The Postwar Years at Home

1. The Postwar Years at Home Chapter 27

2. Businesses Reorganize • Per capita income up • GNP doubles • Economic growth • Conglomerates – Large corporations that owns smaller ones (ATT) • Franchises – right to open business under parent company • Ray Kroc – mass produces hamburgers – rise of fast food industry!

3. Technology Transforms Life • Television • ABC, CBS, and NBC • I Love Lucy, Mickey Mouse Club • Computers – developed during war • Transistor – circuit device • Reduced size of machines • Nuclear Power - electricity • Advances in Medicine • Polio vaccine – Jonas Salk • Antibiotics - bacteria • Surgery – new techniques

4. Workforce, Suburbs, Highways • White collar jobs – switch service industries • Baby boom • Moving to the Suburbs • GI Bill – College & low interest loans for houses • Levittowns – suburban “cloned” homes • Cars and Highways • Interstate Highway Act 1956 • Credit Cards – status symbol; consumer goods again

5. The Mood of the 1950’s • Comfort and Security • Youth Culture – silent generation; carefree • A Resurgence of Religion • Response to “godless” communism • Billy Graham • Women – support role, raise children, in suburbia w/new ovens • Men – work and support the family • Dr. Benjamin Spock – child rearing; importance of Mother • Betty Friedan – The Feminine Mystique – challenged roles

6. Challenges to Conformity • Rock and Roll – Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Bill Haley • Elvis Presley • Beatniks – rebelled against conformity; rebellious • Jack Kerouac

7. Domestic Politics and Policy • Truman • People wanted goods, wage hikes • Took steps against labor • Taft-Hartley Act – 80 day cooling off period • Fair Deal – extension of New Deal – p. 780 • Reelected in 1948 • Ike – 1952 – K1,C2 (Korea, Communism, Corruption) • Nixon VP – cut spending, reduce gov., reduce taxes, “modern republicanism” • Checkers speech

8. Demands for Civil Rights • Truman – active in civil rights, banned discrimination in hiring; met opposition • Jackie Robinson • Brown v. Board of Ed. 1954 • Montgomery bus boycott; Rosa Parks • Little Rock; Gov. Faubus posted national guard troops at school to prevent integration • Eisenhower places them under federal control.