the american way of life 1945-1968
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![Page 1: The American Way of Life 1945-1968](https://reader036.vdocument.in/reader036/viewer/2022062510/54b333be4a7959c0728b457b/html5/thumbnails/1.jpg)
USA & the Wider World 1945-1989
• The American Way of Life
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Affluence
• WW2 brought full employment
•Wages were high –
• 1940 - $754
• 1944 - $1,289
•After WW2 incomes continued to rise -
• 1950 - $3,319
• 1968 - $8,000
•‘the economy of abundance’
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Immigration
• With the baby boom – immigration contributed to the dramatic rise in population
• WW2 Refugees• 17,000 Korean war brides and
their children• Immigrants from Eastern Europe • 275,000 Mexicans became US
citizens – farm labourers in California, Arizona and Texas
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• From rural to urban areas• The middle classes moved from
the cities to the suburbs• Black Americans moved from
the South to the North (and west)
Migration
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•1940 – 130 million•1955 – 165 million•1960 – 179 million•1989 – 250 million
Population
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The New Rich• The ‘old rich’ retained and expanded
their wealth• The Rockefellers• The Vanderbilts
• By 1960 – 100,000 millionaires
• The ‘new rich’ made their money from oil, financial services and property
• 1988 – 1.3 million millionaires
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The Consumer Society• Vast increase in range of goods
• Between 1945-1950 – 20 million fridges – 5.5 million cookers – 21.4 million cars
• By end 1950s – 225,000 dishwashers per year
• By 1960 half of American homes had a TV
• Advertising
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The Car Culture• Mass movement to suburbs• Poor public transport
• 1945 – 26 million cars• 1975 – 130 million cars
• The country was changed to facilitate car ownership – motorways, car parks, drive-ins, drive through’s etc
• Important for image and status• Petrol was cheap.
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The Cadillac
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Buy Now, Pay Later• Instalment buying – hire purchase
• Retailers offered consumers attractive conditions with low interest rates
• General Motors ‘buy now, pay later’
• Banks and department stores began issuing credit cards
• During 1950s – private debt went from $105 billion to $263 billion
• By 1970s over 600 million credit cards for 150 million adult Americans
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Little Boxes• Malvina Reynolds
Little 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
tackyAnd they all look just the same.
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• Presentation prepared by:
• Dominic Haugh• St. Particks Comprehensive School• Shannon• Co. Clare
• Presentation can be used for educational purposes only – all rights remain with author