Chapter 28: The Suburban Era

1. Chapter 28: The Suburban Era Preview:“The culture of the automobile in many ways defined America at midcentury. Superhighways encouraged newly prosperous Americans to move into suburban homes boasting green lawns and new televisions. The middle-class consensus of an American dream revolved around single-family homes, religious observance of some sort, and women who cared for the family at home.” The Highlights: The Rise of the Suburbs The Culture of Suburbia The Politics of Calm Cracks in the Consensus Nationalism in an Age of Superpowers The Cold War along a New Frontier

2. 28-2 The Rise of the Suburbs • A Boom in Babies and in Housing • The boom worldwide • Levittown, U.S.A. • Cities and Suburbs Transformed • Automobile became more indispensible with growth of suburbs • Interstate Highway Act of 1956 • Declining cities • Minorities and suburbs McGraw-Hill

3. 28-3 McGraw-Hill

4. 28-4 The Culture of Suburbia • American Civil Religion • The religious division • Billy Graham • The Howdy Doody Show • “Homemaking” Women in the Workaday World • Working women • Media images of women McGraw-Hill

5. 28-5 “The suburbs themselves encouraged other changes in sexual attitudes, especially among the middle classes who lived there”(952). • A Revolution in Sexuality? • “Companionate marriage” • The Kinsey Report • The Flickering Gray Screen • Television and politics • By 1959 live television was a thing of the past McGraw-Hill

6. 28-6 The Politics of Calm • Eisenhower’s Modern Republicanism • Eisenhower resisted conservative demands to dismantle New Deal programs • Farm policy • Eisenhower reelected • The Conglomerate World • Wages for average worker rose over 35 percent between 1950-1960 • Diversification became a new expansion strategy McGraw-Hill

7. 28-7 Cracks in the Consensus • Critics of Mass Culture • Many highbrow intellectuals worried openly about the homogenized lifestyle • David Riesman’s The Lonely Crowd • William Whyte’s The Organization Man • The Rebellion of Young America • Juvenile delinquency • The rise of rock and roll • The beat generation McGraw-Hill

8. 28-8 Nationalism in an Age of Superpowers • To the Brink? • John Foster Dulles • The New Look in foreign policy • Brinksmanship in Asia • Taiwan and mainland China • Vietnamese victory at Dien Bien Phu McGraw-Hill

9. 28-9 “In pursuing their aggressive New Look in foreign policy, Dulles and Eisenhower sometimes authorized the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to use covert operations against Communists or those they saw as sympathetic to Moscow” (961). • The Covert Side of the New Look • Overthrowing Mossadeq • Crushing a democracy • Nationalism Unleashed • Nikita Khrushchev • The Eisenhower Doctrine • Castro’s revolution in Cuba McGraw-Hill

10. 28-10 • The Response to Sputnik • American rockets were nicknamed “flopniks” and “kaputniks” • “Missile gap” • Thaws and Freezes • Berlin crisis • The U-2 incident McGraw-Hill

11. 28-11 The Cold War Along a New Frontier • The Election of 1960 • The Catholic issue • Nixon ran on his record as an experienced leader and staunch anti-Communist • Kennedy won by only 119,000 votes McGraw-Hill

12. 28-12 McGraw-Hill

13. 28-13 • The Hard-Nosed Idealists of Camelot • Robert McNamara • The (Somewhat) New Frontier at Home • Kennedy’s domestic legislative achievements were modest • Showdown with Big Steel McGraw-Hill

14. 28-14 Kennedy’s Cold War • Cold War Frustrations • Bay of Pigs invasion • Kennedy and Vietnam • Diem falls • Confronting Khrushchev • The Berlin Wall • A flexible nuclear response McGraw-Hill

15. 28-15 “The 1950s sparked a movement pursued by ordinary Americans who acted, despite the reluctance of their leaders, to bring about a civil rights revolution”(973). • The Missiles of October • A naval blockade • Nuclear test ban treaty McGraw-Hill