belt v. Rust Belt

5. Election of 1948 Harry Truman (D) v. Thomas Dewey (R)
Split in Democratic Party over Civil Rights
“Dixiecrats”: Strom Thurmond
Progressives: Henry Wallace

6. Truman Wins (303 to 189) Commission on Civil Rights
Ends discrimination in military and federal jobs
Fair Deal Program (similar to New Deal)
Full employment
Minimum wage
National health insurance
Affordable housing
Welfare programs

7. A Republican Wins Eisenhower elected in 1952 World War II hero
Helped end Korean War (anti- communist)
Calm, cool, friendly, optimistic
Balance of liberal and conservative
“Dynamic conservativism”
“Modern Republicanism”

8. Suburban Migrations Social and economic mobility
1960: 60 million in suburbs = 1/3 of population
Planned communities: Levittowns
Interstate Highway Act of 1956
Baby Boom: 90% increase in birthrate
Yet, divorce rate increased

9. The American Dream in the Fifties: Prosperity and “Boom”
Companies merge into modern corporations
Conglomerates, franchises
Automation and technology
More “white collar” jobs than “blue collar” jobs
Middle class becomes dominant
Unions: Good and Bad
AFL + CIO merge in 1955
Promote better standard of living
BUT overall union membership declines
Links to mob
BUT FEDERAL DEBT INCREASED BY 9%

10. Consumerism and Social Conformity
Ever-expanding consumption of goods is beneficial to the economy
Consumerism = conformity = consumerism
Role of big business in advertising

11. The Suburban Lifestyle: 1950s Style
Conformity
Baby boom: major impact on social life and economy
Advances in medicine / child care: Salk: Polio Vaccine
Women’s roles undergoing transformation
Leisure time: middle class reality based on having more time / money: more participation in activities
Automobile culture = mobility
Interstate Highway system
New buying habits: obsolescence, credit, The Advertising Age

12. Popular Culture in the 1950s: Golden Age of Television
MASS media
46 million in homes by the end of the 1950s
Game Shows
Conformity and materialism
TV dinners
Roll of the FCC
Radio and Movies remain popular: cars, drive - ins

13. A Subculture Emerges to Challenge Suburban Conformity (A preview of Module 14)
The “Beat Movement” rejected middle class, suburban conformity
Beatniks (a preview of the hippies in the 1960s / 1970s)
African – Americans and Rock and Roll: racial gap in music in general
Alan Freed: Cleveland DJ 1951
“jazz” music was labeled as a racial art form
Beginning of the so-called “teenage” generation and the start of a generation gap between parents and teenagers
Role of Elvis Presley and the start of a racial, generational, sexual, musical, economic revolution

14. Teenagers → Rebellion: Generation Gap
Rock and Roll, Civil Rights, Vietnam, Youth and Sexual Revolution, Hippies, Drugs, etc. (there is a connection between the 1950s and the 1960s / 70s)
Specific Examples:
Holden Caulfield: Catcher in the Rye (1951)
MAD Magazine (1952)
Marlon Brando “The Wild One” (1953)
James Dean “Rebel Without a Cause” (1955)
Elvis Presley (1954)
Playboy Magazine (1953)

16. Rebellion Against Conformity
Ralph Ellison: The Invisible Man (1952)
John K. Galbraith: The Affluent Society (1958)
Jack Kerouac: On the Road (1957)
Allen Ginsburg: “Howl” (1956)
Betty Friedan: Feminine Mystique (1963)
Rachel Carson: Silent Spring (1962)
Malvina Reynolds: “Little Boxes” (1962)

17. The Other America: On the Margins of Society
Challenges of Poverty: 25% of Americans below poverty line
Michael Harrington: The Other America: Poverty in the US (1962)
Farmers face falling demand from overseas and falling prices
Suburbs became an enclave for “white flight” thus, inner cities suffer
Some attempts at reform: urban renewal: HUD, but mixed success
Activism by Mexican – Americans, Native Americans,
But, Longoria Incident, termination policy

18. Video Links The Idyllic Suburban Life Elvis Challenges Conformity
Father Knows Best:
Leave It to Beaver:
Leave It to Beaver (Again)
Elvis Challenges Conformity
Challenges to the Suburban Conformity: Little Boxes
The Wild One: Rebellion