Chapter 24

1. Chapter 24 Norton Media Library Give Me Liberty! An American History Second EditionVolume 2 by Eric Foner

2. I. Trends in postwar economy • “Golden age” of American capitalism • Economic expansion, growth • Wide-ranging improvements in living standards • Breadth of access to a better life • Low unemployment • Decline in poverty rate • Industrial supremacy around world • Emergence of West and South as centers of military production, mobilization • Twilight of industrial age • Gathering decline in manufacturing • Shift toward white-collar occupations

3. I. Trends in postwar economy (cont’d) • Transformation in agricultural America • Acceleration of trend toward fewer and larger farms • Mechanization of southern farming • Expansion of corporate farming out West • Fruits and vegetables • Migrant labor

4. Suburbia • Rise • Pace and magnitude • Central role in economic expansion • Symbols and manifestations • Levittown • Malls • California • Los Angeles; “centerless city” • Freeways, cars • Shopping centers • lawns

5. II. Suburbia (cont’d) • Consumer culture • Growth and spread • Ideology of American consumerism • As core of freedom • As measure of American superiority • Key elements • Television • Spreading presence • Growing prominence as leisure activity • Themes of programming, advertising

6. II. Suburbia (cont’d) • Consumer culture • Key elements • Automobile • Place in “standard consumer package” • Role in economic boom • Impact on American landscape, travel habits • Emergence as symbol of freedom • Female sphere • Place in labor force • Rising numbers • Limited aims • Ideal of male as breadwinner, woman as homemaker

7. II. Suburbia (cont’d) • Female sphere • Affirmation of family ideal • Younger marriage age • Fewer divorces • Baby boom • Separate spheres as Cold War weapon • Receding of feminism • Exclusion of blacks; racial wall between city and suburbs • Pervasiveness • Sources and mechanisms • Federal government • Banks and developers • Residents

8. II. Suburbia (cont’d) • Exclusion of blacks; racial wall between city and suburbs • Resulting patterns • Suburbs for whites • Fading of ethnic divisions • Fear of black encroachment • Urban ghettoes for blacks, Puerto Ricans • Bleakness of conditions and opportunities • Barriers to escape • Self-reinforcing dynamic of racial exclusion

9. III. Celebratory perspectives on postwar America • “End of ideology” • Liberal consensus that American ills had been solved or needed minor tweaks • “Judeo-Christian” heritage • Themes • Group pluralism • Freedom of religion • Underlying trends • Fading of religious bigotry • Secularization of American life • “Free enterprise” as essential part of freedom • Marketing of “free enterprise” outlooks • Conservative wing • Liberal wing

10. III. Celebratory perspectives on postwar America (cont’d) • “People’s capitalism” • Receptiveness to big business • Heralding of classless society • Two strains of conservative renewal • Libertarians • Ideas • Individual autonomy • Limited government • Unregulated capitalism • Absolute free market • Special appeal among businessmen of South and West • Leading voice: Milton Friedman

11. III. Celebratory perspectives on postwar America (cont’d) • Two strains of conservative renewal • New conservatives • Ideas • Free World vs. communism • Absolute truth vs. toleration of difference • Christian values vs. moral decay • Community and tradition vs. excessive individualism • Government as agent of moral regulation • Leading voices: Russell Kirk, Richard Weaver • Central points of divergence: “free man” vs. ”good man” • Common targets during the Fifties • Soviet Union • “Big government”

12. Eisenhower era • Election of 1952 • Republican ticket • Dwight D. Eisenhower • Political appeal • Decision to run as Republican • Nomination • Richard M. Nixon • Political rise • Anticommunist style • Reputation for opportunism, dishonesty • Populist brand of free-market conservatism

13. IV. Eisenhower era (cont’d) • Election of 1952 • Nixon scandal • “Checkers speech” • Demonstration of television’s significance • Eisenhower victory over Adlai Stevenson (first of two) • Eisenhower’s domestic policy: “Modern Republicanism” • Pro-business administration • Fiscal and budgetary conservatism • Program aimed to sever ties with Depression era Republicans • Retention, expansion of New Deal programs • Use of government to spur productivity, employment • Key examples • Interstate highway system • National Defense Education Act

14. Map 94

15. IV. Eisenhower era (cont’d) • Eisenhower’s domestic policy: Modern Republicanism • Motivations • Cold War • Economic prosperity • Labor-management “social contract” • Preconditions • Taming of organized labor; Taft-Hartley Act • Consolidation of organized labor; merger of AFL-CIO • Terms • Outcome for working-class America • Prosperity for union workers • Mixed outcome for nonunion workers • Indirect benefits • Marginalization

16. IV. Eisenhower era (cont’d) • Labor-management “social contract” • Fraying of social contract; 1959 steel strike • Ebb and flow of U.S.-Soviet tensions • Acquisition by each side of hydrogen bomb; subsequent nuclear arms race • Doctrine of “massive retaliation”; “mutually assured destruction (MAD)” • Soviet attack on ally = nuclear assault • Announcement by John Foster Dulles • Characterization by critics as “brinksmanship” • Legacy • Sobering effects on superpowers • Climate of fear

17. IV. Eisenhower era (cont’d) • Ebb and flow of U.S.-Soviet tensions • Eisenhower-Khrushchev thaw • First steps • Korean armistice • Death of Stalin; succession by Nikita Khrushchev • Geneva summit • Khrushchev denunciations of Stalin, call for “coexistence” • Setback: Hungary crisis • Soviet repression of uprising • Eisenhower refusal to intervene

18. IV. Eisenhower era (cont’d) • Ebb and flow of U.S.-Soviet tensions • Eisenhower-Khrushchev thaw • Resumption of thaw • Weapons testing halt • Khrushchev visit • Setback: U-2 spy plane • Cold War in Third World • Emergence of Third World • Origins of term: countries non-aligned w/ either capitalism (First) or communism (Second) • Bandung Conference (April 1955) • Cold War shaped U.S. policy w/ Third World

19. IV. Eisenhower era (cont’d) • Cold War in Third World • Decolonization • Pace • India, Pakistan • British Gold Coast (Ghana) • Subsequent spread of independence • Cold War context • U.S. fear of communist influence • Participation of communists, socialists, in independence struggles • Third World aversion to Cold War alignment

20. IV. Eisenhower era (cont’d) • Cold War in Third World • Cold War as determinant of U.S. alliances, interventions • Covert subversion of sovereign governments • Guatemala • Iran • Extension of containment to Middle East • Suez crisis • Eisenhower Doctrine • Lebanon intervention

21. IV. Eisenhower era (cont’d) • Cold War in Third World • Cold War as determinant of U.S. alliances, interventions • Vietnam • Postwar support for French colonialism • Defeat of French by Ho Chi Minh’s nationalists • Geneva agreement: divided Vietnam and called for elections • U.S.-backed scuttling of elections • Support for unpopular Ngo Dinh Diem regime • Long-term legacies of interventions • Guatemala • Iran • Vietnam

22. IV. Eisenhower era (cont’d) • Mass society and its critics • Society in the modern, industrial era which celebrated affluence and the either-or mentality of the Cold War • Leading voices • Hans J. Morgenthau, “new accumulations” of corporate power • C. Wright Mills, “power elite” • David Riesman’s The Lonely Crowd • John Kenneth Galbraith’s The Affluent Society • William Whyte’s The Organization Man • Vance Packard’s The Hidden Persuaders • Limited impact on popular consciousness

23. IV. Eisenhower era (cont’d) • Cultural rebels • Youth • Themes • Alienation from middle-class norms • Sexual provocativeness; rock and roll • Leading examples • J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye • Blackboard Jungle, Rebel Without a Cause • Elvis Presley • Mainstream reaction • “Juvenile delinquency” panic • Codes of conduct

24. IV. Eisenhower era (cont’d) • Cultural rebels • Playboy sensibility • Gay and lesbian subcultures • The Beats • Themes • Rejection of materialism, conformity, Cold War militarization • Embrace of spontaneity, immediate pleasure, sexual experiments • Key Works • Jack Kerouac’s On the Road • Allen Ginsberg’s Howl

25. Emergence of civil rights movement • Preconditions • World War II challenge to racial system • Black migration North • Postwar global developments • Cold War • Decolonization • Segregation and inequality in 1950’s America • Breadth of black poverty, barriers to opportunity • National breadth of segregation

26. V. Emergence of civil rights movement (cont’d) • Legal assault on segregation • Main actors • League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) • National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) • Leadership of Thurgood Marshall • Step-by-step strategy • Key steps (pre-Brown case) • LULAC: Méndez v. Westminster in California • NAACP • 1938 University of Missouri Law School case • 1950 University of Texas Law School case

27. V. Emergence of civil rights movement (cont’d) • Legal assault on segregation • Brown v. Board of Education • Background • NAACP legal argument • Direct challenge to separate but equal doctrine • Emphasis on stigmatization, subversion of black self-esteem • Earl Warren’s desegregation decision • Import of decision • Limitations • Broader significance and impact

28. V. Emergence of civil rights movement (cont’d) • Montgomery bus boycott • Rosa Parks • Activist past • Arrest on bus • Year-long black boycott of segregated buses • Supreme Court ruling against segregation in public transportation • Victory • Significance • Launching of nonviolent southern crusade for racial justice • Achievement of attention and support around country, world • Emergence of Martin Luther King, Jr.

29. V. Emergence of civil rights movement (cont’d) • Language of freedom • Pervasiveness in movement • Range of meanings: social, political, economic • Leadership of King • Themes • Fusing of meanings of freedom • Merging of black cause and experience with those of nation • Capacity to reach both blacks and whites • Philosophies of nonviolence, civil disobedience, Christian love, forgiveness • Connections between struggles of African-Americans and non-whites overseas • Formation of Southern Christian Leadership Conference

30. V. Emergence of civil rights movement (cont’d) • Southern white intransigence; “massive resistance” • Contributing factor: lack of federal backing • Supreme Court’s “all deliberate speed” ruling • Eisenhower’s ambivalence, reluctance to act • Forms • Southern Manifesto • Anti-desegregation laws • Banning of NAACP • Revival of Confederate flag • Little Rock crisis • Governor Orville Faubus’s obstruction of court-ordered integration • Eisenhower’s deployment of federal troops

31. VI. Toward the Sixties • Election of 1960 • Republican nominee: Nixon • Democratic nominee: John F. Kennedy • Background • Choice of Lyndon B. Johnson as running mate • Catholic issue • Cold War outlook • “Missile gap” claim • Glamorous style • Nixon-Kennedy debate • Kennedy victory • Eisenhower’s farewell address; “military-industrial complex” • Social problems on horizon

32. Map 96