You will write a response paper of 2-3 pages in length. The topic can be any topic you found and read in the primary course text, readings, videos etc. But make sure the topic is after the first Response Paper you wrote. You select your own topic from the materials we have covered so far in class. You will write a 2-3 page response that is double spaced, Times New Roman with 12 Font, and have a proper introduction and conclusion. The response must explain the topic (what is it?), why it is important to American History, why you are interested in the topic, and your thoughts on the topic.
If you use outside sources then cite the materials, but outside sources are not required. Again, if you do use outside sources, cite the material.
Many relate the Leave it to Beaver show with the 1950s so I decided to put a clip that is a compilation of short cuts in the show. You can see the lessons, ideas and perspectives of the show briefly. Also look at the clothing and listen to the language usage. This was the idea of suburban America during the time period, but it was only idealized, the reality was often times different for everyone.
Watch Video on Civil Rights in the 1950s (Watch)
World War II is Over!!!
Americans feared that the end of World War II would bring the same vicious
cycles of boom and busts.
More specifically the end of the war and demobilization would bring inflation and
unemployment.
Troops coming home would flood the work force and the same situation that occurred after World
War I would run its cycle.
The first 18 months of peace did bring rising prices, conflicts between labor and
management, and shortages of everything from meat to automobiles.
This was to change and the next 2 decades would bring unprecedented growth in the
United States.
The Boom
The era would bring unprecedented economic growth
Keynesian economics would guide the U.S. economy
The rise of the United States as a Superpower
The U.S. would confront the Soviet Union in the Cold War using a military buildup
The U.S. would develop a more activist foreign policy, engaging Europe, the Middle East,
East Asia, and Latin America.
A continuous domestic policy that would last from the late 1940’s to the
1960’s.
Reconversion Chaos
The sudden surrender of Japan caught the United States off-guard.
2 days after the Japanese surrender $15 billion in war contracts were
cancelled.
The Public and the draftee military demanded immediate demobilization.
Approximately 12 million people awaited demobilization in Europe and the
Pacific
At a rate of 25,000 a day it still took over a year
Reconversion Chaos (cont.)
Veterans returned home to shortages of food and consumer goods
High demand and short supply meant inflationary pressure
The Office of Price Administration did alleviate some pressure until Oct. 1946
Due to war time pressures on strikes the labor force was in turmoil
With the end of the war, a wave of strikes occurred making it difficult to retool the
factories to peace time production
Fall of 1945 workers went on strike to redress the rise in prices and stagnant base wages
By January 1946 some 1.3 million auto, steel, electrical, and packinghouse workers were off the
job.
Presidential committees mediated
Workers wade up ground in wages while the costs were passed on to consumers
Economic Policy
John Maynard Keynes had professed counter-cyclical economic policy
Counter-cyclical policy focused on aggressive government intervention in economic down
cycles and government easing during economic expansions.
During economic contractions (down-cycles) government would
Monetary Policy – reduce interest rates
Fiscal policy – Government would invest in infrastructure
The policy was adopted in Roosevelt’s New Deal
Keynesian economics would be a major economic policy until the 1970’s but
would be resurgent in 2008 and the recent recession
Economic Policy (cont.)
THE ECONOMIC SITUATION FOLLOWING WWII LED TO 2 CONTRADICTORY EFFORTS TO
READJUST TO A PEACETIME ECONOMY
The Employment Act of 1946
Effort by congressional liberals to fine-
tune government taxation and spending
Two goals
Economic growth
High employment
Council of Economic Advisors –
established to assist President
Taft-Hartley Act
Conservatives sought to reduce gains
made by organized labor
Made possible due to anger over major
strikes following WWII
Outlawed some tools of Unions as
“unfair labor practices”
Barred closed shops – requirement that
all workers hired be union
Blocked secondary boycotts – strikes
against suppliers or customers of a
targeted business
Economic Policy (cont.)
Council of Economic Advisors
Board of three professional
economists established in 1946
to advise the President on
economic policy
Taft-Hartley Act
Federal legislation of 1947 that
substantially limited the tools
available to labor unions in
labor-management disputes
The G.I. Bill
The Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944 (GI Bill of Rights)
Designed to ease veterans back into the civilian world
Instead of giving bonuses the government tied funds and assistance to public goals
Guaranteed loans of up to $2,000 for buying a house or farm or starting a business
A large sum when a new house cost $6,000.
Provided funds for millions of veterans to attend college
Provided stipends for college tuition and books
By 1947 half of all college students were veterans
Converted the college degree from the socially privileged to a basic business and professional
credential
Many colleges and universities did not accept African-Americans and women dropped
from 40% of students in 1940 to 25% by 1950The G.I. Bill
The Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944 (GI Bill of Rights)
Designed to ease veterans back into the civilian world
Instead of giving bonuses the government tied funds and assistance to public goals
Guaranteed loans of up to $2,000 for buying a house or farm or starting a business
A large sum when a new house cost $6,000.
Provided funds for millions of veterans to attend college
Provided stipends for college tuition and books
By 1947 half of all college students were veterans
Converted the college degree from the socially privileged to a basic business and professional
credential
Many colleges and universities did not accept African-Americans and women dropped
from 40% of students in 1940 to 25% by 1950
Assembly-Line Neighborhoods
In 1947 3 million married couples were unable to set up their own homes
due to a shortage in the supply of homes
Buyers lined up for hours and paid fees to tour model homes or to be
placed in lotteries to have the opportunity to buy homes
The Veterans Administration (VA) provided the beginnings of the solution
The VA allowed veterans to obtain loans from private lenders with no money down.
But neither the VA nor the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) could fix
the housing shortage without an adequate supply of houses
Housing (cont.)
In 1947 William Levitt, a New York builder, built 2,000 houses for veterans
on suburban Long Island
The homes were basic, with 800 square feet of room, two bedrooms, a
living room, bathroom, and kitchen
By 1948 6,000 homes were built and by 1951 there were 17,000 homes
built
From 1946-1950 the federal government backed $20 billion in VA anf FHA
loans
Mass production of homes by the end of 1940’s 55% of Americans owned
their own homes.
Military Quonset huts that were no longer used for troops during the war were
converted to civilian living spaces. This photo depicts a college housing unit in
Rhode Island where married students were allowed to billet.
Isolation and Discrimination
New suburban life had costs.
Vast new tracts of housing tended to isolate women and children from community
life
Africans-Americans populations in northern and western cities grew with migration
due to war production, but now were also left out of the new housing areas due to
discrimination
Federal Housing agencies and private industry worsened the problem by redlining
old neighborhoods, involving withholding home-purchase loans and insurance
coverage from inner-city areas that were deemed too risky as investments
Thus due to public and private actions Africans-Americans were kept in deteriorating
inner-city ghettos.
Steps Towards Civil Rights
The need for housing motivated African-Americans to demand full rights as
citizens
The wartime experience of fighting for freedom abroad while suffering from
discrimination at home led to a new generation of leaders seeking to close
the inequality gap
As was the case following World War I, some whites sought to maintain the
practice if segregation
A wave of racial violence swept across the South
But now many whites did begin to feel uneasy with the contradiction
Civil Rights (cont.)
President Truman was caught between black leaders and the fear of
alienating white southern democrats
In 1946 he appointed the Committee on Civil Rights
The NAACP had already begun an anti-segregation campaign filing law suits
which the Justice Dept. had supported
The administration ordered federal housing agencies to modify their racially
restrictive policies and prohibit racial discrimination in federal employment
Federal committees began to push for desegregation in Washington DC
In the case Shelley v. Kraemer (1948), the Supreme Court held that clauses
in real estate deeds that forbid selling or renting to minorities could not be
enforced in courts
Civil Rights (cont.)
The President orders “equality of
treatment and opportunity” in the
armed forces in July 1948
The army dragged their feet
The armed forces soon followed
Manpower needs
The combat record of integrated units in
the Korean war
Over the next generation African-
Americans would use the military
as a new avenue for career
opportunities
Professional sports played an
important role specifically
individual sports
Black Boxer Joe Lewis
Sprinter Jesse Owens
Now team sport
Jack Roosevelt “Jackie” Robinson
1947 Brooklyn Dodger
His ability to endure taunting and
hostility and still excel opened the door
for others
The Consumer and Baby Boom
The housing boom was a product of pent-up demand and a post war family
boom
Many women who left the labor force sought marriage
Women married at a younger age, the median age was 20, lower than any
other time in 20th century
New Marriages jump-started a baby-boom
Many married couples who postponed baby’s during the war also began to
extend families
In early 1940’s 2.9 million babies born per year was average
Between 1946-1950 the average was 3.6 million
The Baby Boom!!! Wa Wa Wa!!!
Consumer Boom
Those new babies needed diapers,
swing sets, lunch boxes, bicycles,
and schoolrooms
Fast-growing families needed
appliances
The average family in 1946-19447
had an income of $4,000 with $300
-$400 for furnishings and
appliances
Television!!!
Truman, Republicans, and the Fair Deal
Americans were propelled to the
political center
15 years of war and depression led
Americans to enjoy prosperity
William Levitt humorously
captured this idea in 1948 with the
statement – “no man who owns his
house and lot can be a Communist,
he has too much to do.”
President Truman sought to
capitalize on this move to the
political center.
Sought to define policies attractive to
moderate republicans and democrats
Whistle-Stopping across America
The 1948 Presidential Campaign
mixed the old with the new
For the first time a major candidate
crisscrossed the nation by rail
Made hundreds of speeches from
the railcars
whistelstops
Truman ran on character and issues
“Give’em Hell Harry!”
Truman Victory
Truman’s Fair Deal
Truman sought to build on the gains of the New Deal
Called for a Fair Deal for all Americans
Promised to extend the New Deal and ensure “greater economic
opportunity for the mass of the people”
Over the next 4 years conservative Republicans and southern Democrats
forced Congress to choose carefully
Expanded current legislation
Avoided new departures
Trumans Fair Deal
Housing Act of 1949
Federal government reaffirmed its
concern about families priced out of
the market
Act provided money for local housing
agencies to buy, clear, and resell land
for housing
Intent was to clear bad neighborhoods
with new affordable apartments
Never really occurred due to low
appropriations, poor housing designs,
and local decisions that concentrated
public housing in segregated minority
neighborhoods
Congress revitalized the weak
Social Security program
Benefits went up by 80%
10.5 million additional people received
old-age and survivor’s insurance
Congress rejected other Fair Deal
proposals
Blocked a national health insurance as
“socialisitic”
Killed a permanent Fair Employment
Practices Commission to fight racial
segregation in hiring, halting progress
towards civil rights
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