8-3: U.S. Society in the 1950s

Affluence, Conformity, and Paranoia

1950s Prosperity• GNP doubled between 1945 and 1960

• Stimulated by defense spending

New industries

New electronics

Aviation improvements

New chemicals

• Near-monopoly on world trade

Due to devastation of WWII

• Home ownership increased 50%

Consumer appliances

Refrigerators

Washing machines

televisions

Demographic Changes• Baby Boom

Contributes to growth of suburbs, consumerism, and increase in college enrollment (GI Bill)

• Workforce

Unions

U.S. government as labor mediator

Union power curbed by Taft-Hartley Act (1947)

Women

Return to housewife (I Love Lucy, Honeymooners)

Growth of the Suburbs• Federal Highway Act (1956)

• Migration of middle-class from cities to suburbs

• William Levitt and “Levittowns”

• Federal Housing Administration

Encouraged home ownership by insuring mortgages

Social Critics and Nonconformists• Criticized conformity

Television as a “vast wasteland”

• Beatniks

Disillusionment and rejection of the middle class

• Rock n’ Roll

• Abstract Expressionism

Shift away from reality and towards a state of mind

• Movie Stars

Symbolized youthful rebellion

The 2nd Red Scare• Background

Illegal to advocate the overthrow of government since 1940

House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC)

Joseph McCarthy—accusations that the State Department was “thoroughly infested with Communists”

McCarthyism—making public accusations of disloyalty without specific evidence

• Contributing Factors

Fall of China

USSR development of the bomb

Containment

Alleged Soviet spies

The 2nd Red Scare• McCarthy Hearings

Tactics

Played on fears

Created a climate of paranoia

Requirement of loyalty oaths and investigations

Blacklists

Major Cases

Alger Hiss

Ethel and Julius Rosenberg

Propelled careers of John Kennedy, Richard Nixon, and Ronald Reagan

Fall of Joseph McCarthy

Accused army of infiltration by Soviet spies

Boorish conduct and lack of evidence turned public against him

Contemporary Ideologies

• Liberalism

Government involvement in economy

Higher taxes

Equal opportunity for all

Generally vote for Democrats

Union members, minorities, young adults, single women

• Conservatism

Limited role of government

Lower taxes

Individualism leads to economic growth

Generally vote for Republicans

Rural areas, white males, middle-aged

Truman (D), 1945-1953

• Fair Deal

Civil rights

Enlargement of the New Deal

Increased minimum wage

Health insurance

Federal aid to education

Public housing

Repeal of Taft-Hartley Act (workers rights)

Coalition between Republicans and Southern Democrats limited Truman’s ability to achieve his goals

Eisenhower (R), 1953-1961

• Conservative economic policy

Basic features of the New Deal

Lower taxes

Controlling government spending

Warnings about “military-industrial complex”