James A.

Henretta David Brody

America: A Concise History

Fourth Edition
CHAPTER 27 The Age of Affluence 19451960

Copyright 2010 by Bedford/St. Martins

Introduction
1959, Richard Nixon and Khrushchev in the Kitchen debate in Moscow.
The Kitchen Debate (Nixon and Khrushchev, 1959) Part I of II

Americans used affluence and mass consumption in service to Cold War politics. The suburban lifestyle symbolized the superiority of capitalism over Communism. The suburban lifestyle was beyond the reach of the poor, most African Americans and many Latinos.
(p.795)

The Kitchen Debate

At the Moscow Fair in 1959, the United States put on display some of the technological wonders of American home life. When Vice President Richard Nixon visited, he and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev had an impromptu debate over the relative merits of their rival systems, with the up-to-date American kitchen as a case in point. This photograph shows the debate in progress. Khrushchev is the bald man pointing his finger at Nixon. On the other side of Nixon stands Leonid Brezhnev, who would become Khrushchev's successor.

Economic Powerhouse Engines of Economic Growth The Corporate Order Labor-Management Accord

Economic Powerhouse
The U.S. enjoyed enormous economic advantages at the close of World War II. The American economy benefited from Internal markets, heavy investment in research and development and rapid diffusion of new technology. PAX AMERICANA: U.S. corporation dominated the world economy.
(p.795)

Engines of Economic Growth

July 1944, American global supremacy rested on economic institutions created at a U.N. conference at Breton Woods, NH. World bank provided reconstruction funds for Europe. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) was also set up to stablize currencies with the U.S. dollar serving as benchmark. 1947, General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT)
(p.796)

Bretton Woods
The Bretton Woods system guided the world economy by:
Encouraging stable prices Reducing tariffs Maintaining flexible markets Maintaining fixed exchange rates for international trade

The World Bank, the IMF and the GATT were cornerstone of the Bretton Woods system.
(p.797)

Defense Spending
A second source of postwar prosperity was defense spending. The military-industrial complex that President Eisenhower identified in 1961 had roots in the business-government partnerships of 2 world wars. But after 1945, unlike 1918, the massive commitment to defense continued due to the Cold War resulting in permanent mobilization
(p.797)

The Military Economy

As permanent mobilization took hold, science, industry and federal government became increasingly intertwined. Over 60% of the income of Boeing, General Dynamics and Raytheon came from military. Federal money paid for 90% of the cost of research on aviation and space. The defense buildup created jobs. The cost of one Huey Helicopter could have built 66 units of low-income housing.
(p.797)

The Corporate Order

For half of a century, the consolidation of economic power into big corporate firms characterized American enterprise. Deep pockets financed sophisticated advertising. Example: Anheuser-Busch, Bud the king of beers. Mergers into Conglomerates: Example ITT owned Wonder Bread, Sheraton, Avis, Hartford Fire Insurance
(p.798)

Executive Leadership
Export manufacturing, Gillette, IBM, Mobil Oil, Coca-Cola earned more than half of their profits abroad. Directing large, multi-national enterprises required a different kind of executive leadership. Top managers sought business school training and ability to manage information. Skills in corporate planning, marketing and investment were needed.
(p.799)

White-Collar Workers
To staff massive bureaucracies, corporate giants required white-collar foot soldiers. Companies turned to universities, which, funded partly by the GI bill, grew explosively after 1945. A younger and more educated generation moved rapidly up through the corporate hierarchy. Lifetime employment = lifetime loyalty. The Lonely Crowd (1950) by Sociologist David Reisman
(p.799)

Labor-Management Accord
Collective Bargaining became a major factor in economic life. The power balance shifted during the Great Depression and after WWII the labor unions overwhelmingly represented industrial workforce. Late 1945, Walter Reuther of the United Auto Workers (UAW) challenged General Motors. He demanded a 30% wage hike with no price increase of cars. The Treaty of Detroit.
(p.800)

The Treaty Detroit

The Treaty Detroit opened the way for a more broadly based labor-management accord not industrial peace, but general acceptance of collective bargaining as the method for setting the terms of employment. For industrial workers, the result was rising real income, from $54 a week to $71 in 1959. The average workers with three dependents gained 18% in spendable real income.
(p.800)

Labor-Management Accord
In postwar Europe, the allies were constructing welfare states. By the end of the 1950s, union contracts commonly provided defined-benefit pension plans, company-paid health insurance. Collective bargaining had become, in effect, the American alternative to the European welfare state. The affluent worker, a passport into the middle class.
(p.800)

The Affluent Society The Suburban Explosion The Search for Security Consumer Culture The Baby Boom Contradictions in Womens Lives Youth Culture Cultural Dissenters

The Affluent Society

It is easier to measure the quantitative aspects of prosperity than it is to measure the quality of life it provides. 1950s, the American good life emerged with exceptional distinctiveness: preference for suburban living High value on consumption Devotion to family and domesticity. Why these choices? And what consequences?
(p.801)

The Suburban Explosion

Migration to the suburbs had been going on for a century, but never before on such a scale as after WWII. In a decade or so, farmland on the outskirts of a city filled up with tract hosing and shopping malls. Entire counties that had been once rural went suburban by 1960.
(p.801)

Levittowns
William J. Levitt applied the techniques of mass production to home building. A four-room house with appliances cost $7,990 in 1947. He built them at dizzying speed in NY, PA, and NJ.
Levittown developments were built through mass-production construction methods.
(p.802)

The FHA and VA

Even at $8,000, most many young families were unable to afford a home.
The Federal Housing Administration and the Veterans Administration made it easier to buy a home by providing young couples low mortgage rates. As little as 5% down and 2 or 3% interests Even less for veterans; 1% down. Home ownership jumped from 45% to 60% by 1960
(p.802)

Suburban Racism
The buyers of Levitts houses also got homogeneous communities. The developments contained few old people or unmarried adults. Race: Levitts houses came with restrictive covenants prohibiting occupancy by members other than the Caucasian Race (blacks, Jews and Catholics)
(p.802)

A metro area is a central city that forms an integrated economic and social unit with its surrounding areas.

Shifting Pop Patterns, 1950-1980

The Sun Belt

Suburban living was most at home in the sun belt, low taxes, mild climate, and sufficient open spaces. The South and West began to boom after WWII. 1940-70: Florida added 3.5 million people By 1970, California contained 1/10 of the nations population.
(p.802)

Automobiles and Suburbia

Suburban growth on such a massive scale would not have been possible without automobiles. Gasoline cost 15 cents a gallon. In 1945, Americans owned 25 million cars. 1965, Americans owned 75 million.
(p.802)

The Interstate Highway System

More cars required more highways and the federal government took the leadership. In 1947, Congress authorized the construction of 37,000 miles of highways; 1956, new legislation increased the commitment by another 42,000 miles.
(p.805)

The Interstate Hghwy System, 1930-1970

1956 Interstate Hghwy Act paved the way for an extensive network of fed hghways through the nation. It also benefited the petroleum, construction, trucking and real estate industries. National economic integration.

The Search for Security

Congress called the 1956 legislation creating Americas modern freeway system the National Interstate and Defense Highways Act. The four-lane freeways, used by commuters, might some day be needed to evacuate people to safety in a nuclear war. The Cold War was omnipresent at home. Most alarming was the nuclear standoff.
(p.805)

Duck and Cover

The nation's Civil Defense Agency's efforts to alert Americans to the threat of a nuclear attack extended to children in schools, where repeated drills taught them to "duck and cover" as protection against the impact of an atomic blast. Variations of this 1954 scene at Franklin Township School in Quakertown, New Jersey, were repeated all over the nation.

The Search for Security

In an age of anxiety, Americans yearned for a reaffirmation of faith. Church membership jumped from 49% of the pop in 1940 to 70% in 1960. People flocked to Evangelical Protestant denominations, with a remarkable crop of new preachers. Most eloquent was young Rev. Billy Graham.
(p.806)

The Search for Security

The religious awakening meshed with Americans thinking of themselves as a righteous people opposed to godless Communism. 1954, the phrase under God was inserted into the Pledge of Allegiance. 1956, U.S. coins carried the words In God We Trust. Despite its evangelical bent, the religious resurgence was distinctly moderate in tone.
(p.806)

Consumer Culture
In the 1950s, consumption became associated with citizenship. Buying things now meant participating fully in American society and fulfilling social responsibility. 1951, more money was spent on advertizing (6.5 billion) than on public schools ($5 billion). Vance Packer The Hidden Persuaders (1957)
(p.807)

Television
There were only 7,000 TV sets in 1947. One year later, CBS and NBC began offering regular TV programming. By 1950, Americans owned 7.3 million sets. Ten years later, 87% of American homes had at least one television set. Federal Communications Commission (FTC) TV depended entirely on advertising.
(p.807)

Typical TV shows:
The Life of Riley, a comedy (1949) The Honeymooners Jackie Gleason (1951) Father Knows Best, starring Robert Young and Jane Wyatt (1954). Jack Benny comedy show (1949-65) had a black character, Rochester, who played a sidekick. Jack Benny with Marylin Monroe
(p.808)

Typical TV shows:
Television offered 30 Westerns by 1959 such as Gunsmoke, Wagon Train, Bonanza. Childrens programs included The Mickey Mouse Club (1950s) Howdy Doody Episode (1949) 1/3 Captain Kangaroo. 1960s FCC Commissioner in 1963 concluded that TV was a vast wasteland but it did sell products.
(p.808)

The Baby Boom

Americans made up for lost time in the realm of love. Marriages were stable (the divorce rate went up dramatically in the 1960s) Married couples were intent on having babies. More babies were born between 1948 and 1953 than in the previous thirty years! People were getting married younger
(p.808)

The Baby Boom

1945, Gotta Make Up for Lost Time Postwar families were remarkably stable. The divorce rate did not begin to rise until the mid1960s. Everyone wanted to have babies. People got married younger 22 and 20. The Baby Boom peaked at 1957 and stayed high until the early 1960s.
(p.808)

The Baby Boom

Parents relied on child care experts. Dr. Benjamin Spocks bestseller Baby and Child Care, sold one million copies per year. He advocated abandoning rigid schedules and to take a more tolerant approach. Spock advised against mothers working outside the home. There were numerous advances in diet, public health and medical practice that reduced childhood illness.
(p.808)

Exploding Education
The new middle class, Americas first college educated generation, place a high value on education. Suburban parents approved 90 percent of the school bond issues during the 1950s. By 1970, school expenditures accounted for 7.2% of the gross national product, double the 1950 levels. 1960s, baby boomers swelled college enrollments and the ranks of student protestors. (p.808)

Contradictions in Womens Live

Betty Friedan, Feminine mystique (1963) and the dream image of the suburban housewife. The postwar consumer culture also emphasized womans domestic role as purchasing agent for the home and family. Despite the Feminine mystique more than 1/3 of women held jobs outside the home. Occupational segmentation still haunted women. (p.809)

Womens work
More than 80 percent of all employed women did stereotypical womens work as salespeople, health care workers, waitresses, stewardesses, domestic servants, receptionists, telephone operators and secretaries. Married women worked to supplement family income. Even in 1950s many men could not afford the middle class lifestyle. Even when working outside the home, women still were responsible for most of the household management and child care. (p.811)

Youth Culture
American youth culture had first been noticed in the 1920s and had its roots in the lengthening years of education, the role of peer groups, and the consumer tastes of teenagers. Market research revealed a distinct teen market to be exploited. 1956, advertisers projected an adolescent market of $9 billion for transistor radios, 45-rpm records, clothing and Hula Hoops.
(p.811)

Youth Culture
The Wild One (1951) Marlon Brando. Rebel without a Cause (1955) James Dean. What really defined the generation was its music. Rejecting romantic ballads of the 40s, Teens discovered rock and roll, combination: white country western music black inspired rhythm and blues
(p.811)

Cultural Dissenters
Youth rebellion was only one aspect of a broader discontent with 1950s conformist culture. Artists, jazz musicians and writers expressed their alienation in a remarkable flowering of intensely personal, introspective art forms. Jackson Pollock, Abstract Expressionism. Black musicians developed a hard driving improvisional style of jazz known as bebop. Miles Davis - Boplicity
(p.812)

 http://youtu.be/VR_BV37 BU1s

Elvis Presley
Hound Dog
Blue Suede Shoes

(p.812)

Cultural Dissenters
The young white Beats were a group of writers and poets centered in New York. Alan Ginsberg, poem Howl (1956) Jack Kerouac, On the Road (1957) The Beats were apolitical, their rebellion was cultural. American culture in the postwar period was criticized by a counterculture that celebrated sex, drugs, and life on the edge.
(p.813)

The Other America Immigrants and Migrants The Urban Crisis The Emerging Civil Rights Struggle

The Other America

While Middle Class families flocked to the suburbs, an opposite stream of poor and working-class migrants moved to the cities. Many were southern blacks. These newcomers inherited a declining economy and a decaying environment. The Other America (Michael Harrington, 1962) was largely invisible. Only in the South where blacks organized to combat segregation, did social injustice catch the nations attention.
(p.813)

Immigrants and Migrant

The National Origins Acts of 1924, U.S. Immigration policy had aimed mainly at keeping out foreigners. 1948, the Displaced Persons Act, permitted the entry of 415,000 Europeans. Some were former Nazis such as Werner von Braun, the rocket scientist. 1943, The Chinese Exclusion Act was repealed
(p.813)

Immigrants and Migrant

Mexico replaced eastern and southern Europe as the nations labor reservoir. WWII the federal government allowed braceros (temporary workers) to ease wartime labor shortages. The program was revived in 1951 during the Korean war. Many Mexicans came illegally. 1953-54, the Federal government deported many Mexicans in operation Wetback.
(p.814)

Mexicans and Puerto Ricans

Another major group of Spanish speaking migrants came from Puerto Rico. They were American citizens since 1917 and had unrestricted rights to move to the mainland U.S. Migration increased dramatically after WWII. Most Puerto Ricans went to New York where they settled in East Harlem and then scattered in the citys five boroughs. More Puerto Ricans have now lived in New York than in San Juan
(p.814)

Fidel Castro and Cuban

Cuban refugees constituted the third largest group of Spanish-speaking immigrants. In the six years after Fidel Castros seizure of power in 1959, 180,000 people fled Cuba for the United States. Cuban refugees turned Miami into a cosmopolitan, bilingual city almost overnight. Miamis Cubans prospered in large part because they arrived with money and skills.
(p.814)

Native Americans
1953, Congress authorized a program terminating the autonomous status of the Indian Tribes and encouraging voluntary migration from the reservations. The Bureau of Indian Affairs subsidized moving costs and established relocation centers. Despite the assimilationist goal, the 60,000 Native Americans who migrated settled together in ghetto neighborhoods.
(p.815)

African Americans
African Americans came in large numbers from the rural south, continuing the Great Migration that had begun during World War I. Black migration was hastened by the transformation of southern agriculture. Synthetic fabrics cut into the demand for cotton, reducing cotton agriculture. Also mechanization reduced the demand for farm labor.
(p.815)

Rural migration to cities

.Where did the displaced farmfolk go? White Appalachians moved to Cincinnati and Chicago. Three million blacks move to Chicago, New York, Washington, Detroit and Los Angeles. Certain sections of Chicago seemed like the Mississippi Delta transplanted. Characteristic of postwar migration within the United States was the movement of millions from rural to urban areas.
(p.815)

The Urban Crisis

(p.815)

The Urban Crisis

(p.815)

The Urban Crisis

The process of urban renewal often constructed nondescript, high-rise apartments for low-income families. The notorious Robert Taylor Homes in Chicago, a huge complex of 28 sixteen-story buildings and 20,000 residents, almost all black, became a breeding ground for crime and hopelessness.

(p.815)

The Emerging Civil Rights Struggle

(p.815)

The Emerging Civil Rights Struggle

(p.816)

The Emerging Civil Rights Struggle

(p.816)

The Emerging Civil Rights Struggle

6. All of the following were elements of the landmark civil rights case of Brown v. Board of Education except

(p.816)

Chapter 27 The Age of Affluence 19451960

Map 27.1 Shifting Population Patterns, 19501980 (p. 803) Map 27.2 Connecting the Nation: The Interstate Highway System, 1930 and 1970 (p. 805) Figure 27.1 Income Inequality, 19172002 (p. 798)