America at Midcentury,

1945 – 1961

Chapter 27

2

Readings

• Read the entire chapter.

“It would be Un American to not read the entire Chapter.”

Tricky Dick Nixon

3

Introduction

• Jackie Roosevelt Robinson

4

Postwar Jitters

5

Demobilization and Recovery

6

GI Bill of Rights

• GI Bill

7

The Affluent Society

8

The New Industrial Society

9

The Age of Computers

10

The Costs of Bigness

11

Blue-Collar Blues

12

Figure 27.1A: The American Farmer, 1940–1993

13

Figure 27.1B: The American Farmer, 1940–1993 (cont’d)

14

Prosperity and the Suburbs

15

Suburban America

16

Figure 27.2: Urban, Suburban, and Rural Americans, 1940–

1960

17

Consensus and Conservation

18

Technology and CultureThe Interstate Highway System

19

Togetherness, the Baby Boom and Domesticity

• Baby-boom generation

• Dr. Benjamin Spock

20

Religion and Education

• Billy Graham

21

Postwar Culture

22

The Television Culture

23

Figure 27.3: The Television Revolution, 1950–1994

24

Seeds of Disquiet

25

Stalin Dies

• March 5, 1953

26

Sputnik

• Sputnik (Little traveler)

27

A Different Beat

• Elvis Presley

28

Portents of Change

29

The Other America

30

Poverty and Urban Blight

31

Latinos and Latinas

• Bracero Program

32

Native Americans

33

Civil Rights Movement

• President’s Committee on Civil Rights

• Earl Warren

• Brown v Board of Education of Topeka

• Southern Manifesto

34

The Laws of the Land

35

The Brown Decision and the Southern Manifesto

36

Mass Protest in Montgomery

• Rosa Parks

• Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

• Dexter Avenue Baptist Church

• Montgomery Bus Boycott

37

New Tactics for a New Decade

• Freedom Rides

• Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee

• (SNCC) “Snick”

38

Conclusion