I. Introduction
During the 1940s and l950s, Americans shared a belief in anti-communism and in the importance of economic progress. This consensus lasted throughout the era despite growing social tensions.
II. Cold War Politics: The Truman Presidency
A. Postwar Job Layoffs
The war ended earlier than anticipated, preventing the government from developing an effective reconversion plan. Consequently, unemployment jumped markedly.
B. Beginnings of the Postwar Economic Boom
The economy rocketed on a 25 year boom.
C. Upsurges in Labor Strikes
Falling real income led many workers to go out on strike, particularly in 1946.
D. Consumer Discontent
Problems associated with lifting wartime price controls caused consumers to express discontent with Truman. However, the Republican-controlled Eightieth Congress offended many interest groups.
E. Truman’s Upset Victory
Republicans expressed great confidence during the election campaign, especially since the Democrats splintered at their convention. Nevertheless, Truman won.
F. Korean War Discontent on the Home Front
The Korean War sparked an inflationary spiral that led to a wage and price freeze in 1951. The war also led to an increase in draft calls and the size of the army.
G. Truman’s Historical Standing
Historians now recognize Truman as one of the nation’s greatest presidents.
III. Consensus and Conflict: the Eisenhower Presidency
A. The “Consensus Mood”
White Americans enjoyed a common optimism that the United States was the greatest nation on earth. Historians in the l950s saw conflict as an aberration, not a constant, in American history.
B. “Dynamic Conservatism”
Eisenhower pursued policies friendly to business, but he also recognized that dismantling New Deal and Fair Deal programs was politically impossible.
C. Termination Policy for Native Americans
Under Eisenhower, the federal government moved to limit its role in Indian affairs.
D. Election of 1956
Despite a heart attack in 1955, Eisenhower successfully ran for reelection.
E. Eisenhower Presidency Assessed
Eisenhower produced mixed results, but in recent years historians have judged him in a more favorable light.
F. The “Military?Industrial Complex”
As he left the White House, Eisenhower warned the American people of the “military-industrial complex.”
IV. McCarthyism
A. Truman’s Loyalty Probe
In 1947, Truman ordered loyalty investigations of millions of federal workers.
B. Victims of Anti?Communist Hysteria
Film personalities, homosexuals, and others suffered anti?communist smears. Within many organizations, redbaiting was used by some to discredit the opposition.
C. Hiss Case
The House Committee on Un?American Activities investigated a former State Department official, Alger Hiss, for his links to Communist spies.
D. McCarthy’s Attack on the State Department
When Senator Joseph McCarthy announced that Communists controlled the State Department, he started the hysteria that became known as McCarthyism.
E. Eisenhower’s Reluctance to Confront McCarthy
Eisenhower followed an indirect approach in dealing with McCarthyism.
F. Army?McCarthy Hearings
McCarthy made a crucial error by accusing the Army of harboring Communists during televised Senate hearings.
V. The Civil Rights Movement in the 1940s and 1950s
A. AfricanAmericans Political “Balance of Power”
Black migrations to the North and West led to a shift in the political composition of those regions.
B. President Truman’s Committee on Civil Rights
The report of Truman’s Committee on Civil Rights shaped government policy for 20 years.
C. Supreme Court Decisions on Civil Rights
African Americans benefited from court decisions in the late 1940s.
D. Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka
In 1954, the Supreme Court declared segregated public schools unconstitutional.
E. White Resistance to Civil Rights
Eisenhower objected to a federal role in civil rights, thereby tacitly encouraging resistance to integration.
F. Crisis in Little Rock, Arkansas
When Arkansas tried to block integration of a Little Rock high school, Eisenhower intervened to force compliance.
G. Montgomery Bus Boycott
African Americans protested segregated public transportation in Montgomery, Alabama, by staging a massive boycott of the bus system.
H. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr., led the bus boycott, beginning his leadership of the civil rights movement.
I. Sit?Ins
In 1960, young African Americans began sit?in demonstrations that marked a shift in the movement.
J. Civil Rights and the 1960 Election
Support for the Civil Rights Movement earned Kennedy the AfricanAmerican vote.
VI. The Postwar Booms: Babies, Business, and Bigness
A. The Affluent Society
Americans’ appetites for consumer goods increased. Easy credit was the economic basis of the consumer culture that emerged.
B. Increased Purchasing Power
Real per?capita income increased among Americans, creating a boom that seemed to vindicate capitalism.
C. Baby Boom
The baby boom was both a cause and effect of prosperity. The highest birth rate in American history increased demand for houses and schools.
D. Housing Boom
Along with the baby boom, American families became more suburbanized, creating a greater demand for houses. Low?interest GI mortgages and Federal Housing Administration mortgage insurance helped many people afford homes. Contractors erected rows of houses in record times to facilitate this housing demand.
E. Highway Construction
The Highway Act of 1956 appropriated billions of dollars for the construction of a modern highway system. Federal expenditures on highways made formerly isolated rural areas accessible to average Americans, a development that hastened suburbanization and promoted uniform lifestyles across the nation.
F. Growth of the Suburbs
People left cities and moved to the suburbs for a variety of reasons.
G. Growth of the Sunbelt
Millions of Americans sought affluence by moving to the “Sunbelt,” the southern third of the United States. This mass migration increased the political clout of the area.
H. Military Spending
Military spending also helped the postwar American economy. Defense spending produced rapid increases in the electronics and “high tech” industries.
I. Conglomerate Mergers
Corporate expansion in the l950s took the form of conglomerate mergers, resulting in unprecedented concentration of industry.
J. Labor Merger
The labor movement also underwent mergers of major labor organizations. Unionized blue?collar workers gained wage increases after the war, and they could lead middle?class lifestyles previously reserved for the white?collar workers.
K. Agribusiness
Consolidation and improved technology also drew large investment into agriculture, which brought the decline of the traditional family farm.
L. Environmental Costs
Development led to damage to the environment, but most Americans remained oblivious to the problems. Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring alerted Americans to the dangers of DDT, one of the most damaging pesticides used by Americans. The government banned DDT in 1972.
VII. Conformity and Consumerism
A. Pressures in Education
American families became preoccupied with education, seeing success in school as a prerequisite for economic and social success. When the Soviets launched Sputnik I, education became a matter of national security.
B. Growth of Religion
Membership in religious congregations grew steadily in the 1950s.
C. Television Togetherness
The newest luxury item, television, transformed family life in America.
D. Women’s Conflicting Roles and Dilemmas
Although women were expected to be full-time housewives, women continued to enter the labor force. Dr. Benjamin Spock’s Baby and Child Care caused mothers to feel guilty if they did not always think of their children first.
E. Sexuality
Americans’ knowledge of their sexuality was not well advanced as demonstrated by the public outcry against Dr. Alfred Kinsey’s Sexual Behavior in the Human Male and Sexual Behavior in the Human Female.
F. The Youth Subculture
The music industry catered to youth, and youngsters found subtle ways to rebel against social norms. Movies were successful because of the attendance of young Americans.
G. Beat Generation
Beat writers such as Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg rejected many of the social mores of the period. They concentrated on freewheeling sexuality and taking drugs, influencing an entire generation in the 1960s.
VIII. The Other America
A. Women
Because of occupational segregation, women constituted a disproportionate share of the poor. Women had little protection, and divorce, desertion, or widowhood often meant that women slipped into poverty.
B. The Inner Cities
By the early 1960s, one out of every four Americans lived in poverty. Most of the poor settled in cities, and African Americans made up the bulk of the urban poor. Mexican Americans became the second?largest group of urban poor. Many of them came into the United States illegally, and they created barrios in several large cities. Native Americans were the nation’s poorest people. Accustomed to reservation life, many had great difficulty adjusting to life in the cities.
C. Rural Poverty
Tenant farmers, sharecroppers, and migratory farm workers often lived in poverty.
IX. The Election of 1960 and the Dawning of a New Decade
Young and charismatic, John Kennedy won the Democratic nomination in 1960. Kennedy defused the question of his Catholicism, courted the black vote, and convinced Americans that the Republicans had hurt America’s international standing.
