U.S. HistoryChapter 23

#21

U.S. HistoryChapter 23

#21

America

In THE 1950sProsperity & Conformity

America

In THE 1950sProsperity & Conformity

Assignment

1. Critical Thinking p. 809 Q. 1&2

2. Ch 23 Assessment p. 817-819 Q. 1-20

1. A - Closed Shop

Handwritten Due - Tuesday

Quiz 40 pts – Tuesday

Key Terms & People

Americans returned from WWII hoping to find a

better life than the one they left

The GI Bill June 20,1944 -- FDR signed into law “The Servicemen's Readjustment Act”

Prevent –Bonus March • Loans for Homes

• $ for College Education

Suburban Living

- start at 45Sec(8min)

Suburban Living

- start at 45Sec(8min)

$7,990 or $60/month with no down payment.

Levittown: “The American Dream”1949-William Levitt began to mass produce

150 houses per wk ‘Cookie-Cutter Homes’

Suburban Living:The New “American Dream” Suburban Living:The New “American Dream”

k 1 story high

k 12’x19’ living rm

k 2 bedrooms

k tiled bathroom

k garage

k small backyard

k front lawn

By 1960-1/3 of the U.S. pop. in the suburbs

Suburban LivingSuburban Living

SHIFTS IN POPULATION DISTRIBUTION

1940-1970

1940 1950 1960 1970Central Cities 31.6% 32.3% 32.6% 32.0%

Suburbs 19.5% 23.8% 30.7% 41.6%Rural Areas/ 48.9% 43.9% 36.7% 26.4%Small Towns

U. S. Bureau of the Census

Suburban Living:The Typical TV Suburban

Families

Suburban Living:The Typical TV Suburban

FamiliesThe

Donna Reed Show1958-1966

Leave It to Beaver1957-1963

Father Knows Best

1954-1958

The Ozzie & Harriet Show

1952-1966

Suburban Living

“The American Dream”

Conformity was the desire

The Baby Boom

The Baby BoomIt seems to me that every other

young housewife I see is pregnant.

-- British visitor to America, 1958

1957 - 1 baby born every 7 seconds

The Baby Boom

The Baby Boom

Dr. Benjamin Spock

and the Anderson Quintuplets

“spare the rod” to create happy

children

Baby Boom – Polio Eradicated• 1952 – 58,000 cases of Polio

• Dr. Salk & his family became human guinea pigs

• April 12, 1955 – CDC declared safe

Kid’s needs were catered to

- enjoyed a lifestyle of unprecedented privilege

Little League Baseball

Consumerism

Consumerism

1950 - Introduction of the Diner’s Card

* the first Credit Card in the World

All babies were potential consumers who spearheaded a brand-new market for food, clothing, and shelter. -- Life Magazine (May, 1958)

Consumerism Consumerism

A Changing Workplace

A Changing Workplace Automation: from 1947-1957

factory workers decreased by 4.3% eliminated 1.5 million Blue-Collar jobs

By 1956:more White-Collar than

Blue-Collar jobs in the U. S.

1st Computers:

ENIAC & Mark I

U.S. Army & Navy

Women in the Workforce

• After WWII – Women were encouraged to:

“Go back Home”

“Give your Job to a Vet”

• Women stayed in the workforce, but in more traditional roles

- low pay

- faced discrimination for talents

The Culture of the Car

The Culture of the Car

Car registrations: 1945 - 25,000,000 1960 - 60,000,000

2-family cars doubles from 1951-1958

1956 - Interstate Highway Act largest public works project in U.S.History!

Å Cost $129 billion

Å 41,000 miles of new highways built

1959 Chevy Corvette

1958 Pink Cadillac

Interstate Hwy Act-1956

“Death by Interstate”

The Culture of the Car

The Culture of the Car

First McDonald’s (1955)

America became a more homogeneous nation because of the automobile

Drive-In Movies

Howard Johnson’s

The Culture of the Car

The Culture of the Car

The U. S. pop. was on the move in the 1950’s

“Sunbelt” states - southwest1955 Disneyland opened in Southern California.- 40% of the guests: outside California, most by car

Frontier Land

Main Street Tomorrow Land

TelevisionTelevision 1946 - 7,000 TV sets in

America

Mass Audience - TV celebrated traditionalAmerican values

“Television is a vast wasteland”

Newton Minnow, Chairman of the FCC -1961

Truth, Justice, and the American way!

1950 - 50,000,000 TV sets in Am.

Television - Family Shows

Television - Family Shows

I Love Lucy

The Honeymooners

Glossy view of mostly middle-class suburban life

BUT..Women secretly hoped their daughters would have better lives than they had lived

Women’s talents were put down

Gimbel’s Department store ad in 1952

Riddle – What’s College?

"That's where girls who are above cooking and sewing go to meet a man so they can spend their lives cooking and sewing."

Science FictionScience FictionUFO Sightings skyrocketed in the

1950s.

War of the Worlds

Hollywood used aliens as a metaphor for whom ??

The TV Culture- for Society on the

Go

Called TV dinners from 1953-62

Teen CultureTeen CultureIn the 1950s -the word “teenager”

entered the American language

By 1956- 13 mill. teens with $7 bill. to spend yr 1951 - “race music” - “ROCK ‘N ROLL”

Elvis Presley - “The King”

Teen CultureTeen Culture“Juvenile Delinquency”

Marlon Brando in

The Wild One (1953)

James Dean inRebel Without a

Cause (1955)

1951- J. D. Salinger’s A Catcher in the Rye

Teen Culture Teen CultureThe “Beat” Generation:

f Jack Kerouac On The Road

f Allen Ginsberg poem, “Howl”

“Beatnik”

“Clean” Teen

Ultimately led to the counter-culture “hippie” of the 1960’s

Rejected materialism - experimented with drugs and sex

Religious Revival

Religious Revival Today in the U. S., the Christian faith is

back in the center of things. -- Time magazine, 1954

Church membership: 1940 - 64,000,000 1960 - 114,000,000

Television Preachers:

1. Catholic Bishop Fulton J. Sheen “Life is Worth Living”

2. Methodist Minister Norman Vincent Peale The Power of Positive Thinking

3. Rev. Billy Graham - ecumenical message; warned against the evils of Communism