Chapter 18: The Postwar Era › KzDE0... · pression and the war, Americans hungered for new cars,...

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The car turned onto one of Chicago’s newlycompleted expressways, and shortly the Wilsonswere driving north on Michigan Avenue with itsexclusive shops and fine restaurants. Theyparked to window-shop a bit, and when the chil-dren clamored for ice cream, the family stoppedat an ice-cream parlor. Then they headed home tothe tree-lined streets of their comfortable suburbof Morton Grove.

The Wilsons were a lucky family. Exactly 10years ago, John Wilson was one of thousands ofexhausted GIs marching on the road to Berlin.

Now John and Julie had 3 great kids with a fourthon the way and a beautiful home in the suburbs. Thanks to the GI Bill, John had a col-lege degree (something his parents had neverachieved) and a promising future with a largecompany.

On their drive the Wilsons never saw the not-so-lucky Americans who lived on Chicago’s WestSide: women talking on the steps of decayingbuildings; men slumped in doorways; childrenplaying ball on a sidewalk strewn with brokenglass. �

The sun glinted off the tail fins and chrome bumpersof the new Buick in the driveway as the Wilsons piledinto the car for their weekly ritual—–the Sunday after-noon drive. After a brief struggle over who would get the window seats, Sally, Tom, and Susan settledthemselves in the backseat.

The Postwar Era1955 : M IDDLE-CLASS SUBURBAN ITES BL IND TO URBAN POVERTY

C H A P T E R

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Based on your own knowledge of the 1950s and

the picture on page 597, write down what you think

this chapter will be about.

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EH I S T O R Y J O U R N A LChapter OverviewVisit the American Odyssey Web site at americanodyssey.glencoe.com and click onChapter 18—Chapter Overview to previewthe chapter.

HISTORY

http://www.glencoe.com/sec/socialstudies/ushistory/amod2002/chap18/overview.shtml

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World War 11 veteran Ken-neth Baker, his wife, Laura,and their baby daughter ar-rived on the campus of theUniversity of Minnesota ona cool September morning in1947. Ken was one of 6,000 mar-ried “vets” on campus ready to be-gin the fall semester. His familywas assigned to one of the 674housing units in Veterans’ Village,a university community for ex-GIs, where rents were based oneach vet’s ability to pay. Veteranswho had the most seniority wereassigned to the best units——con-verted steel barracks with gas heatand indoor bathrooms. As new-comers, Kenneth and Laurawould be living in a trailer with noplumbing. That meant that they

would have to use the publicbathhouse and the public laundry.

Nevertheless, the Bakersconsidered themselves lucky. AsKen observed, “Even a hovel inVeterans’ Village is heaven com-pared to the way I lived in theservice.” Living in Veterans’ Vil-lage meant that Ken and Lauracould get by on their monthlygovernment allowance of $90.

Life in Veterans’ Village fos-tered a spirit of cooperation. Withmore than 900 babies among thevillage population, every adult be-came a guardian to every child.The Bakers shopped in the villagegrocery store, which the veter-ans’ campus community ownedand operated. Ken and several ofhis buddies joined the veterans’

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GI HousingVeterans flooded college campuses after the

war. Some ex-GIs and their families at the University of Minnesota lived in quonset units.

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FALL 1947: VETS ENROLL IN COLLEGE ON GI BILL

G u i d e t o R e a d i n g

� demobilization� real income� discretionary income� conglomerate

� reasons for continued prosperity dur-ing the postwar era and how thegrowth of a consumer culture helpedfuel that prosperity.

� the programs that helped returningGIs reenter society.

Vocabulary Read to Find Out . . .Main IdeaA postwar economic boomand benefits extended to vet-erans under the GI Bill con-tributed to a general prosper-ity and a higher standard ofliving for most Americans.

bowling league. Laura took special classes in sewing,cooking, and child care. On Friday nights, Laura and Kenjoined other residents of Veterans’ Village in the recreationcenter to dance to the recorded music of popular bigbands of the day.

Similar veterans’ communities could be found onmost large college campuses in the postwar United States,thanks to the GI Bill of Rights. The GI Bill was designedto ease the transition from military to civilian life by pro-viding veterans with financial aid for education and hous-ing and to begin small businesses. Nearly 8 millionveterans took advantage of educational assistance. Armedwith college degrees or technical training, the vets con-tributed their energy and talent to what would becomethe nation’s longest unbroken period of prosperity.

From War to PeaceReturning GIs Spur Economy

More than 16 million Americans had served in thearmed forces during World War II. Demobilization, thedismantling of the huge United States war machine, wasa daunting task, somewhat like trying to reverse the di-rection of a river’s flow. After peace was achieved in 1945,war-weary soldiers stationed around the world waited ea-gerly to come home. After thousands of citizens ap-pealed to their congressional representatives to speed upthe process, the number of soldiers on active dutydropped from 12 million in 1945 to 1.6 million by mid-1947. This rapid demobilization provided much-neededworkers for United States industry, which was in theprocess of converting from wartime to peacetime pro-duction.

Economic GrowthAfter years of “going without” during the Great De-

pression and the war, Americans hungered for new cars,electronics, appliances, and gadgets. Industry set out tofill the growing demand for consumer goods. The au-tomobile industry produced 2 million cars in 1946 andnearly 2 times that many by 1955. Americans bought975,000 television sets in 1948, and 2 years later theybought 7.5 million sets. By 1960 about 75 percent of allAmerican families owned at least 1 automobile, and 87percent owned at least 1 television set. Consumers alsopurchased more refrigerators, washing machines, vacu-um cleaners, and cameras than ever before. Electric canopeners, electric garage door openers, and electric pencil sharpeners appeared on the market and quicklybecame part of the new American way of life.

The GNP, or gross national product (the total value of a country’s goods and services), rose rapidly——

from just more than $100 billion in 1940 to about $300billion in 1950 and then to $500 billion by 1960. This increase in goods and services that characterized thepostwar period gave Americans the highest standard ofliving the world had ever known. People lived morecomfortably than ever before. The United States, hometo just 6 percent of the world’s population, produced andconsumed nearly half the world’s goods.

Wage and Price IssuesThe reconversion to a peacetime economy brought

problems, too. During the war, civilian paychecks in-cluded plenty of overtime pay. In addition, governmentpolicies had kept a lid on prices. When postwar wagesfailed to keep up with now-rising prices, blue-collarworkers launched a wave of strikes and work stoppages,refusing to work until their demands were met.

Despite rising prices, most American workers con-tinued to prosper. Average annual earnings for factoryworkers rose from $3,302 in 1950 to $5,352 in 1960.Real income, the amount of income earned taking intoaccount an increase in prices, increased more than 20percent during the same period. Working-class Ameri-cans began to accumulate discretionary income——money to buy what they wanted as well as what they

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A 1950s Spending Spree During the 1950s, electricity consumption more than doubled, due in large part to the purchases of electrical appliances and televisions. Why didAmericans have so much money to spend?

needed. This increased purchasingpower further fueled the rapid eco-nomic growth.

Persuading the ConsumerAdvertising became the fastest

growing industry in the postwarUnited States. Manufacturers em-ployed new marketing techniques.These techniques were carefullyplanned to whet the consumer’s appetite. It was also the purpose of these advertisers to influence choices among brands of goods thatwere essentially the same. In his 1957best-seller, The Hidden Persuaders,Vance Packard described the role ofadvertisers:

These motivational analysts . . . are adding depth to the

selling of ideas and products.They are learning, for example,to offer us considerably morethan the actual item involved. A Milwaukee advertis-ing executive commented to colleagues in print onthe fact that women will pay two dollars and a halffor skin cream but no more than twenty-five centsfor a cake of soap. Why? Soap, he explained, onlypromises to make them clean. The cream promisesto make them beautiful.

—Vance Packard, The Hidden Persuaders, 1957

According to these hidden messages, a freezer be-came a promise of plenty, a second car became a sym-bol of status, and a mouthwash became the key toimmediate social success.

The increased popularity of television played a major role in the development of the advertising indus-try and the gospel of consumerism. Television networksdepended on advertising revenues to pay for the pro-grams they produced. At the same time, advertisersfound television a perfect medium for reaching con-sumers. Television, after all, was still a novelty for mostpeople in the United States during the early 1950s, andthey watched the television commercials just as avidlyas the television programs.

Television ads became something of an art form inthemselves. They not only sold products, they also enter-tained the viewers with showy dramatizations and catchyjingles. As the decade progressed, the presence and influence of television advertising became pervasive, andacquiring material goods like those shown on TV becamea goal of the growing, status-conscious middle class.

Impact of the GI Bill A Boom for Colleges and Housing

More than any other factor, the GI Bill of Rights,Congress passed in 1944, shaped American society in thepostwar period. One veteran concurred:

The GI Bill of Rights, of course, had more to dowith thrusting us into a new era than anything

else. Millions of people whose parents or grand-parents had never dreamed of going to college sawthat they could go. . . . Essentially I think it made usa far more democratic people.

—Nelson Poynter, in Americans Remember the Home Front

As a result of the GI Bill, the greatest wave of col-lege building in the nation’s history took place during thepostwar years. Many states vastly increased their sup-port of higher education. For example, during the post-war period California State University opened campusesat Sacramento, Los Angeles, Long Beach, Fullerton,Hayward, Northridge, and San Bernardino.

In addition to educational benefits, the GI Bill offeredlow-interest mortgages to veterans who wanted to pur-chase homes. This spurred a huge demand for housingafter the war, creating a construction boom and foster-ing a trend toward mass production. Using mass pro-duction methods, the housing industry built 13 million


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TV Commercials Advertisers discovered that television was a good way to reachconsumers. Advertising was the fastest growing industry in the postwar UnitedStates. What techniques did advertisers use?

new homes during the 1950s. Home ownership had al-ways been a part of the American dream. The rate ofhome ownership increased between 1940 and 1960 from44 to 62 percent of American households. The GI Billallowed millions of Americans to achieve a standard ofliving that was generally better than that of their parents.

The New World of BusinessCorporate Values Stress Conformity

During the postwar years, the motto of major corporations became “bigger is better.” Business merg-ers, the combining of several companies, created conglomerates——firms that had holdings in a varietyof unrelated industries. Many of the nation’s biggest cor-porations grew even bigger during the postwar years.The net sales of IBM jumped from $119.4 million in1946 to $1.7 billion in 1961. General Motors doubled itsnet assets during the 1950s from $1.5 billion in 1951 to$2.8 billion in 1960.

Up the Corporate LadderRapid corporate growth during the 1950s gave rise

to new employment opportunities and a new lifestyle forthe nation’s white-collar workers (clerical and profes-sional workers) who viewed the corporate life as a se-cure career. Major corporations provided their employees

with everything from company neckties to member-ships in exclusive country clubs. Training programs en-couraged employees to adopt the company point ofview. Companies such as IBM sent their managers toschools to learn not only management techniques, butcompany beliefs as well.

Critics charged corporations with destroying indi-viduality by expecting employees to conform to com-pany standards of thinking, dressing, and behaving. Associologist C. Wright Mills commented, “When white-collar people get jobs, they sell not only their time andenergy but their personalities as well.”

Major corporations greatly influenced American lifeand values in the 1950s. To those climbing the corporateladder——that is, being promoted to higher and higher lev-els of responsibility——wages were but one concern. Equal-ly important were benefits such as a pension plan, medicalinsurance, a performance bonus, an expense account, a paidvacation, and a company car. For employees who dedicatedthemselves to the corporate lifestyle and successfully metthe expectations of their superiors, the rewards of corpo-rate life were further proof that the United States was a landof opportunity——at least for some Americans.

During the 1950s positions of power and authoritywithin the corporate world belonged mostly to whitemales. Minority representation was very rare. Womenwere expected to fill different roles in the postwar Amer-ican workforce. The widely read Life magazine explainedwomen’s roles one way:

Household skills take her into thegarment trades; neat and person-

able, she becomes office worker andsaleslady; patient and dexterous, shedoes well on repetitive, detailed facto-ry work; compassionate, she becomesteacher and nurse.

—Life, 1956

The Service SectorThe nation’s public and private ser-

vice industries enjoyed tremendous ex-pansion during the postwar years.Government jobs at the national, state,city, and county levels included socialworkers, teachers, and civil servants. Inprivate business, there was a big growthin the number of secretarial and cleri-cal workers, bank tellers, and telephoneoperators, as well as service workers inthe insurance, transportation, and retailsales areas. Hospitality and recreationindustries needed more service workers


IBM

Corporate Image Large corporations encouraged conformity and offered train-ing programs that helped develop the “corporate image.” At some companies,holding the proper beliefs was just as important as wearing the proper necktie.What might be the benefits and disadvantages of working for a large corporation?

with the increased number of bowling alleys, skatingrinks, movie theaters, hotels, and restaurants. The un-precedented number of cars, appliances, radios, and tele-vision sets purchased by consumers created a need forskilled mechanics and repairpeople. For the first time inUnited States history, workers who performed servicesbegan to outnumber those who manufactured products.

Farms Become Big BusinessSmall Farmers Leave for the City

The postwar years also saw a transformation in agri-culture from family business to corporate enterprise. Twostudies conducted of Plainville, a pseudonym for a smallrural community in southeast Missouri, told a large sto-ry. The first study, conducted in 1939, revealed a com-munity of small farms. Here, farmers grew a variety ofsmall crops, raised a few chickens, and bred a few cows.Fifteen years later, Plainville had been transformed. Farm-ing had become big business. As incomes doubled, or eventripled, residents joined the consumer society. Nearlyevery home had a television set. The way of life in ruralPlainville was almost indistinguishable from that in sub-urban areas.

Plainville was typical of the changing nature of farming throughout the postwar United States. The size of farms increased. Farmers learned that large-scale farming lowered the cost of production. For example, in 1960 the average cost of corn production was $61 per acre when grown on 160 acres (64.8 ha); the cost dropped to $54 per acre on 640 acres (259.2 ha).As the size of farms grew, the value of fertile farmlandrose rapidly.

While a few farmers benefited from these changes,others suffered. Because small farms could not competewith large farms, many small-farm families sold their landand migrated to urban areas. As farm size doubled, thetotal number of farms dropped from more than 6 millionin 1940 to fewer than 4 million in 1960, and the farm pop-ulation fell from about 30 million to about 13 million. By1960 only 8 percent of the population lived on farms.

An Automobile CultureThe 1950s’ Fascination With Cars

The migration of farm families to the city was char-acteristic of the population as a whole. Americans were

on the move, and the automobile became in-dispensable to their way of life. Auto dealerssold a record 58 million cars during the 1950s.Car manufacturers kept the public buying by changing body styles and adding moreoptions, which made the previous year’s models obsolete, at least in style. Turning outlarge, high-powered, steel-and-chrome fan-tasies in every color of the rainbow, the automakers provided sparkling steel chariotsfor every taste and income level.

Curb Service and Drive-insAmericans practically lived in their auto-

mobiles. “Come as you are, eat in your car” be-came a popular slogan of fast-food drive-insthat provided curb service. Traveling on rollerskates, waitresses and waiters, called carhops,


Farm population(in millions)

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Farming Becomes Big Business

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Farm Auction A farmer, defeated by weather and economic conditions,must auction off his Nebraska farm. Why were small farms unable to compete with large farms?

As farms grew larger, the number of people needed to workon them dropped. What happened to the number of people supplied per farm?

took orders and delivered food to the customer’s car win-dow. Drive-in theaters showed movies on outdoor screensas audiences watched from inside their cars.

Ribbons of HighwayThe development of an extensive interstate highway

system encouraged automobile travel. The Highway Actof 1956 authorized $32 billion for the construction ofmore than 40,000 miles of federal highways. PresidentEisenhower proudly described his administration’s com-mitment to the interstate highway system:

The amount of concrete poured to form theseroadways would build . . . six sidewalks to the

moon. . . . More than any single action by thegovernment since the end of the war, this one wouldchange the face of America.

—President Dwight D. Eisenhower

Migration to the SuburbsThe moving van became the new symbol of

American mobility. During each year of the 1950s, nearly one-fifth of the population changed resi-dences. Attracted by warm climates and plentiful jobs,Americans began to head to the West and the South-west. Cities such as Houston, Dallas, Phoenix, and

Albuquerque boomed.The greatest populationsurge took place in California. By 1963 it hadsurpassed New York asthe nation’s most popu-lous state.

By far the most sig-nificant population shiftwas the migration ofwhite Americans fromcities to suburbs. Thegreater availability of automobiles, the expan-sion of the highway sys-tem, and the affordabilityof mass-produced hous-ing spurred suburbiniza-tion. By the end of the1950s, more than one-fifth of all Americanslived in the suburbs,changing the landscapeof the nation and thelifestyle of middle-classAmerica.


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Drive-in Restaurant Hamburgers, french fries, and Cokes were drive-in favorites during the1950s. What encouraged automobile travel?

S e c t i o n A s s e s s m e n t

Main Idea1. Use a diagram like this one to show the causes

and effects of the postwar prosperity enjoyed bymost Americans.

Vocabulary2. Define: demobilization, real income, discretionary

income, conglomerate.

Checking Facts 3. What benefits did the GI Bill of Rights offer?

4. What caused the heavy demand for consumergoods after the war?

Critical Thinking5. Analyzing Information How did the return of

the GIs change the job market for women? Wereany of the changes positive? Explain.

Effect

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Cause

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PostwarProsperity

The SuburbsThe construction industry in

the United States had to meet quitea challenge. Cities were too crowd-ed for new construction to occur,and relocating millions of people toremote, sparsely populated areas ofthe country would be expensive andimpractical. The builders’ solutionwas to create a new addition to the country’s landscape——plannedcommunities on the outskirts ofcities. This decision would trans-form not only the landscape of thecountry but also the lifestyles of themostly white, middle-class Ameri-cans who began migrating fromcrowded cities to the open, quieterenvironment of the suburbs. Fol-lowing World War II, severalplanned communities were con-structed just outside many of thenation’s big cities.

Levittown, U.S.A.The first and most famous post-

war planned community was begunin 1946 on Long Island, New York,about 30 miles (48.2 km) from mid-town Manhattan. The community,called Levittown, was named for thecompany that built it, Levitt & Sons,and was constructed on 1,200 acres(486 ha) of potato farmland.

Levittown’s design included single-family homes, parks, play-grounds, shopping centers, swim-ming pools, baseball diamonds,handball courts, and clubhouses forfraternal and veterans organizations.Each home was exactly the sameand sold for the same price: $7,990.

The homes at Levittown weremass-produced. Specialized con-struction crews hurried from one

home site to the next, digging foun-dations, pouring concrete, erectingwalls and roofs, and installingplumbing and electrical fixtures.During the height of the construc-tion at Levittown, workers finisheda new home every 15 minutes.

Levittown was an immediatesuccess. Just 3 years after construc-tion began, 10,600 houses had beenbuilt, and Levittown’s population

Geography: Impact on HistoryMOVEMENT

New American Landscape:SuburbiaBy 1945 a severe housing shortage had developed in the United States. Duringthe war new housing starts had slowed to a standstill. Then hundreds of thou-sands of GIs came home, got married, and began looking for homes. Thenation needed 5 million new housing units——the sooner, the better.

604 G E O G R A P H Y : I M P A C T O N H I S T O R Y

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The first Levittown was so successful that its builders constructed two more—one in Pennsylvania and one in New Jersey. What cities were they near?

Making the Geographic Connection

1. Where was the first Levittown built,and what major city was it near?Where do you think many of theLevittown residents had livedbefore they moved to Levittown?

2. How were the homes in Levittownmass-produced? During the heightof construction at the Levittown onLong Island, how often was a newhome completed?

3. Movement After a decade ofmiddle-class migration to the sub-urbs, the quality of life in most bigcities began to decline. What werepossible reasons for this decline?

had swelled to more than 40,000.The residents loved their new com-munity. One former GI who hadmoved to Levittown with his wifeand another relative from a 1-bed-room apartment in Brooklyn said,“That was so awful I’d rather nottalk about it. Getting into this housewas like being emancipated.”

A New LandscapeThe construction of planned

communities such as the threeLevittowns accounted for severalimportant changes in the land-scape. First, these types of plannedcommunities, or subdivisions, hadnever existed before. They com-bined elements of city life with fea-tures of rural living, blurring thedistinctions that had once existedbetween these two ways of life.

Second, the new communitieswere an attractive alternative to theincreasingly crowded, dirty cities in which most Americans lived.People who could afford to movedid so, resulting in a migration ofwhite middle-class Americans fromthe cities to surrounding suburbs.

Finally, the suburbs created anew way of life for many Ameri-cans. Long daily commutes to andfrom jobs in the cities becamemore and more common. New local governments were created toadminister the affairs of thesefledgling communities and newschool systems were needed to ed-ucate the children of the suburbs.In short, the postwar housingshortage led to a transformationin the way the nation looked andin the way many Americans lived.

Suburban Living All the streets in Levittown curved at exactly the same angle,and trees were planted along them, 1 every 28 feet (8.5 m). Despite such rigidconformity, residents from the city loved the openness and country feel of thisnew suburb. How many homes were constructed in the first Levittown?

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G E O G R A P H Y : I M P A C T O N H I S T O R Y 605


Jill Johnson parked thegreen and white stationwagon next to a number ofother similar vehicles atthe train station. As BobJohnson joined the crowd waitingfor the 8:22 A.M. commuter intothe city, the Johnson childrenwaved and blew kisses to theirdad. Jill Johnson’s next stop wasEisenhower Elementary Schoolwhere Bill, a fourth grader, andSusan, a second grader, spenttheir day. Mary Ann, age four,and baby Jimmy then accompa-nied their mom to the shoppingcenter.

The Village Market Mallprovided ample parking for its 30or more stores and offices. Shop-pers had access to a large de-partment store, a bank, a beauty salon and a barbershop, a drugstore, a dry cleaner, and a supermarket.Physicians, dentists, and attorneys occupied offices on the

second floors of the two-storybuildings in the shopping center.

Jill dropped off Bob’s suits atthe dry cleaner and then stoppedat the supermarket to pick upcookies for the Cub Scout meet-ing and steaks to barbecue onSunday. She also picked outfrozen TV dinners so that thefamily could eat while theywatched The Adventures of Ozzieand Harriet on Friday night.

With the morning errandscompleted, Jill Johnson and herchildren headed for home, a neatone-story frame house with apicture window and an attachedgarage, located on a street withmany similar houses. The neigh-borhood’s well-kept lawns andnewly planted flowers and trees

reflected pride of ownership. The Johnsons, along with 60 million other white Americans, were en-joying the comfortable lifestyle of the suburbs.

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Suburban Lifestyles1950s: AMERICANS MIGRATE TO SUBURBS

Family ValuesFollowing World War II, many families moved to

the suburbs in search of the good life.

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� suburbia� baby boom

� the major population patterns thathelped reshape American society in the 1950s.

� the suburban values of the 1950s.� that status of women and children

during the 1950s.

Vocabulary Read to Find Out . . .Main IdeaFor some people, the child-centered suburban culture ful-filled the American dream; forothers, it represented a dreamunfulfilled and the shortcom-ings of postwar society.

Growth of SuburbiaCities Lag Behind as Suburbs Grow

During the 1950s, 85 percent of new home con-struction took place in suburbia——residential areas out-side the city. The number of suburban dwellers doubled,while the population of central cities rose only 10 percent.Reasons for the rapid growth of suburbia varied. Somewhites wanted to escape the crime and the congestion ofcity neighborhoods. Others fled because of their prejudicesagainst African Americans and Hispanic Americans whowere moving to cities in growing numbers. Generally,middle-class white Americans considered migration to thesuburbs a move upward to a better life for themselves andtheir children.

In contrast to city life, suburbia offered a retreat tothe picturesque countryside. As developers in earlier periods had done, the developers of the 1950s attractedhome buyers with promises of fresh air, green lawns, and trees. Many suburbs had “park,” “forest,” “woods,”“grove,” or “hill” as part of their names.

The new suburbs were usually located on the fringesof major cities. Farmland or vacant wooded areas became

sites for new subdivisions. In southern California, devel-opment of the San Fernando Valley, formerly sprinkledwith orange groves, helped make Los Angeles the fastestgrowing area in the postwar period.

Suburbs had low population densities comparedwith cities. Single-family homes on large plots of land,wide streets, and open spaces gave suburbs the “coun-try” feeling that new middle-class homeowners craved.They could enjoy this openness because residents ownedautomobiles, which allowed them to travel to jobs,schools, and shopping facilities.

Affordability became a key factor in attracting homebuyers to the suburbs. Because the GI Bill offered low-interest loans, new housing was more affordable duringthe postwar period than at any other time in Americanhistory. Equally attractive was the government’s offer ofincome tax deductions for home mortgage interest pay-ments and property taxes.

Though affordable, the suburbs did not offer op-portunities for homeownership to everyone. ManyAmerican cities had small but growing populations ofmiddle-class minorities, particularly African Americansand Hispanic Americans, who also longed to escape thenoise, the dirt, and the crime of the cities. By and large,however, the developers of the nation’s postwar suburbs refused to sell homes to minorities. By 1960, for exam-ple, Levittown, Long Island, had a population of morethan 65,000, but it had not a single African American resident. Despite having achieved a measure of financialsuccess, America’s middle-class minorities were still denied full access to the American dream.

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The Los Angeles area was one of the most rapidly growingparts of California between 1940 and 1960. Which countiesexperienced the most growth between 1940 and 1960?

African American Suburbs In Richmond, California, a groupof African American community leaders developed a plannedcommunity, named Parchester Village, for middle-classAfrican Americans. Why was suburban life denied to manyAmericans in the 1950s?

The American DreamCommunity Spirit in the Suburbs

Low-income and minority groups were largely ex-cluded from suburban society. Millions of white, middle-class Americans, however, shared a lifestyle thatrepresented to them the American dream. They ownedtheir own homes, sent their children to good schools,lived in safe communities, and were economically secure.Such were the dreams of the immigrants who had sailedinto New York Harbor half a century before, and nowthose dreams finally had been realized by many of theirchildren and grandchildren.

Nevertheless, some Americans found fault with the“dream.” Social critics of the 1950s deplored the con-formity of suburban life. They mocked what they re-garded as the sameness of the “cookie-cutter” houses, thelack of privacy, and the decline of individuality. FolksingerMalvina Reynolds satirized the middle-class suburban-ites in a popular song titled “Little Boxes”:

And they all play on the golf course And drink their martinis dry,

And they all have pretty childrenAnd the children go to school, And the children go to summer campAnd then to the university,Where they are put in boxesAnd they come out all the same.

—Malvina Reynolds, “Little Boxes”

Such criticism would nothave rung true with mostsuburbanites. Emerging froman era of depression and aworld war, the residents ofsuburbia during the 1950ssaw themselves creating thou-sands of new communitiesbuilt on a common desire fora decent existence. Theyprized the informality and togetherness of suburban life. The Welcome Wagon, acommunity organization thatprovided information and of-fered gifts and coupons fromlocal stores, greeted new fam-ilies. Most newcomers movedeasily into the social life oftheir new neighborhood byjoining a bowling league, a bridge club, or a church

group. One suburban resident observed: “Before we came here, we used to live pretty much to our-selves. . . . Now we stop around and visit with peopleor they visit with us. I really think [suburban living] hasbroadened us.”

Cooperation and group participation helped forgecommunity spirit in the suburbs. This spirit extended tochurch membership, which increased from 48 percentof the population in 1940 to 63 percent in 1960. Theresurgence of religion became evident in all areas of life, from movies to politics. Hollywood’s hit films in-cluded such religious extravaganzas as The Robe, The TenCommandments, and Ben Hur. Congress added “underGod” to the Pledge of Allegiance and “In God We


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Suburban Ideal Togetherness was an important value during the 1950s. What criticismswere leveled at the suburban dream?

“Cookie-cutter” Houses A cartoonist pokes fun at the sameness of suburban life. Why did many people like thesuburbs?

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Trust” to all United States currency. President Eisen-hower told Americans, “Everybody should have a reli-gious faith, and I don’t care what it is.”

Religious leaders helped spread religious commit-ment with the aid of modern media. They had their ownradio and television programs, best-selling books, andnewspaper columns. Billy Graham, a popular Protestantminister, attracted thousands of people throughout theUnited States and in other parts of the world with hishuge evangelical campaigns. Fulton J. Sheen, a RomanCatholic bishop, became a television personality throughhis weekly program optimistically titled Life Is WorthLiving. Protestant minister Norman Vincent Peale at-tracted followers with his message of “positive thinking.”

Critics claimed that churches downplayed faith andemphasized comfort and security. Instead of searchingfor God, the critics said, most Americans turned to reli-gion for peace of mind and a sense of belonging. For what-ever reasons, American families flocked to their churchesand synagogues throughout the 1950s. Billboards andtelevision commercials proclaimed: “Bring the wholefamily to church” and “The family that prays togetherstays together.” Messages like these clearly indicated thatpostwar society was focused on the family.

Baby BoomA Child-centered Culture

Like the economy, the family enjoyed unprecedentedgrowth in the postwar years. The nation’s population in-creased by 19 million in the 1940s and by almost 30 millionin the 1950s. The fertility rate——the number of births per thou-sand women——peaked at 123 in 1957, up about 20 percentfrom the Depression years of the 1930s. That meant that ababy was born in the United States every 7 seconds! Thisphenomenal population growth, known as the baby boom,continued until the mid-1960s.

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Billy Graham An ordained Southern Baptist minister, Graham first gained recognition through his radio broadcasts, tent revivals,and appearances at “Youth for Christ” rallies. During the 1950s, many considered him fundamentalism’s chief voice. How did reli-gion help shape values during the 1950s?

Student Web Activity 18Visit the American Odyssey Web site atamericanodyssey.glencoe.com and click on Chapter18—Student Web Activities for an activity relating tosociety and culture in the 1950s.

HISTORY

http://www.glencoe.com/sec/socialstudies/ushistory/amod2002/chap18/webact.shtml

Like the resurgence of religion in the 1950s, the emphasis on family reflected a desire for close social andemotional ties. A McCall’s magazine article in 1954coined the term “togetherness” to describe young married couples whose lives centered on raising largefamilies. Americans in the 1950s married at an earlier ageand had more babies than their parents. Between 1940and 1960, the birthrate for third and fourth children ina family more than doubled.

The baby boom further fueled the economy andhelped sustain prosperity. Growing families needed larg-er houses, so the construction industry prospered. As thebaby boomers progressed from diapers to school class-rooms to college diplomas, industries and institutionsgrew to satisfy their needs. During the 1950s, school en-rollments increased by 13 million. School districts strug-gled to erect new buildings and temporary classrooms toaccommodate the nation’s children. In California a newschool was completed every 7 days throughout the 1950s,and still the state faced a shortage of classrooms.

Catering to the Kids Many baby-boom kids enjoyed a lifestyle of un-

precedented privilege. Schools became not only institu-tions of learning but also centers of social activity.After-school programs included an endless variety oflessons and sports events. Parents, who wanted to givetheir children all the advantages their new prosperity al-lowed, enthusiastically supported these activities. Musiclessons in the schools drove up the sale of musical in-struments from $86 million in 1950 to $149 million in1960. The number of Girl Scouts and Brownies doubled,and the number of Little Leagues grew from about 800to nearly 6,000 during the 1950s.

Baby boomers were the nation’s first generationraised on television from their earliest years. Program-ming for children included everything from puppetshows to tales of the Old West. Young viewers gatheredaround the television to watch Buffalo Bob and his freckle-faced marionette, and when the youngsters heardthe familiar opening line, “Say kids, what time is it?”they responded in unison, “It’s Howdy Doody time!” Atits height the popular Kukla, Fran, and Ollie puppet showattracted an audience of 10 million viewers. Kukla (aclown), Ollie (a snaggle-toothed dragon), and severalother Kuklapolitan puppets visited with Fran Allison in an unrehearsed weekly program that charmed adultsas well as children.

Television heroes included the Lone Ranger, Hopa-long Cassidy, and Captain Video (Guardian of the Uni-verse). Also popular were shows featuring heroic dogs andhorses——Lassie, Rin-Tin-Tin, and My Friend Flicka. On DingDong School, kindly Miss Frances led her television audiencein constructive preschool activities and songs. Millions ofviewers joined Annette, Cubby, Karen, and the other Mouseketeers on The Mickey Mouse Club. Captain Kanga-roo, Mr. Green Jeans, and a collection of puppet friendsentertained more than one generation of youngsters.


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School enrollments skyrocketed in the 1950s. How many students were enrolled in schools in 1910? In 1970?

The Lone Ranger In this very popular television western, theLone Ranger and his Native American friend, Tonto, set out tobring law and order to the West. Who were some of the othertelevision heroes of the 1950s?


Advertisers and toymakers jumped on the televisionbandwagon. Products aimed at the growing market of5- to 14-year-olds rang up big sales. In 1954 a popularWalt Disney television program introduced folk heroDavy Crockett, portrayed by Fess Parker. The resultingDavy Crockett “cult” created a $100 million market forcoonskin caps and dozens of other items with Davy’s pic-ture on them. The show’s theme song, “The Ballad ofDavy Crockett,” sold 4 million records.

Critics argued that television produced passive chil-dren. Children’s programming, they claimed, was boring,mindless, and often violent. Still, some programs carriedpositive messages. Good triumphed over evil. Gentleness,kindness, and truthfulness prevailed. The joy and wonderof childhood were encouraged and celebrated.

Healthier, Happier ChildrenBy the 1950s medical science had made great strides

toward combating childhood diseases. Antibiotics andvaccines helped control diseases such as diphtheria, in-fluenza, and typhoid fever. Polio, however, continued tobaffle the medical profession. In 1952 a record numberof 58,000 cases of polio was reported in the United

States. Those who survived were often permanently paralyzed. The most severe cases were confined to ironlungs——large metal tanks with pumps that helped patients breathe. Polio became the most feared diseaseof the postwar period.

Dr. Jonas Salk finally developed an effective vaccineagainst polio and in doing so became the medical hero ofthe 1950s. Salk first tested the vaccine on himself, his wife,and their three sons. In 1954, 2 million schoolchildren tookpart in a mass testing program. The test, which was thelargest effort of its kind in history, utilized the services ofthousands of physicians and millions of volunteers. OnApril 12, 1955, the Salk vaccine was declared a safe andeffective weapon against polio. Through the work of Dr. Salk, who became a hero to people throughout the world,and Dr. Albert Sabin, who developed an oral version ofthe vaccine, the threat of polio was virtually eliminated.

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First Polio Vaccination Some polio victims (above) needed aniron lung to breathe; others suffered paralysis and had to usecrutches. A massive vaccination program (right) began after the Salk vaccine was approved for use in 1955. How did Dr.Albert Sabin contribute to eliminating the polio threat?


Dr. Salk’s fame was paralleled by that of anothermedical person, Dr. Benjamin Spock. During the 1950sonly the Bible sold more copies than Spock’s book Babyand Child Care. Spock popularized the theory that earlychildhood experiences influence an individual’s entirelife. He urged mothers to spare the rod and to devotethemselves to creating an atmosphere of warmth and trustfor their children so that they would grow into happy,well-adjusted adults. “You can think of it this way: use-ful, well-adjusted citizens are the most valuable posses-sions a country has, and good mother care during earlychildhood is the surest way to produce them.” Dr. Spocksuggested that the government should pay mothers sothat they would not have to seek outside employment.This idea failed to gain popular support, and opponentseven suggested that it smacked of socialism.

A Woman’s PlaceBack Into the Labor Force

Spock’s theories helped reinforce the concept ofmotherhood as a profession in itself and strengthened theold idea that a woman’s place was in the home. “No jobis more exacting, more necessary, or more rewardingthan that of housewife and mother,” stated an article inthe Atlantic in 1950. Statistics indicated that Americanwomen agreed. The median age of marriage for womenfell from 21.5 in 1940 to 20.1 in 1956. By 1950 nearly 60 percent of all women between the ages of 18 and 24were married.

Mother and HomemakerIn the 1950s women were discouraged

from attending college. A high-school text-book on family living counseled youngwomen that “Men are not interested in col-lege degrees, but in the warmth and human-ness of the girls they marry.” Many womenwho did graduate from college concentratedtheir studies in such fields as home econom-ics or child development. A survey found thatmost college women believed “it is natural fora woman to be satisfied with her husband’ssuccess and not crave personal achievement.”

The suburban lifestyle strengthened thedistinctions between male and female roles.Fathers often left home early in the morningto commute to jobs in the city. When they returned home in the evening, the childrenhad been fed, bathed, and dressed for bed.Most mothers assumed responsibility for thedaily routine of child rearing in addition to

cooking, cleaning, shopping, washing clothes, and par-ticipating in school and community activities. JohnCheever, who set many of his novels and short storiesin the suburbs of New York, described one such woman:

She gets up at seven and turns the radio on. After she is dressed, she rouses the children

and cooks the breakfast. Our son has to be walkedto the school bus at eight o’clock. When Ethel re-turns from this trip, Carol’s hair has to be braided. Ileave the house at eight-thirty, but I know that everymove that Ethel makes for the rest of the day will bedetermined by the housework, the cooking, theshopping, and the demands of the children. I knowthat on Tuesdays and Thursdays she will be at the A & P between eleven and noon, that on every clearafternoon she will be on a certain bench in a play-ground from three until five, that she cleans thehouse on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, andpolishes the silver when it rains. When I return atsix, she is usually cleaning the vegetables or makingsome other preparation for dinner. Then when thechildren have been fed and bathed, when the dinneris ready, when the table in the living room is set withfood and china, she stands in the middle of theroom as if she has lost or forgotten something, andthis moment of reflection is so deep that she will nothear me if I speak to her, or the children if they call.Then it is over. She lights the four white candles intheir silver sticks, and we sit down to a supper ofcorned-beef hash or some other modest fare.

—John Cheever, “The Season of Divorce” from The Stories of John Cheever

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Dr. Benjamin Spock The famous doctor visits the Anderson quintuplets.How did his books influence the rearing of children?


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Popular culture reinforced the imageof women as cute and perky rather thanintelligent or career-minded. Actressessuch as Doris Day, Debbie Reynolds, andSandra Dee became role models for whitewomen of the 1950s. Each portrayed thesweet, funny, innocent, wholesome, blondgirl-next-door in popular box-office hits ofthe decade. Television situation comedies(sitcoms) emphasized the role of womanas wife and mother. In such shows as Father Knows Best and Leave It to Beaver,Dad dispensed wisdom and advice whileapron-clad Mom tended to domestic mat-ters. In programs such as Our Miss Brooksand Private Secretary, the main characterwas an unmarried career woman whosegoal in life was simply to find a husband.

The educational system often en-couraged schoolgirls of the 1950s to follow in their mothers’ footsteps. Whileboys studied woodworking, auto me-chanics, or courses preparing them forcollege, girls learned typing, cooking, and etiquette. However, a Gallup Poll in 1962 showed that 90 percent of the mothers surveyed hoped that theirdaughters would not lead the same livesas they had.

Women Question Their Role in Society

Despite the apparent happiness of the middle-classAmerican woman, something was amiss. Many of thesewomen did not feel the complete fulfillment that devotionto their homes and families was supposed to provide. Yetmany considered women who were dissatisfied with thisrole to be either mentally disordered, unfeminine, or both.For example, psychiatrist Helene Deutsch declared that

truly feminine women related to the outside world onlythrough identification with their husbands and children.

In 1957 Smith College graduates of the class of 1942answered an alumnae questionnaire prepared by BettyFriedan that raised the issue of a woman’s role in soci-ety. Years of such research and interviews with womenled to Friedan’s landmark book, The Feminine Mystique,published in 1963. Friedan described the situation:

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1940 Only 1.5million marriedwomen work.

1946 Dr. Spockreinforces idea thatwomen’s place is inthe home.

1962 92% of mothers inGallup Poll hope daughters leadlives different from theirs.

1960 Number ofworking mothersjumps to 6.6 million.

1950s Womenare discouragedfrom pursuingcareers.

1957Baby boompeaks.

1956 Average ageof marriage forwomen falls to 20.1

1963 The Fem-inine Mystique ispublished.

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Housework In the 1950s, hanging the laundry outside to dry was common.What did Dr. Spock think was the most rewarding profession?

The problem lay buried, unspoken, for manyyears in the minds of American women. It was a

strange stirring, a sense of dissatisfaction, a yearn-ing that women suffered in the middle of the twenti-eth century in the United States. Each suburbanwife struggled with it alone. As she made the beds,shopped for groceries, matched slipcover material,ate peanut butter sandwiches with her children,chauffeured Cub Scouts and Brownies . . . she wasafraid to ask even of herself the silent question—“Is this all?”

—Betty Friedan, The Feminine Mystique, 1963

Friedan had finally identified the “problem that hadno name.” While many American women were happywith their roles as housewives and mothers, many others felt social pressures had relegated them to rolesas lifelong domestics.

Women in the WorkforceAt the end of World War II, the government and in-

dustries urged women to “go back home” and “give yourjob to a vet.” Women, who were largely excluded fromimportant jobs in the corporate world, were alsosqueezed out of the manufacturing jobs they had heldduring the war.

Whether by pressure or by choice, many womenwho had taken on nontraditional jobs during the war re-turned to the familiar roles of full-time homemakers andmothers. For women in thelower economic ranks,however, staying at homewas not an option. Millionsof such women continuedto enter the job marketwhile still maintaining theirroles as housewives andmothers. During the 1950sthe rate of female employ-ment increased 4 timesfaster than that of males.The number of workingwives nearly doubled from17 percent in 1940 to 32percent in 1960. The num-ber of working mothersleaped from 1.5 million to6.6 million. By 1960 nearly40 percent of women withchildren between the agesof 6 and 17 had jobs outsidethe home.

Married women over35 represented the greatest

increase in female employment in the 1950s. Many ofthese women had worked outside the home before hav-ing a family. They then had stayed home to raise theirchildren, who were now either married or off to school.These women filled the millions of clerical and secretarialpositions created in the postwar period that the relativelysmall number of young single women who were enter-ing the job market could not fill.


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Betty Friedan After the publication of The Feminine Mystique, Friedan organized the National Organization forWomen. What was Friedan’s book about?

Women at Work Women run folding machines at this plant in Chicago. How much faster didthe rate of female employment increase than that of males in the 1950s?


When surveyed about why they worked, marriedwomen no longer talked about professional advancement.Many women said they wanted to help pay for the chil-dren’s education or the mortgage or a second car or a va-cation——in other words, to get a piece of the Americandream. In households where the husband earned between$7,000 and $10,000 a year, the rate of women’s employmentincreased from 7 percent in 1950 to 25 percent in 1960.The 1960 United States census indicated that the numberof households earning $15,000 or more would be cut inhalf if women’s earnings were excluded. Women thus faceda dilemma. Economic pressures to maintain a comfortablelifestyle forced them into the workplace, while social pres-sures led them to believe their proper place was at home.

Most women’s jobs, however, were low-paying andwere either temporary, part-time, or held no opportu-nity for advancement. In areas such as insurance andbanking, for example, women made up 50 percent ormore of the workforce, but they held 20 percent or lessof higher-level managerial positions. Many women inthese industries worked as bank tellers or secretaries.High-level positions were reserved for men.

Stereotyped images of women’s roles erected barri-ers to equal treatment. After World War II, the salary gap between full-time male and full-time female wageearners widened. In 1955 women earned 64 percent of average male wages; in 1963 they earned only 60 per-cent as much as men. A 1959 study concluded thatwomen could not expect a professional career. Men simply would not take their professional goals seriously.

Women were not alone in their plight. Despite theprosperity of postwar society, many Americans——victimsof racial prejudice and discrimination, neglect, and cultural differences——were denied full participation inthe American dream.

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The percentage of married women who work also steadilyincreased. What percentage of married women worked in1940? In 1960?


Main Idea1. Use a diagram like this one to show the pros and

cons of suburban life.

Vocabulary2. Define: suburbia, baby boom.

Checking Facts 3. How and why did baby-boom kids enjoy privi-

leges not available to their parents?

4. What role did religion play in the 1950s?

Critical Thinking 5. Recognizing Bias In 1955 women earned only

64 percent of the average wages men earned.What bias does this statistic reflect?

Suburban Life

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U N I V E R S A L A P P E A LLittle Richard (Richard Wayne Penniman)started his career as a gospel singer. Inthe mid-1950s, however, his single “TuttiFrutti” became a hit. Pat Boone’s renditionof the song made it popular among whiteteenagers and introduced them to therock music already popular among AfricanAmericans. Until the record companyMotown began releasing the records ofAfrican American artists, most of thesemusicians were relatively unknown towhite audiences.

Rock ’n’ Roll ArrivesAfter the upheaval of World War II, Americans sought security in an uncertain world. Many women left wartimejobs to become full-time housewives. Veterans returned to apumped-up economy full of opportunity. Parents who hadexperienced the Depression lavished their newly acquiredaffluence on their children.

P O P U L A R I C O NWith the popularity of theMouseketeers on the MickeyMouse Club television show andthe opening of Disneyland inSouthern California, Walt Disneybecame one of the most well-known and beloved figures in theUnited States.

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“ T H E K I N G ”In 1956 Elvis Presley skyrocketed to rock ’n’roll stardom—despite the objections of parentsall over the country, who deplored his suggestiveonstage antics. Nicknamed “Elvis the Pelvis,” thecountry singer from Tennessee was the mostpopular rock star in history.

R O C K ’ N ’ R O L L I S H E R E T O S TAYOn American Bandstand, hosted by the youthful-looking DickClark, teen fans danced in front of the TV camera to the livemusic of hit singers. From its studio in Philadelphia, Bandstandhelped spread the urban rock scene throughout the country andtapped into a growing market for records.

L O VA B L E L U C YI Love Lucy was television’s first smash-hitsituation comedy. Lucy (Lucille Ball) wasalways concocting harebrained schemesand getting into funny scrapes as a result.Everything got back to “normal” when Lucyobeyed her husband and went home. Theshow mirrored and reinforced the prevailingattitudes about male and female roles.

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D A N C E W I T H M E , B A B YDancing became extremely popularamong teenagers in the 1950s.Teenagers continued to dance the jitterbug that their parents had originated, in addition to their own creations—line dances, the twist,the bop, the Watusi, the stroll, theslide, the pony, and the monkey. ©

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Pedro and Maria Lopez andtheir five children lived in an unfurnished apart-ment in East Harlem. El Barrio, as this section of NewYork City was called, had be-come one of the most denselypopulated places in the world,with nearly 300,000 people persquare mile.

The Lopez family paid $40 a week in rent for their fourth-floor walk-up, which consisted of a living room, a bathroom, akitchen, and one bedroom. De-spite Maria’s scrupulous house-keeping, the apartment wasinfested with rats and roaches.

Six days a week, Pedro got upat 4:30 A.M. to commute to hisjob as a die cutter, for which heearned $75 weekly. Maria earned another $60 weekly byworking part-time and weekends in a supermarket, whichwas a 45-minute trip from home.

When Pedro had to misswork because of a stomach ulcer,Maria applied for temporary aidfrom the Department of SocialServices. The application was de-nied because her son Anthonyhad been suspended from schoolfor truancy.

Because of additional medi-cal expenses, Pedro and Mariacame up $5 short that monthwhen the rent was due. Theirlandlord promptly issued an evic-tion notice. In desperation, Pedroignored his doctor’s orders andreturned to his job and even tooka second job evenings and Sundays. Ten-year-old Manueldropped out of school and founda job to help pay his family’s bills.

Like many American fami-lies in the 1950s, the Lopezes were dedicated to the values of thrift, hard work, and a good education. The American dream, however, seemed always beyond

Poverty and Plenty1955: FAMILIES STRUGGLE IN EL BARRIO

El BarrioFamilies like the Lopezes worked hard but

struggled to make ends meet. The urban poor,who flooded cities after World War II, had little

or no political representation.

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� culture of poverty� termination policy

� how groups of people—young andold, rural and urban—got caught inthe cycle of poverty and why the pooroften felt invisible.

� the hardships of poverty during anage of general affluence.

Vocabulary Read to Find Out . . .Main IdeaOvershadowed by the generalaffluence of the 1950s was aculture of poverty made up ofthe groups barred from themainstream of American life byprejudice and discrimination.

S E C T I O N T H R E E 619

their grasp. Pedro, Maria, and their children belonged to a class of Americans whose dreams rarely came true and whose problems went largely unnoticed by the rest of society. The Lopezes were unfortunate members of the nation’s culture of poverty, the poor——largely invisible——members of a generally affluentAmerican society.

The Invisible PoorThe Causes of Poverty

Picture postcards of New York City in the 1950s re-flected the glory of the postwar United States. Sky-scrapers soared heavenward; the waters swarmed withcommercial traffic; sleek passenger jets cruised a cloud-less sky; and in the harbor, Madame Liberty beckonedwith promises of freedom, equality, and opportunity.

Hidden PovertyHidden behind the tall buildings, away from the

bustling harbor, was a very different United States. It wasa nation of crumbling streets and tenements, of hungryand sometimes homeless people; a nation not of freedomand equality but of prejudice and discrimination; a nation not of plenty but of desperate need.

The “invisible poor” were so well hidden that many Americans believed that poverty in the UnitedStates had been nearly eliminated. In 1956 historianArthur Schlesinger stated that “the central problems ofour times are no longer problems of want and privation.”Four years later Fortune magazine declared that therewere fewer than 1 million poor people left in the UnitedStates and predicted that by 1970 there would be noneat all.

Reasons for InvisibilitySocial and political factors combined to make the

poor invisible. Prosperous Americans, for example, sim-ply closed their eyes to the poverty around them becausethe postwar popular culture glorified the “good life.”

As the middle class moved to the suburbs afterWorld War II, they left the poor behind. The inner citiesbecame isolated islands of poverty——out of sight and outof mind. The population of midtown Manhattandropped from 1.5 million during the day to 2,000 atnight. Writer John Brooks noted that midtown Man-hattan was “tidally swamped with bustling humanityevery weekday morning . . . and abandoned again at nightfall when the wave sucked back.” Working in midtown Manhattan, the suburbanites rarely saw thehundreds of thousands of poor families who lived in theBronx, Brooklyn, and Queens.

The lack of any effective political voice also kept thepoor invisible. In the past the urban poor had includedlarge numbers of European immigrants who were aidedby big-city political bosses, most of whom had Europeanbackgrounds themselves. With such aid the immigrantsand their children often struggled out of poverty and fledthe noisy, dirty cities for the calm and quiet of the sub-urbs. Progressive urban reforms of the 1900s and the in-crease in federal programs in the 1930s, however, helpedundermine the political-boss system’s monopoly on so-cial services. The urban poor of the 1950s, who floodedthe cities during and after World War II, included dis-placed white people from Appalachia, African Americans,Hispanic Americans, and Native Americans.

In 1962 author Michael Harrington shocked pros-perous Americans by revealing the extent of poverty intheir midst. In his book, The Other America, Harringtonwrote that 50 million Americans lived in poverty. He ex-plained that poverty was defined not only by a lack ofmoney but also by the absence of hope:

The poor live in a culture of poverty . . . [and] forreasons beyond their control, cannot help them-

selves. . . . The poor get sick more than anyone elsein the society. . . . When they become sick, they aresick longer than any other group in the society. Be-cause they are sick more often and longer than any-one else, they lose wages and work, and find itdifficult to hold a steady job. And because of this,they cannot pay for good housing, for a nutritiousdiet, for doctors . . . [and] their prospect is to move toan even lower level . . . toward even more suffering.

—Michael Harrington, The Other America, 1962

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Michael Harrington When Harrington published The OtherAmerica, many denied that poverty was a problem in theUnited States. What was Harrington’s definition of poverty?

The Culture of PovertyThe Downside of Government Programs

Harrington and others pointed out that the povertyof the 1950s was a “new” poverty. The poverty of the Depression era was a general condition that affectedlarge parts of society. Nationally organized, large-scale social welfare programs and labor organizations had responded with work programs and relief payments.When the economy began to recover, so too did the people. In contrast, the poor in the postwar era had nosuch massive social welfare programs to enable them tobreak out of poverty.

Additional studies supported Harrington’s findings.One study concluded that 40 percent of the Americanpeople were ill-housed, ill-clothed, and ill-fed. Anotherstudy found that 34.5 million Americans lived on lessthan $2.10 a day. Americans could no longer deny thatpoverty was a major social problem.

The reasons for poverty in the United States were varied. Some of the poor, particularly African Americans

and Hispanic Americans, faced long-standing racial andethnic prejudice and discrimination. The poor also in-cluded jobless Appalachian whites, who moved to thecities because of the lack of opportunity in the hills, andNative Americans, who lived both in the cities and on reser-vations. Finally, there were the growing numbers of elder-ly Americans who were not covered by Social Security andhad never received pensions from their employers. What-ever the reasons for the existence of poverty, the problemwas not limited by age, race, or ethnic heritage.

The Young and the OldAlmost half of the poor were children under the age

of 18. By the early 1960s, many of the nation’s poor chil-dren were the third generation in their families to havebeen raised on welfare. A depressing cycle of poverty wasborn——generation after generation totally dependent ongovernment aid for their sustenance, knowing no otherway of life.

While many children were born into poverty, many elderly Americans simply grew into it. Approxi-mately 8 million Americans over the age of 65 had incomes of less than $1,000 a year. The following testi-mony details the problems afflicting the elderly during the 1950s and 1960s:

Louise W_____, age 73, lives by herself in a single furnished room on the third floor of a

rooming house located in a substandard section ofthe city. In this one room, she cooks, eats, andsleeps. . . . Widowed at 64, she has few friends remaining from her younger years. Those who do remain do not live near her, and it is difficult for herto see them. . . . And so she stays confined to herone room and the bathroom shared by nine otherpeople. When the weather is warm enough, sheventures down the long flight of stairs about once a week for a walk to the corner and back.—Testimony at the 1960 Senate hearing on the aged

The plight of the nation’s elderly citizens was, iron-ically, partly the result of scientific and technologicalprogress. Modern medicine prolonged their lives, whilemodern technology often left them unemployed. Mech-anization wiped out the farm chores and factory jobs formerly available to older workers. Thus, many elderlyAmericans spent their final years without work and with-out dignity.

Rural and Urban PovertyAt least a third of the poor worked on farms or lived

in depressed rural areas. Changes in modern farming cre-ated deep pockets of rural poverty. As corporate farmsand large-farm owners came to dominate production,many small independent farmers found it difficult to

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The Elderly Harrington estimated that there were more than8 million elderly poor in the United States. What contributedto the poverty of elderly people?


compete and slipped into poverty. Across the SouthernUnited States, thousands of small-farm families lackedadequate diets in the midst of the world’s most produc-tive agricultural system.

Residents of Appalachia, a region covering 80,000square miles (207,200 sq. km) and parts of 9 states, suffered severely. In 1960 about three-fourths of Ap-palachia’s 8 million people had a median family incomeof about $2,000 a year. A drop in the demand for coal coupled with the increased use of machinery put almost70 percent of the region’s coal miners out of work.

Rural poverty drove thousands of people to thecities, straining already inadequate housing, school sys-tems, and transportation facilities. Governmental effortsto provide low-cost housing often did more harm thangood. Slum clearance merely shoved the poor from onepart of the city to another. The projects——low-rent pub-lic housing complexes——imposed harsh restrictions on

tenants. Large families with low incomes had priority.A family could be evicted if the marriage broke up orthe family income exceeded the limits set by the hous-ing authority. Housing projects often actually contributedto the cycle of poverty.

The African American ExperienceOvercoming Racial Roadblocks

The poverty of African Americans had a uniquequality that other groups did not share. African Ameri-cans, unlike many of the other poor, had to contend withdeep-seated racial prejudice. While Southern AfricanAmerican farmers suffered the same poverty as their


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Overtime ($8.94): Miners worked 6days a week, 10 hours a day, butmany exhausted themselves byworking several shifts in a row toearn more.

Shift Differential ($2.60): The differ-ence, usually an increase, in wagerates for different shifts or types ofwork performed.

Pinch: A charge for coal deductedfrom a miner’s haul because pieces were too small or were of poor quality.

Total Amount Due Miner ($35.84):After deductions, the miner mightreceive a small salary.

Bottom LineTotal Earnings: $105.29Total Deductions: $ 69.45

TOTAL DUE MINER: $ 35.84

Powder ($5.67): Miners usually ownedthe equipment to mine coal, but pur-chased blasting powder from the min-ing company.

Scrip ($44.00): A mining-company purchasing system that had worth onlywithin a particular company camp.

Rent ($4.50): Fee charged to workersfor company-built housing.

Burial Fund ($1.00): A deduction toprovide proper burials for those killedin mining accidents.

Doctor (.80): Miners were required topay for a camp physician selected bythe mining company.

Due Company: It was possible for aminer to work all month, yet owe themining company money because hisdeductions exceeded his wages.

TOTAL DEDUCTIONS: ($69.45)

●DEDUCTIONS

H A R D T I M E S I N A P P A L A C H I A

Mining companies in Appalachia determined and controlled every aspect of a miner’s life.Companies provided “cradle to grave” benefits: housing, utilities, meals, transportation,hospital care, and even funerals. As shown in the deductions column on the pay slip below,miners paid exorbitantly high fees for “mandatory benefits.” Consequently, a work-relateddispute meant a miner lost not only his job, but housing and food for his family as well.

Coal Miner’s Pay Slip (2-week period)

Few workers were able to save enough money to enable them to leave a mining company; so it was not unusual to see three gen-erations of a single family working the same mine, side by side. It was difficult, if not impossible, to rise above the cycle of debtcreated in a mining camp. What put 70 percent of Appalachia’s coal miners out of work by 1960?

white counterparts, the rural South harbored that forceof racial terrorism, the Ku Klux Klan. The Klan usedphysical violence, including many instances of tortureand lynchings, to intimidate African Americans and keepthem “in their place.”

African Americans carried this fear of white terror-ism with them when they migrated to Northern cities. By the mid-1950s, nearly half of the African American population lived in cities. Atlanta, Los Angeles, Detroit,Chicago, New York——each had its ghetto. James Baldwin,African American novelist, essayist, and activist, describedHarlem in the postwar period:

Harlem, physically at least, has changed very little in my parents’ lifetime or in mine. Now as

then the buildings are old and in desperate need ofrepair, the streets are crowded and dirty, there aretoo many human beings per square block. Rents are10 to 58 percent higher than anywhere else in thecity; food, expensive everywhere, is more expensivehere and of an inferior quality; and now that the waris over and money is dwindling, clothes are carefullyshopped for and seldom bought. Negroes, tradition-ally the last to be hired and the first to be fired, arefinding jobs harder to get, and, while prices are rising implacably, wages are going down. All overHarlem now there is felt the same bitter expectancy

with which, in my childhood, we awaitedwinter: it is coming and it will be hard;there is nothing anyone can do about it.

—James Baldwin, Notes of a Native Son, 1955

In New York City in 1955, 50 percentof African American families had incomesunder $4,000 a year (compared with 20 percent of the white families), and 40 percent of all New York’s welfare recipientswere African American. Unemploymentamong African American workers was double that of white workers, and averagewages were about half of what white workers earned.

Racial prejudice formed a barrier to economic as well as social advancement.Many African American workers, because oftheir color, were denied access to all but thelowest-paying jobs. Many African Ameri-can students lacked opportunities in a seg-regated school system. African Americandoctors and lawyers often found it difficultto practice anywhere but in African Ameri-can neighborhoods where they would never earn as much as their white colleagues.

Hispanic HardshipsThe Search for Migrant Farmwork

Spanish-speaking Americans made up the nation’ssecond largest minority group. Puerto Ricans, like Pedro and Maria Lopez, who were described earlier,flocked to the United States in the 1950s, drawn by sto-ries of abundance and a desire to escape the poverty oftheir island homeland. During the decade, the Puerto Ri-can population of the United States grew from 300,000to nearly 1 million. Many of these immigrants crowdedinto the slum neighborhoods of New York City.

Puerto Rican immigrants faced other difficulties inaddition to their poverty. The language barrier slowedtheir assimilation into United States society. Native culture and strong family traditions were slowly lost asyoung Puerto Ricans adopted American ways. Womenfound jobs more easily than men did, which strained thetraditional husband–wife relationship.

Mexican Americans suffered from the same dis-criminations that Puerto Ricans faced, with an addedburden——they rarely felt politically secure. Because Puer-to Rico is a commonwealth of the United States, Puer-to Ricans are United States citizens, free to travel, work,


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Harlem in the 1950s Harlem was the home of a great African American literary circle in the 1920s. After the Depression, however, overcrowding, thedeterioration of old buildings, and high unemployment had their effect onthe area. How did James Baldwin describe the problems facing the people ofHarlem?


and live within the country. Mexico,however, is a sovereign foreign state,and Mexican immigrants are legallydefined as aliens. Officers of the Im-migration and Naturalization Servicewere charged with tracking down im-migrants who were in this country il-legally. In the process, they could stopany Mexican American on the streetand demand proof of citizenship.

Agricultural WorkersMany Mexican American families

had been citizens of the United Statesfor generations. Many lived in urbancenters, especially in California, Texas,and the Midwest. They were less no-ticed than the migrant farmworkers,however. While Mexican Americansmade up the largest group of migrantfarmworkers, African Americans, Puerto Ricans, and poor whites livedand worked under the same oppressiveconditions. Migrant workers followedthe crops from state to state for 7 or 8months a year, from harvesting spring vegetables in Texasto picking fall apples in Washington. They slept in shacksor in labor camps and worked 10 or 12 hours a day in the

fields. Some migrant workers worked for piece rates; oth-ers received an hourly wage of 50 cents. Migrant workerstoiled outside the protection of labor laws. Children worked

the fields with their parents, often onladders or using hazardous machinery.Injured farmworkers received no work-ers’ compensation.

Some Mexicans illegally enteredthe United States to work in the fields.Others entered this country legally,under the bracero program——an agree-ment forged with the Mexican gov-ernment during World War II topermit seasonal immigration of farm-workers. State employment officials recruited Mexican braceros, or tem-porary workers, to harvest crops.Braceros were expected to return toMexico after the harvest, but manystayed on illegally.

In 1953 the government launcheda deportation program that becameknown as Operation Wetback. IllegalMexican aliens were called wetbacks——a derogatory term——because thousandsof them entered the United States byswimming across the Rio Grande. In 3years, Operation Wetback deportedmore than 3 million people.

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Living Conditions A 1960 television documentary titled Harvest of Shamerevealed the shocking living conditions of the nation’s 2 million migrant workers.What was the bracero program?

Field Work Agriculture depended heavily on migrant workers to do the stoop labor associated with harvesting crops such as tomatoes and beans. What is thework and travel cycle of a typical migrant family?

Displaced Native AmericansThe Government’s Termination Policy

Native Americans were one of America’s smallest,poorest, and most ignored minority groups. By 1960 almost two-thirds of some 600,000 Native Americanslived on reservations. Unemployment rates were stagger-ing——more than 70 percent among the Blackfeet of Mon-tana and the Hopi of Arizona; 86 percent among theChoctaw of Mississippi. Native Americans who migrat-ed to the cities faced much of the same discrimination andpoverty as African Americans and Hispanic Americans.

In 1953, the federal government adopted the termi-nation policy. While the Indian Reorganization Act of1934 had attempted to restore lands to Native Americanownership, the new policy tried to end the reservation sys-tem and related federal services. The policy resulted in theloss of thousands of acres of Native American lands to agri-cultural, lumber, and mining interests.

As an incentive to leave the reservations, the gov-ernment helped Native Americans relocate to citiesthrough the Voluntary Relocation Program. Relocationoffices provided moving expenses, help in finding hous-ing and jobs, and temporary living expenses. Relocatingto the cities, however, proved to be culturally wrench-ing for thousands of Native Americans who left their Na-tive American groups. A Seminole petition to PresidentEisenhower spoke for all Native American groups whostruggled for identity in the 1950s:

We do not say that we are superior or inferior tothe White Man and we do not say that the

White Man is superior or inferior to us. We do saythat we are not White Men . . . do not wish to becomeWhite Men but wish to . . . have an outlook on allthings different from the outlook of the White Man.

—Seminole Petition to President Eisenhower

The termination policy of the 1950s, like nearly everyNative American policy before it, ended up victimizing Na-tive Americans. Individual Native American nations andorganizations of Native Americans officially protested ter-mination. Lacking political representation, their protestswent unanswered, and Native Americans remained themost “invisible” of all minority groups.


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Relocation Under the Voluntary Relocation Program, morethan 60,000 Native Americans moved to cities. Nearly one-third later returned home. Why did the government urge Native Americans to leave their reservations?


Main Idea1. Use a diagram such as this one to describe

features of the culture of poverty.

Vocabulary2. Define: culture of poverty, termination policy.

Checking Facts 3. How did the poverty of the 1950s differ from

the poverty of the Great Depression?

4. Why did Mexican Americans rarely feel politi-cally secure in the United States?

Critical Thinking 5. Identifying Assumptions Keeping in mind that

during the 1950s the poor were “invisible,”what do you think many middle-class Ameri-cans of the 1950s assumed about the poor?

Cultureof

Poverty

Size

Causes

HardshipsMembers

Learning the SkillTo learn more about almost anything, use the Inter-

net. The Internet, often referred to as the “Net,” is aglobal network of computers. The Internet provides amedium in which you can research information, share information, and collaborate with others on a variety of subjects. The Internet offers many features, such as E-mail, online discussion groups, and even shoppingservices. To get on the Internet, you will need three things:

• A personal computer

• A modem—a device that connects your computerto a telephone line

Technology SkillU S I N G T H E I N T E R N E T

Additional Practice

For additional practice, see Reinforcing Skills on page 627.

Practicing the SkillThis chapter focuses on the postwar period of

World War II. Follow these steps to learn moreabout life in American society during the 1950s.

1. Log on to the Internet and access a WorldWide Web search engine, such as Yahoo, Lycos,or WebCrawler.

2. Search by selecting one of the listed cate-gories or by typing in the subject you want to find,such as american society during the fifties.

3. Continue your search by scrolling down thelist that appears on your screen. When you selectan entry, click on it to access the information.Sometimes the information you first access willnot be exactly what you need. If so, continuesearching until you find the information that youwant. Use your findings to create a short reporton different aspects of American society duringthe 1950s.

Applying the SkillGo through the steps described to search the

Internet for information about popular music trendsduring the 1950s. Based on your information, cre-ate a bulletin board comparing popular musictrends of today with trends of the 1950s.

• An account with an Internet service provider, suchas AOL or a local Internet Service Provider (ISP).An Internet Service Provider is a company that en-ables you to log on to the Internet (usually for a fee).

Using the InternetOnce you are connected, the easiest way to access

Web sites and information is to use a “Web browser.” A Webbrowser is a program that lets you view and explore infor-mation on the World Wide Web. The World Wide Web con-sists of documents called Web pages. Each page on theWeb is referred to as a site. Each Web page has it own ad-dress, or URL. Many URLs start with a prefix of http://

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Students using the Internet.

C R I T I C A L T H I N K I N G S K I L L 625

Chapter Assessment00Chapter Assessment18

Reviewing Key TermsChoose the vocabulary term thatbest completes the sentences be-low. Write your answers on a sepa-rate sheet of paper.demobilization conglomeratessuburbia baby boomculture of termination poverty policy

1. The rapid population growth afterWorld War II is referred to as a__________ .2. This population increase fueledthe growth of __________ , communi-ties on the outskirts of cities.3. Shifting people and businessback to peacetime pursuits wascalled __________ .4. The “bigger is better” philosophyof the postwar years led to the formation of huge __________.5. The __________ resulted in theloss of hundreds of thousands ofacres of Native American lands toagricultural, mining, and lumberinterests.

Recalling Facts1. Describe a Veterans’ Village. Howmany veterans took advantage ofthe educational assistance offeredby the GI Bill?

2. What happened to the economyas working-class Americans accu-mulated discretionary income?

3. How did advertising affect thedemand for consumer goods?

4. Where were most new homesbuilt in the 1950s?

5. What kind of people lived in suburbia? Describe their lifestyle.

6. As their parents’ discretionaryincome increased, teenagers hadmore money to spend as well. Howdid this affluence affect the cultureof the 1950s?

7. What was the problem BettyFriedan identified in The FeminineMystique?

8. How did poor people’s lack of aneffective political voice contribute tothe cycle of poverty?

9. How was the poverty of the1950s different from the poverty ofthe Depression era?

10. Describe some of the hardshipsin the lives of most migrant farm-workers.

Critical Thinking1. Synthesizing InformationWhat were some of the advantagesand disadvantages inherent in cor-porate life in the 1950s?

2. Analyzing Information Look atthe information about Appalachia onpage 621. Why did this region sufferso much during the 1950s?

3. Determining Cause and EffectUse a diagram like this one to sum-marize the causes and effects of thegrowth of suburbia.

EffectsCausesGrowth

ofSuburbia

Self-Check QuizVisit the American Odyssey Web siteat americanodyssey.glencoe.comand click on Chapter 18—Self-Check Quiz to prepare for theChapter Test.

HISTORY


1. The postwar baby boomof the 1950s had all thefollowing effects EXCEPT

A child-oriented televisionprogramming.

B sustained economicprosperity.

C marriages at later ages thanprevious generations.

D increased schoolenrollments.

2. As a result of anagreement reached withMexico in World War II,many Mexicans wereallowed to enter theUnited States legally asseasonal workers through

A Operation Wetback.B the Voluntary Relocation

Program.C the bracero program.D the termination policy.

Standardized Test Practice

Test-Taking Tips: Thinkabout the meaning of the termbaby boom: a surge in thepopulation due to high birthrates. Predict some of theconsequences of such a boom.For example, school enrollmentswould probably rise along withthe number of children. So youcan rule out answer D.

Test-Taking Tip:Eliminate answers that do notmake sense. For example, thetermination policy refers togovernment efforts to endfederal services to NativeAmericans. Therefore, answer Dis obviously incorrect. Do any ofthe other listed programs referto groups other than Mexicans?

http://www.glencoe.com/sec/socialstudies/ushistory/amod2002/quiz.shtml?BOOK=010&CHAPTER=18&TITLE=The+Postwar+Era

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Fruits

MAJOR CROPS

Citrus fruits

Grapes

Vegetables

Potatoes

Sugar beets

Cotton

Routes ofseasonal migratoryworkers

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MEXICO

Wash.

Oregon

Calif.

Idaho

Nevada

Montana

Wyo.

Utah

Arizona

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KansasColorado

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Okla.

Texas

Minn.

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Missouri

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Ill.Ind.

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Ky.

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Miss. Ala. Ga.

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R.I. Conn.

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Ohio R iver

Mississippi River

Rio Gran

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Red River

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November toMay harvest

November toDecember harvest

January toMay harvest

May toJuly harvest

April toOctoberharvest

June toOctoberharvest

Octoberharvest

August harvest

Augustharvest

G E O G R A P H Y A N D H I S T O R YTravel Routes of Migrant Workers, 2000s

Study the map to answer the following questions:

1. To which states do migrant workers travel to harvest citrus fruits?

2. To which parts of the country do migrant workers go in winter?

3. In how many states do migrant workers pick cotton?

4. Which areas of the country have the longest harvests?

Portfolio ProjectTalk to a friend or relative who is

a baby boomer. What does heor she think are the advan-tages and disadvantages of being a baby boomer? How is

life different for people of yourgeneration? What do you think babyboomers’ effect on society will be whenthey retire? Write a report that focuses onthese questions. Place it in your portfolio.

Cooperative LearningForm groups to research the specialhardships placed on one of the fol-lowing groups: displaced NativeAmericans, Hispanics (one group candiscuss Mexicans and another Puer-to Ricans), and Southern AfricanAmericans. Share your findings.

Reinforcing SkillsUsing the Internet Go through thesteps described on page 625 tosearch the Internet for informationabout fads of the 1950s such as telephone booth stuffing or the hulahoop. Use a search engine to helpfocus your search by using phrasessuch as 1950s fads or beatniks. Useyour findings to create a bulletinboard illustrating all the different fads.

Technology Activity

Using E-mail One by-product ofthe computer revolution is thehundreds of new computer-related words we have added toour language, such as modemand surfing. Using E-mail, send amessage to a friend requesting alist of words that probably didnot exist before computers wereinvented.

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