Post War America 1945 - 1970

Economic Boom

£ The Thriving Peacetime Economy £ The United States became the richest nation in the

world after the war. £ Statistics

£Gross National Product (GNP) £ 1945 = $200 Billion £ 1960 = $500 Billion £ 1965 = $685 Billion £ 1970 = $970 Billion

£Per Capita Income £ 1945 = $1,223 £ 1966 = $2,987 £ 1970 = $3,945

Economic Boom£ The Thriving Peacetime Economy

£ What made it happen? £ Personal Resources

£ Americans saved money during World War 2 £ They couldn’t buy any goods because there were few being made. £ After the war, they had money to burn.

£ Discretionary Income £ Money to satisfy wants as well as needs. £ 1940 = 1/4 of all households had any discretionary income £ 1960 = 3/5 of all households had any discretionary income

£ Automobiles £ Production expanded in postwar years

£ 2 million made in 1946 £ 8 million made in 1953 £ 9 million made in 1965 £ They became status symbols in the 1960’s.

Economic Boom£ The Thriving Peacetime Economy

£ What made it happen? £The Interstate System

£ The Interstate Highway Act of 1956 £ $26 Billion £ 40,000 miles of federal highways

£ Added to Urban decay £ Helped our economy develop (transportation) £ Evacuation would be quicker in the event of a nuclear attack. £ Made us dependent on a constant and cheap supply of oil.

£House Construction £ More Americans than ever were buying houses. £ The GI bill allowed veterans of WWII to buy houses with low

interest loans.

Economic Boom£The Thriving Peacetime Economy

£ What made it happen?

£Government Spending £1947 National Security Act

£Created The Department of Defense (DOD) £By 1953 our defense budget was $53 Billion (1/2 the

total budget) £Stimulated the Aviation and Electronics Industries £Americans were behind the huge amounts due to fear

of communism.

Economic Boom£ Agricultural Workers in Trouble

£ The Post War years saw less jobs in Agriculture than ever before. £Stats

£ 1 in 5 Americans worked in Ag related industries before the war. £ 1 in 20 Americans worked in Ag in 1970. £ 15 million rural jobs disappeared.

£Why? £ New Technology

£ Improved Planters and Harvesting Equipment £ Better fertilizers and pesticides

£ Consolidation 1945 - 1970 £ Farm Sizes Doubled £ They specialized in Cash crops £ Farming became a big business.

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Demographic and Technological Trends

£The Population Grows Dramatically £Birthrate

£1930’s - 19 Births per 1,000 population £Tough times made people put off marriage.

£World War II boosted the economy and birthrates rose.

£The Baby Boom £Peaked in 1957

£25 births per 1,000 £4.3 million babies born = 1 every seven seconds £Our population grew by 29 million in the 1950’s

Demographic and Technological Trends

£ The Population Grows Dramatically £ Death Rate Declines

£Miracle Drugs £ Penicillin £ Streptomycin £ Polio Vaccine

£Life Expectancy Rises £ 1950’s average = 70 for whites and 64 for blacks £ 1920’s average = 55 for whites and 45 for blacks

£ Effects of the Growth of Population £ Demand for diapers and baby food increases £ School enrollment increases = a need for more teachers £ The demand for just about everything will increase.

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Demographic and Technological Trends£ Our Population Moves West

£ The Sun Belt £ Southern tier of the United States

£ Houston, Albuquerque, Phoenix, act. £ Dramatic Changes

£ Phoenix £ 65,000 pop. In 1940 £ 439,000 pop. In 1960

£ Baseball teams even began to move £ Brooklyn Dodgers move to Los Angeles

£ 1963 California becomes the most populous state

£ Why the movement? £ Servicemen had been stationed there during the war and liked it. £ Many new homes were built there. £ Military spending spurred economic growth in the area.

£ California received 1/4 of all military contracts £ In 1962 1/2 of all military contracts were on the pacific coast.

The Suburbs£ Cities Shrink?

£ 14 of the nations largest cities, including New York, Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Detroit lost population in the 1950’s.

£ Non-Whites moved into the cities as whites moved out. £Whites were allowed to have better paying jobs and could

afford to commute. £ For many white people, the city became where you

worked during the day. £Noontime population of Manhattan = 1.5 million £Midnight population on Manhattan = 2,000

The Suburbs£ Suburbs Grew

£ The population shifted to areas usually only accessible by car. £ By the end of the 1950’s 1/3 of all residents lived in suburbs. £ 38% by 1970

£ William J. Levitt £ Mass production of homes. £ Individually designed homes were a thing of the past. £ Pre-cut and Pre-assembled materials were brought to each site. £ Workers did one part and moved on.

Levittown, Pennsylvania

The Suburbs£Transformed the American Landscape

£Former fields, pastures, and forests were now housing developments.

£It was cheaper to cut down trees than work around them.

£Malvina Reynolds £Little Boxes £Pete Seeger

Little BoxesLittle Boxes on the hillside Little boxes made of ticky tacky Little boxes on the hillside Little boxes all the same There’s a green one and a pink one And a blue one and a yellow one And they’re all made out of ticky tacky And they all look just the same.

Little BoxesAnd the people in the houses All went to the University And they all got put in boxes Little boxes all the same And there’s doctors and there’s lawyers And business executives And they all get put in boxes And they all come out the same.

The Suburbs£Shopping Centers

£8 at the end of WWII £3 month period in 1957 = 17 opened £1960 there were 3,840 £Results

£Many people didn’t go into city centers for much of anything.

U.S. Presidents 1945-1970

£ Harry S. Truman 1945 - 1953 £ Democrat

£ Dwight D. Eisenhower 1953 - 1961 £ Republican

£ John F. Kennedy 1961 - 1963 £ Democrat

£ Lyndon B. Johnson 1963 - 1969 £ Democrat

£ Richard Nixon 1969 - 1974 £ Republican

The Environmental Impact

£ What effect did all of this growth have on the environment £ Rapid Development without extensive planning.

£Virtually every city was ringed by an ugly highway lined with restaurants, billboards, shopping, and auto dealers.

£ Peter Blake £Environmentalist £“The only trouble is that we are about to turn this beautiful

inheritance into the biggest slum on the face of the earth.” £Three Major Problems

£ Government Policy £ Private Pursuit of Profit £ General Citizen Indifference

£ Very little consciousness of environmental issues £The Word environment was hardly used before WWII.

The Environmental Impact

£What effect did all of this growth have on the environment? £The Prosperity created actually brought

awareness to the environment £More free time means longer vacations

£1950 most people were working 40 hour weeks £60% of them got paid vacations.

£Vacations = exploration of wild areas = questions about how to preserve the environment.

£Numerous laws passed in 1960’s to protect the environment.

Technology£ Federal Support of Scientific Activity

£ National Institute of Health 1948 £Coordinates Medical Research

£ National Science Foundation £Funded basic science research

£ Atomic Energy Commission £1946

£ Department of Defense in 1947 £Gave Money to Universities for Research

£ Some Research was done by Big Business

Technology£ Computers

£ The first were large but workable calculators that were developed during the war.

£ 1946 Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator was built at the University of Pennsylvania £18,000 electronic tubes

£ The Transistor 1948 £ Allowed for smaller, more sophisticated computers

£ Space exploration £ Computerized Hotel Reservations £ Accounting an Inventory Control

Technology

£Mechanization £The replacement of workers with

machines £Ford Auto Company

£1952 they installed automated drilling machines £A job that took 117 workers before

now only took 41

So What?£All of those workers are available to work

elsewhere and produce more stuff. £Workers would say it is a bad thing, but it

frees more hands to do more work.

The Consumer Culture£ Transistors

£ Hearing Aids £ Stereophonic High Fidelity Sound Systems

£ Television £ Developed in the 1930’s £ Major Influence on life after WWII £ Statistics

£1946 there were less than 17,000 TV sets £1960 3/4 of all American families had at least 1 set. £1955 - The average family tuned in 4-5 hours a day.

The Consumer Culture!£ Television

£ What were they watching? £ Winky Dinky and You £ The Mickey Mouse Club £ Howdy Doody Time £ I Love Lucy £ Father Knows Best £ American Banstand

£ Violence and Crime £ Even for children in cartoons

£ Hopalong Cassidy £ Toy Guns were a huge market

The Consumer Culture£ Gadgets and Appliances

£ By the end of the 1950’s families had at least on automobile £ Most families owned

£Refrigerators £Washing Machines £Televisions £Vacuums

£ Less essential items became popular £Electric can openers £Electric pencil sharpeners £Electric toothbrushes £Push button phones £Aerosal Bombs £Automatic Transmissions in Automobiles

The Consumer Culture£ Credit

£ People had been using installment plans for quite some time. £ In the postwar years, they still used installment plans for big items.

£ People started using credit cards for small items. £ The first consumer credit cards were introduced in the 1950’s

£ The Diners Club Card (1950) £ The American Express (1954)

£ Statistics £ 1965 - 2 million card holders nation wide £ 1970 - 50 million card holders nation wide £ Total private indebtedness

£ 1946 - 8.4 billion £ 1968 - 113.2 billion

Consensus and Conformity

£Conformity in School £Effected all levels

£Elementary School £Most kids watched the same shows £Most coveted the same toys

£High School £Dressed in Similar ways £Formed a common vocabulary based on T.V. Shows and

advertising jingles.

Consensus and Conformity

£ Religious Conformity £ Americans returned to churches in record numbers

£1959 95% of Americans identified themselves with some kind of religious denomination

£Church membership doubled from 1945 - 1970 £ Why?

£To challenge “Godless Communism” and find peace of mind in the threat of nuclear war.

£ Billy James Hargis £ “Patriotism and Christianity are very close to each other.”

£ Billy Graham £ Tried to convert sinners to Christianity to save the nation

from the communist threat.

Consensus and Conformity

£ Religious Conformity £ Billy Graham quote

£ “Unless America at this tragic hour is willing to turn to Jesus Christ and be cleansed by the blood of Christ, and know the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit, Christ will never save the nation!”

£ So, according to Graham, how could America be saved? £ Christianity

£ Churches made changes to draw attention to religion in modern life. £ What were the changes?

£ The Catholic Church replaced Latin with modern languages in the 1960’s

£ The Government shows the American Mood £ President Eisenhower

£ “Our government makes no sense unless it is founded in a deeply religious faith and I don’t care what it is.”

Consensus and Conformity

£ Religious Conformity £ Government Actions

£1954 - “Under God” added to the pledge £1955 - “In God We Trust” is put on all coins and money

£ Shallow Revival £ Religious knowledge lacked

£Statistics to show £ 80% of respondents said the bible was God’s revealed word £ 35% of those were able name all four Gospels £ Over half were unable to name one.

Cultural Rebels£Not all Americans fit the Standards

£Some were alienated and then rebelled

£J.D. Salinger £The Catcher in the Rye £Very Controversial Book

£THE “BEATS” £Jack Kerouac – On The Road £Allen Ginsberg – “Howl”

£One of the leaders of the Hippy Movement

Cultural Rebels£Banned Books £Salinger, Kerouac, and Ginsberg owed much

of their popularity to the paperback revolution.

£“Paperback Revolution” £Introduced in 1939 £Dominated after WWII £7 million books sold per week. (25,000 different

books available.)

Cultural Rebels£Popular Music

£Elvis Presley £Rock and Roll £During the last 4 years of the 1950’s

£18 of his hits sold 1 million copies or more £His dress became a model for rebellious male

teenagers.

Cultural Rebels£Art

£Jackson Pollock £Canvas art £“I am not aware of what is taking place [as I paint], it

is only after that I see what I have done.” £Abstract Expressionism

£Reflected the artist’s alienation from a world becoming filled with nuclear threats, computerization, and materialism.