The Post-WWII Years

U.S. Post-War Boom1945-the 1950s

What’s Most Important to You?What’s Most Important to You?

The War just ended—

what’s the first thing you want to do?

                                  

        

Coming Back Home• Getting a Job

• Raising a Family

• Owning a Home

G.I. Bill of Rights (1944)• Provided low-interest loans

to veterans returning from WWII so they could go to college

• Offered low-interest mortgages to veterans in order to purchase a house

• This allowed millions of Americans to achieve the dream their parents couldn’t – higher education and home ownership

Federal Highway Act (1956)

• Authorized $32 billion for the construction of a national interstate highway system

• Financed by taxing gas, oil, tires, buses, and trucks

• Accelerated the decline of mass transit and older cities

Corporate Culture• Major corporations

offered secure white-collar jobs

• Benefits: health care, country club, company car, expense account

• “Company Man”: had to fit in, not stand out

(gray suit, company tie)

Role of Women

• Discouraged from attending college• Government said, “Go back home and give

your job to a vet”• Women only went back to work (many after

age 35) after kids were raised• Single women were clerks and secretaries• Jobs were to help pay for children, not to

advance their careers

Gender Roles

• Dad – work, outside chores (work on car, mow the lawn, etc.)

• Mom – cook, clean, take care of kidsDr. Benjamin Spock – wrote Baby and Child Care

about how women should be nurturing moms which would allow kids to grow into good adults

Raising a Family• Family Values: WWII over,

men back home, women not needed in work force

• Baby Boom:Between 1945-1950, almost 16 million babies born in USA

• Continued into 1960s

• Largest generation in US history

“Baby Boom” Generation

• Baby born every 7 seconds in ’40s/’50s• People married earlier and started families

earlier• Parents catered to kids…Why?• First generation to grow up with TV• More social activities at school• Antibiotics kept children healthier

The Baby Boom

0500,000

1,000,0001,500,0002,000,0002,500,0003,000,0003,500,0004,000,0004,500,0005,000,000

1940 1946 1955 1957

Births Per Year

William Levitt – Father of modern suburbia

Home Sweet Home• Demand for 5 million houses as soon as war ended• Mass Production of homes: “Cookie-Cutter

Houses”—Levittowns in NY, PA, NJ• Planned houses built outside major cities Suburbs

Television portrayed the stereotypical middle-class suburban family

A Levittown Living Room

The Kitchen

The “American Dream”?

Just Like

Every Body Else.