1. Today’s Agenda 5/2: Cape Cod update Holocaust Project Grades
Questions about Mr. Mesick’s visit??
Next Unit in SS: Post WWII United States (1950s and 1960s)
1950s: Culture, Cold War, and Civil Rights

2. THE 1950s:

3. 1957  1 baby born every 7 seconds
Baby Boom
Population explosion after WWII
Young veterans come home, start families
1957  1 baby born every 7 seconds

4. Baby Boom

5. $7,990 or $60/month with no down payment.
Suburban Living
Levittown: “The American Dream”
1949  William Levitt produced houses per week.
$7,990 or $60/month with no down payment.

6. Suburban Living: The New “American Dream”
1 story high
12’x19’ living room
2 bedrooms
tiled bathroom
garage
small backyard
front lawn
By 1960  1/3 of the U. S. population in the suburbs.

7. A Levittown House

8. 1950  Introduction of the Diner’s Card (the first credit card)
1950s Consumerism
1950  Introduction of the Diner’s Card (the first credit card)
Cars, TVs, home appliances are the goods of choice for Americans

9. 1950s: A Changing Workplace
By 1956  more white-collar than blue-collar jobs in the U. S.
What is the difference?
vs.

10. The American standard of living was never higher than during the 1950s

11. The Culture of the Car
Car registrations:  25,000,  60,000,000
1958 Pink Cadillac
1959 Chevy Corvette
1956  Interstate Highway Act  largest public works project in American history!
Cost $32 billion.
41,000 miles of new highways built.

12. Eisenhower Interstate System

13. The Interstate Highway System

15. The Culture of the Car
America became a more homogeneous nation because of the automobile (enjoy familiarity wherever you are).
First McDonald’s (1955)
Drive-In Movies
Howard Johnson’s

16. Television
1946  7,000 TV sets in the U. S  50,000,000 TV sets in the U. S.

17. Elvis Presley  “The King”
Teen Culture
1951  “ROCK ‘N ROLL”
Elvis Presley  “The King”

18. Gender Roles
The ideal modern woman is married, cooks and cares for her family, and keeps herself busy by joining the local PTA and leading a troop of Campfire Girls, and entertaines guests in her family’s suburban house Life magazine, 1956
The ideal 1950s man was the provider, protector, and the boss of the house Life magazine, 1955

19. Progress Through Science
First IBM Mainframe Computer
Hydrogen Bomb Test
DNA Structure Discovered
Salk Vaccine Tested for Polio
NASA Created
Press Conference of the First American Astronauts

20. Progress Through Science 1957  Russians launch SPUTNIK I

21. Progress Through Science
Atomic Anxieties:
“Duck-and-Cover Generation”
Atomic Testing:
 U. S. exploded nuclear weapons over the Pacific and in Nevada.