1. Highways, Houses & Hamburgers Postwar Economics and Culture The ‘50s

2. Technology: from war to life  The end of the Manhattan Project  Physicists as celebrities: Robert Oppenheimer  From scientists to suspects

3. Economic Strength  US: ½ wealth in world, ½ productivity, 2/3 of the machinery  Mass production: weapons and consumer goods  Worker became consumer  From coal to oil: demand increased but prices still low  Oil consumption tripled from 1949-1972

4. Auto Industry: GM  First corporation to gross a million  2 threats: labor unrest, anti-trust enforcment  Cars got bigger because profit margin was bigger  Gov’t help  Eisenhower’s Admin tolerant of big business  Federal highways projects

5. 1952 Corsair Coupe

6. Homeownership: The American Dream  Highways + cars = suburbia  First houses $5000 (average family wages for 2 years)  Following the war, auto-workers made $60/week= $3000/year  Hollywood pitched houses as the American Dream  GI Bill, passed in 1944 provided, among other things, low cost mortgages as well as assistance for returning soldiers to get education and training to become better employed

7. Bill Levitt’s Dream

8. Suburbia & Mass Production Bill & Alfred Levitt, PA & NY Experience in war as contractors for the US military/gov Mass production of homes 27 steps = 27 teams Pay for efficiency 1945 housing crisis

10. Innovation: Fast Food & Franchises McDonald’s brothers 1940, San Bernardino Target clients: family Need for speed narrow menu mechanize production specialize workers