Chapter 17Postwar Confidence and Anxiety1945-60

Post War Changes• Fear of continued Depression (12 million GIs

returning home)• Servicemen’s Readjustment Act (GI Bill) 1944 “the

American Dream”▫1 year unemployment pay▫College tuition▫Home and business loans

• Baby Boom- 27% increase in population 1945-60▫Boomers created structural problems at every stage of

development (hospitals, schools, jobs, Social Security)• 1948=GNP ↑ for 20 years, income doubled• 1952 election= Dwight D. Eisenhower (moderate

Republican)

America on the Move•Growth of the suburbs (40 million moved

between 1940-60)- home loans from Federal Housing Administration and VA▫Baby Boom= new families!

•Levittown on Long Island 1947▫Mass produced housing to meet demand

• Interstate Highway Act 1956= 41,000 miles▫America= car culture in the suburbs!

•Growth of the Sunbelt after war (southern/western states)▫Climate (air conditioners), defense industry jobs

Levittowns

Distribution of Population Increase, 1950–2005

New Economy• Movement to a post industrial society (service

and information related businesses)= white collar jobs▫Growth of middle class aided by GI Bill!▫Growth of agribusiness (less farmers, but big

business used new technology to grow food)▫Higher standard of living

• Culture of consumerism▫Living on credit (median income doubled in

1950s)▫Wanted modern conveniences

Advertising Prosperity, 1956

Coca-Colonizing the World American consumerism—and American products—flooded over the globe after World War II, as this 1950 cover from Time magazine illustrates.

1950 Cars

Consumer Culture

Changes in Culture•Pressure on women to become homemakers

again▫Media pushed image (I Love Lucy, Leave it to

Beaver) •New focus on child rearing (Baby Boom)

Dr. Spock’s Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care

•Rock and Roll African American music sung by whites= new market▫Elvis Presley▫Symbol of youth culture

Opposition to 1950s• The Lonely Crowd : US has traded individualism for

sameness!▫Franchise businesses, media’s pressure to be a

certain way• The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit and The Feminine

Mystique: pressure on men and women is stifling!• Beatniks: writers and artists who rejected

traditional values and conformity (Allen Ginsburg)▫Predecessors to the Hippies in 1960s

• The Other America 1962: widespread poverty in America (50 million)▫Blacks in inner city, whites in rural areas, migrant

Hispanics▫Poverty is ignored by middle class▫Need social change!