Chapter 29 AFFLUENCE AND ANXIETY

1. Chapter 29AFFLUENCE AND ANXIETY America Past & Present

2. The Postwar Boom • 1950s ~ Characterized by a new affluence & economic good times • 1960 ~ Fear of another depression wanes p.841

3. Postwar Prosperity • Stimuli to consumer goods industry • Baby boom • Population shift to suburbia • 1950 ~ Americans bought more than 6M cars • Increased defense spending • Increase in capital investments • Employment expands p.841-842

4. Birthrate, 1940–1970 p.841

5. Postwar Prosperity:Some Minor Problems • Agricultural overproduction, low prices • Newer industries (aircraft, electronics) continued to flourish, but older industries (steel) & farmers failed to keep up with national growth • Despite the boom, unemployment rose to over 7% in a shape recession that hit the country in the fall of 1957 & lasted thru the summer of 1958 • None of this disguised the fact that the nation was prospering to an extent few had imagined p.842

6. Life in the Suburbs • Suburbia inhabited by middle class • 1956 ~ First fully enclosed “mall” in Minneapolis • Characteristics of suburbs • Dependence on the automobile • Family togetherness • Traditional feminism discouraged • Entrance of more women into workplace stimulated new feminism p.842-843

7. The Good Life? • Consumerism the dominant social theme of the 1950s • Quality of life left Americans anxious & dissatisfied Areas of Greatest Growth • Church membership • School attendance • Television watching p.843-845

8. Critics of the Consumer Society Books by social critics of suburban culture • John Keats • “Tract homes…spreading like gangrene” • C. Wright Mills ~ Corps were the villians • “Rows of blank counters, w/ blank-looking girls, w/ blank folders in their blank hands…” • Jack Kerouac ~ Novelist (On the Road) who set the tone of the beat generation • Beatniks: Poetry, drugs, coffeehouses • Set the stage for the counterculture of the 1960s p.845-848

9. The Reaction to Sputnik • 1957: Soviets launched Sputnik • American response • National Aeronautics & Space Administration (NASA) • National Defense Education Act—upgrade the teaching of science • Duck & cover • Sense of failure, declined by 1960 p.846-847

10. Farewell to Reform • Spirit of reform waned in postwar yrs • A turning away from federal regulation & welfare programs • Reasons: • Growing affluence reduced sense of grievance • Americans eager to enjoy their new prosperity p.848

11. Truman & the Fair Deal • Fair Deal attempted to expand New Deal • Medical Insurance for all Americans • Revived & strengthened Fair Employment Practices Commission (FEPC) • Federal aid to education • Truman’s “Fair Deal” was never enacted • Doctor’s lobby convinced people that an insurance plan would be “socialized medicine” • Southerners opposed FEPC & aid to education • Truman’s achievements • Consolidated Roosevelt's reforms • Set the agenda for future attempts to expand New Deal p.348-349

12. Eisenhower's Modern Republicanism • Eisenhower left New Deal intact • Raised minimum wage and expanded Social Security • Created Department of Health, Education, and Welfare • 1954 ~ Democrats regained Congress • 1956 ~ Highway Act created the Interstate Highway System • Justified on grounds of National defense • Stimulated the economy • Shaped metropolitan growth patterns • Overall, Ike’s political perspective is characterized as “Moderate Republicanism” p.849-851

13. The Interstate Highway System p.850

14. The Election of 1956

15. The Struggle Over Civil Rights • Cold War prompted quest for American moral superiority • We criticized the Soviets for their human rights violations yet still treated Af Ams as second class citizens • Legal discrimination (segregation) against African Americans was rampant • Separate restaurants, drinking fountains, restrooms, waiting rooms, phone booths • African-Americans expected more in postwar America p.851

16. Civil Rights as a Political Issue • Truman’s civil-rights legislation failed • 1948 ~ African American vote gave Truman his margin of victory • Civil rights made part of the liberal Democratic agenda • Truman integrated the armed forces • Certainly much more than society at large p.851-852

17. Desegregating the Schools • 1954 ~ Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka • Segregated schools unconstitutional • Desegregate "with all deliberate speed" • Massive resistance in Deep South • 1957 ~ Gov Orville Faubus: ARNG • Ike sends federal troops to Little Rock, AR • Commission on Civil Rights p.852-853

18. The Beginnings of Black Activism • 1955 ~ Rosa Parks refuses to “move to the back of the bus” in Montgomery, AL • ML King, Jr. led Montgomery bus boycott • 1956 ~ Founded Southern Christian Ldrsp Conf directed at anti-segregation • Sit-ins protested segregation laws • 1960 ~ Successful sit-ins led to the founding of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee • SCLC & SNCC began using the direct, nonviolent, passive resistance p.853-856

19. Restoring National Confidence • American people more optimistic in 1960 than in 1950 • Fear of economic depression waned • Fear of Cold War continued • Growing recognition of incompatibility of racial injustice with American ideals p.856

20. Chapter 29AFFLUENCE AND ANXIETY America Past & Present End