1. THE POSTWAR BOOM
Unit 5
Lesson 1

2. OBJECTIVES
To understand the economic and political changes that occurred in postwar America.
To explore American society of the 1950s.

3. WARM UP What is the American Dream?
Do you think your dreams are different from those of your parents?

4. Post-war Reconversion
Unemployment , Prices , Inflation Rise
Wages drop & workers strike
Gov’t controls until wages catch up and prices level off.
Limit power of unions (Taft-Hartley Act)
New technology spurs product research & development

5. Readjustment GI Bill Housing Crisis Redefining Family
Education and home loans, ease return
Housing Crisis
Levittown's: mass produced suburban homes
Reading Activities
Redefining Family
Divorce rate up, Women want say in home/family

6. Economic Growth $135 billion in savings = $$$$ to spend!!!
Auto, home ownership up
Demand = more jobs
New Business Organization
White collar workers: clerical, managerial, professional
Conglomerates (AT&T) and Franchises (McDonald’s-1955)
The Company Man: Conformity & loyalty… automatons

7. The Suburban Lifestyle
Suburban Living
Baby Boom
Return to Religion
Women Conflicted
Modern Amenities & Automobile Culture
Interstate Highway System (1956)
Credit – 1st for gas, later Diner’s Club, American Express & Visa
Growing gap between middle class & poor
“White flight” from cities, influx rural poor…urban poverty & decay
Religion: religious affi

8. T-P-S
Was the 1950s a “step back” in women’s rights/equality? Why or why not?

9. 1948 Election
Truman (D)
Thomas Dewey (R)
Strom Thurmond (Dixiecrat)

10. Truman’s Fair Deal Benefits for workers National health insurance
↑min wage, ↑ unemploy coverage
Expand Soc Security
National health insurance
Control over atomic energy
Increase civil rights
Desegregates armed forces, ban discrim in fed hiring
Conservative Congress challenges…

11. 1952 Election Truman not running
Adlai Stevenson (D) vs. Dwight Eisenhower (R)
Nixon’s Checkers Speech
“I Like Ike” and his Modern Republicanism
Conservative w/$, Liberal w/humans
Balanced budget, tax cut, hike min wage, unemploy benefits, public housing
Re-elected ‘56

12. Different Styles Truman -Energetic, outspoken
-Extend New Deal-style programs
-Frustrated Rep-controlled Congress
Eisenhower
-Calm, talented diplomat
-Limit size & power of govt
-Favored big business & corporate America
Both committed to helping ppl & fighting Communist expansion

13. Pop Culture
Mass Media: TV, Radio & Movies, Comics, Magazines, Advertising
Portray an idealized white America
Teenager: “Silent Gen”, stay in school, allowance, entertainment, cars, consumers
Rock n Roll: Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley… mix
electric instruments w/ blues beats
Condemned by adults (rebellious, immoral)

14. 50’s Subculture The Beat Movement “Beats / Beatniks”
Reject conformity and consumerism of society
Open sexuality, drug use
Literature: Jack Kerouac’s On the Road, Allen Ginsberg Howl

15. Homework Activity Create an acrostic poem for
“A M E R I C A N D R E A M”

16. Examples Another Motorcyclist Emerges a Rebel Indicative of Changes in
America
Now
Dollars
Rule
Everything
Around Me
An invincible feeling that
Mass media projects as
Eisenhower paints a picture of which picket fences where
Roles are redefined and
Ideologues of real happiness are concealed by
Conformity and no
American can
Negotiate this sea of loose morals
Do rejoice in consumerism and all that new
Religion as well as the
Experience of the white collar worker for
America will only see times like this until people open their
Minds

17. Closure
How did the US avoid the historic post-war economic downturn?