1. Chapter 27 Postwar America
Section 1
Truman & Eisenhower

3. Return to Peacetime Economy
Servicemen’s Readjustment Act (GI Bill) – helped the economy by providing loans to veterans to attend college, set up businesses, and buy homes.

4. Inflation and Strikes
Increased spending led to higher prices for goods, which then led to rising inflation.
Workers went on strike for increased wages.
Pres. Truman, fearing an energy shortage, forced miners to return to work after a month-long strike.

5. Republican Victory
1946 – Republicans wanted change and elected Republicans in both houses of Congress.

6. Republican Changes Taft-Hartley Act – (passed in 1947)
cut the power of organized labor
Outlawed the closed shop, or practice of forcing business owners to hire only union members
States could pass right-to-work laws outlawing union shops, or shops where new workers were required to join the union
Prohibited featherbedding, the limiting of work output in order to create more jobs.

7. Truman’s Domestic Program
Some of Truman’s many proposals included:
Expansion of Social Security benefits
Raising minimum wage from 40 to 75 cents
Broad civil rights bill

8. Election of 1948
As the election approached, it looked as if Truman would not be reelected.
Truman criticized, “Do-Nothing Congress” because it hadn’t enacted any of his proposals.
Truman won and Democrats regained both houses of Congress

9. Election of 1948

10. The Fair Deal Truman’s domestic agenda was known as the Fair Deal.
Congress did not support all Truman’s ideas.
Congress passed
Minimum wage increase
Social Security expansion
Congress refused to pass
National health insurance
Civil rights legislation

11. The Eisenhower Years Truman decided not to run for reelection.
Eisenhower’s slogan – “It’s time for a change!”
Won by a landslide.
Vice President was Richard M. Nixon.

13. Ike as President
Political beliefs were midway b/w conservative and liberal.
“Dynamic Conservatism” – the balancing of economic conservation with some activism.

14. Conservative Ike Ended gov’t price and rent controls.
Vetoed a school construction bill.
Cut aid for public housing
Supported tax reductions

15. Activist Ike
Pushed for passage of the Federal Highway Act, which provided $25 billion for a 10-year project to construct 40,000 miles of interstate highways.
Authorized the construction of the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway.

16. Election of 1956

17. Next: Section 2 The Affluent Society
End of Section 1
Next: Section 2
The Affluent Society