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Postwar America

Postwar America. GI Bill of Rights 1944. Provided financial and educational benefits for WWII veterans Encouraged veterans to get an education instead of coming home and flooding the workforce Guaranteed them a year of unemployment benefits Offered low-interest home loans. Housing Crisis.

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Postwar America

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  1. Postwar America

  2. GI Bill of Rights 1944 • Provided financial and educational benefits for WWII veterans • Encouraged veterans to get an education instead of coming home and flooding the workforce • Guaranteed them a year of unemployment benefits • Offered low-interest home loans

  3. Housing Crisis • Housing shortage for returning veterans and their families • William Levitt used the assembly line to mass produce houses • His homes cost $8,000 in the suburbs • Levittown (Long Island), NY • Many veterans could afford these new homes due to the GI Bill

  4. Redefining the Family • Change of gender roles during WWII • 6 million women had a war job; 75% of married women worked in WWII • Refusal to give up independence post WWII • 1950: more than a million “war marriages” ended in divorce

  5. Economic Problems • $35 billion in war contracts cancelled = 1 million defense workers unemployed • OPA price controls end = massive inflation • Ex.: pork chops rose from .48c per lb to .72c per lb • Product shortages = long lines at grocery stores • Post war wages cut

  6. Economic Solutions • The Depression and wartime shortages taught Americans to save their war wages • Americans had money to spend on new cars, appliances, homes • Booming economy created consumer jobs “the affluent society” • Marshall Plan created foreign markets for American products

  7. Truman and Civil Rights • Federal anti-lynching law; abolition of poll tax; committee to prevent racial discrimination in hiring • Congress would not pass these measures • 1948: Truman issued an Executive Order de-segregating the military • He also ordered an end to discrimination in hiring government employees

  8. 1948 Presidential Election • Dixiecrats opposed civil rights and formed the States’ Rights Democratic Party • Truman led a “whistlestop campaign” traveling across the country criticizing Congress • “Give ‘em hell, Harry” campaign • Truman defeat Thomas Dewey in a close popular vote election

  9. Fair Deal • increased the minimum wage • From .40c to .75c • extended social security coverage • provide housing for low income families • Slums were cleared to build 810,000 housing units in major cities

  10. I like Ike! • Why Truman didn’t run in 1952: stalemate in Korea, McCarthyism • Ike’s campaign: fear of communism and the growing power of the federal gov. • VP candidate Nixon was accused of profiting from a secret fund: the “Checkers Speech” helped Ike to win the election

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