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Do Now!

Do Now!. What was the impact of postwar economic, demographic, and technological changes on American culture [Defend your response with examples]. “ Conservatism, Complacency, and Contentment ”. “ Anxiety, Alienation, and Social Unrest ” ??. OR. AN AFFLUENT SOCIETY The 1950s.

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Do Now!

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  1. Do Now! What was the impact of postwar economic, demographic, and technological changes on American culture [Defend your response with examples] “Conservatism, Complacency, and Contentment” “Anxiety, Alienation, and Social Unrest”?? OR

  2. ANAFFLUENT SOCIETYThe1950s Mr. Winchell APUSH Period 8 Cast of classic 1950s television show The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet

  3. Cheap oil fed the boom Europeans controlled the oil of the Middle East 90% of American children are in school Farm productivity skyrockets Only 2% of the nation are farmers Permanent War Economy Aerospace, plastics, and electronics High tech innovations result from military spending Passenger jets & Computers Economic Boom: 1950-1970 • America’s Golden Age • Income shot up • 6% of world’s population and 40% of world’s wealth • 40 million new jobs in the 1950’s • Shift from blue collar to white collar jobs • Middle Class expanded • Cars • TV’s: 90% had a TV by the end of the decade • Women entered the work force • Service industry

  4. AN AFFLUENT SOCIETY • Post-WWII Recession (1946) Some economic conditions affecting the U.S. Economy • Reduced spending by the U.S. federal government • High inflation [prices of goods and services rose] • pent-up demand, • available savings & income was limited to non-existent • elimination of government rationing & price controls • Labor unrest [low wages, poor working conditions] triggered desire by many workers to create labor unions.

  5. AN AFFLUENT SOCIETY: Economic Prosperity • General economic expansion occurred from 1945-1972 • GNP grew 250% between 1945 and 1960: From $200B to over $500B • Low Unemployment - 5% or less throughout the 1950s • Low inflation – during Eisenhower admin, averaged 1.5% per year • Rapid Growth of Incomes – more than tripled 1945-1960 • Average family in 1955 had double the income of comparable family during 1920s [this was a good thing!] • Highest standard of living in world was in the U.S. • The U.S. possessed the Dominant economy in the world Inflation, 1940-1980 Unemployment, 1950-1970

  6. AN AFFLUENT SOCIETY: Economic Prosperity Reasons for Prosperity: • Pent-up [stored] savings • Lack of foreign competition • Government spending • military (Korean War, Cold War) • G.I. Bill • Expansion of suburbs – grew 47% during decade • stimulated demand for cars and homes

  7. AN AFFLUENT SOCIETY: Economic Prosperity • G.I. Bill of Rights (Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944) • Education • job training • college • Loans for homes and businesses G.I. Bill & College Enrollment

  8. AN AFFLUENT SOCIETY: Economic Prosperity • Regional Growth: The Sunbelt • Warmer climate, lower taxes, lower labor costs • Military spending Population Change, 1950-1960

  9. Metropolitan Growth, 1950-1980 Henretta, America’s History 4e

  10. CHANGES IN SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY & MEDICINE 1951 -- First IBM (commercial)Mainframe Computer 1952 -- Hydrogen Bomb Test 1953 -- DNA Structure Discovered 1954 -- Polio Vaccine Tested –JonasSalk 1957 -- First Commercial U. S. Nuclear Power Plant 1958 -- NASA Created ENIAC, first mainframe computer, 1945 • Automation: 1947-1957 - factory workers decreased by 4.3%, eliminating 1.5 million blue-collar jobs.

  11. CONSENSUS&CONFORMITY SUBURBIA AND MIDDLE-CLASS AMERICA IN THE 1950s

  12. CONSENSUS AND CONFORMITY: Politics • Election of 1952: Dwight D. Eisenhower vs. Adlai Stevenson • Ike won: 34 million to 27 million popular votes; 442 to 89 electoral votes. • “Modern Republicanism” • Fiscal Conservative: sound business principles, Reduce federal spending, balance budget and cut taxes • Social Moderate: maintain existing social and economic legislation • Tried to avoid partisan conflicts • Federal Highway Act (1956) President Eisenhower(Courtesy Dwight D. Eisenhower Library) Ike with VP Nixon on the Links.

  13. AN AFFLUENT SOCIETY: Society • baby boom • population grew 20% 1950s (150M  180M) U.S. Birth Rate, 1900–1980 Birthrate, 1940-1970

  14. The Baby Boom in Historical Context

  15. AN AFFLUENT SOCIETY:Growth of Suburbs SHIFTS IN POPULATION DISTRIBUTION, 1940-1970 1940195019601970 Central 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. Nash, The American People 6e

  16. AN AFFLUENT SOCIETY: Growth of Suburbs REASONS FOR THE GROWTH OF SUBURBS • Growth of American families (“baby boom”)was largely due to higher standards of living and fathers employed “bread winners” could afford to financially support larger families. • Home-ownership became more affordable • Low-interest mortgage loans • government-backed & interest tax-deductable • Mass-produced subdivisions • Expressways – facilitated commuting • Decline in inner city housing stock • Also: congestion, pollution • Race – “white flight”working class whites left cities to avoid blacks, crimes, dense populations, and noise to the suburbs.

  17. AN AFFLUENT SOCIETY: Suburbia • Mass-produced housing on the edge of cities • Levittown – 17,000 mass-produced, low-priced homes • 1949  William Levitt produced 150 houses per week. • $7,990 or $60/month with no down payment [very affordable] in the 1950s but in the 2010s they sell for well over $500,000 in the first Levittown L.I., N.Y. • “The American Dream” • Effect on inner cities:increasingly poor and racially divided Typical homes had two bedrooms, one bathroom, a living room and a front and back yard.

  18. CONSENSUS AND CONFORMITY: SUBURBIA • Car culture • Car registrations: 1945 - 25,000,000; 1960 - 60,000,000 • 2-car families double from 1951-1958 [more women owned & drove] • Federal Highway Act (1956) • (National Defense and) Interstate Highway System [expanded access to easier travel across wider distances] • Result: a more homogeneous nation [less racially diverse] 1957 Chevy was the classic 1950s automobile.

  19. CONSENSUS AND CONFORMITY: CarCulture America became a more homogeneous nation because of the automobile. Drive-In Movies First McDonald’s (1955) Howard Johnson’s

  20. CONSENSUS AND CONFORMITY: Television • Television “arrived” in the ‘50s • 1946 - 7,000 TV sets in U.S.; 1960- 46,000,000 (1 per 3.3 persons) • “Vast wasteland”[Click on link] speech by F.C.C. chairman criticizing overall quality of television programming. • Common mass culture • Suburban white middle class RADIO AND TELEVISION OWNERSHIP, 1940–1960

  21. Suburban Living: The Typical TV Suburban Families The Donna Reed Show1958-1966 Leave It to Beaver1957-1963 Father Knows Best1954-1958 The Ozzie & Harriet Show1952-1966

  22. CONSENSUS AND CONFORMITY: Consumer Culture • Advertising(t.v., radio, magazines) name brand became well known • Suburban shopping centersmade availability of households more accessible to housewives • Credit Cardsextended credit to households without need for immediate cash • Rise of Franchises (McDonalds) many now iconic businesses were able to succeed due to increased consumer demand.

  23. CONSENSUS AND CONFORMITY: Corporate America • Consolidation • 1960- 600 corporations (1/2% of all U.S. corporations.) 53% of corporate income • Conglomerates (food processing, hotels, transportation, insurance, banking) • More Americans in white collar[management/high wage] than blue collar jobs [manual/lower wage]. • Corporate culture - “The Company Man” Sloan Wilson’sThe Man in the Gray Flannel Suit

  24. CONSENSUS AND CONFORMITY: Organized Labor • Taft-Hartley Act (Labor Management Relations Act of 1947) • Unions – big, powerful and more conservative • Merger AFL and CIO in 1955 • blue collar workers - enjoying middle-class incomes and benefits • Goal: preserve and extend compensation Labor Union Membership, 1920-1992

  25. CONSENSUS AND CONFORMITY: Gender Roles & Women • Traditional gender roles reaffirmed • baby boom • home in suburbs • mass media • Dr. Benjamin Spock’s best-selling book Baby and Child Care (1946)

  26. CONSENSUS AND CONFORMITY: Gender Roles & Women • At end of WWII, many women left the “man’s” work force • “pink collar” jobs [clerical, wait staff, hostess, cashiers] • Paid less - seen primarily as wives and mothers • Yet by end of decade 33% of women held jobs • More married women joined workforce, especially as they reached middle age

  27. CONSENSUS AND CONFORMITY: Religion • Organized religion expanded dramatically after WW2 • church/synagogue memberships reached highest level in US history • 1940  64,000,000; 1960  114,000,000 • thousands of new churches and synagogues built in suburbs • Why?? • more of a means of socialization and belonging than evidence of interest in religious doctrine? • atmosphere of tolerance • Stage of life? Guilt? Image?

  28. Other “Americas”

  29. Cold War Tensions & Society "Fallout shelter built by Louis Severance adjacent to his home near Akron, Mich., includes a special ventilation and escape hatch, an entrance to his basement, tiny kitchen, running water, sanitary facilities, and a sleeping and living area for the family of four. The shelter cost about $1,000. It has a 10-inch reinforced concrete ceiling with thick earth cover and concrete walls." Duck and Cover Invasion of the Body Snatchers

  30. OTHER “AMERICAS”: SOCIAL CRITICS • William H. Whyte, Jr., The Organization Man(1956) • conformity • David Riesman, The Lonely Crowd(1958) • “inner-directed” individuals →“other-directed” conformists. • John Kenneth Galbraith, The Affluent Society(1958) • failure to address significant social issues and common good (would influence JFK and LBJ) • Michael Harrington, The Other America • rural poverty, inner cities

  31. Other Americas “The entire invisible land of the other Americans became a ghetto, a modern poor farm for the rejects of society and the economy.” --Michael Harrington

  32. Bell County, Kentucky, August 31, 1946

  33. OTHER AMERICAS:NONCONFORMISTS & CULTURAL REBELS • Teen Culture developed (free time, spending money) • “teenager” • consumerism • By 1956, 13 million teens with $7 billion to spend a year. • Rock and Roll • Elvis Presley • James Dean, “Rebel without a Cause” • “juvenile delinquency” • J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye

  34. Beginnings of Rock Music Alan Freed The Dominoes Elvis (Michael Barson Collection/Past Perfect) Bill Haley & the Comets

  35. OTHER AMERICAS:NONCONFORMISTS & CULTURAL REBELS • “Beats” – “Beatniks” • Allen Ginsberg – “Howl” (1956) controversial for its time this performance poem was perhaps the best example of a non-conformist piece of American literature. • Jack Kerouac, On the Road (1957) also very controversial for its time mostly due to its divorce and drug references as well as its message of a care-free lifestyle. Alan Ginsburg, 1953 Jack Kerouac with his cat

  36. Re-examining the Clarifying Question What was the impact of postwar economic, demographic, and technological changes on American culture “Conservatism, Complacency, and Contentment” “Anxiety, Alienation, and Social Unrest”?? OR

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