Postwar American Culture Histopardy
American Dream. Hippie Nightmare
How The Other ½ Lived, Part 2
100- McDonalds was only one example of this 50s
business innovation, Dairy Queen was another.
Franchise
200- The best place to live if you were middle-class
Suburbs
300- The idealized role/name for a wife and mother
during the 1950s
Homemaker
400- Making Americans buy even more, this idea
meant products were designed to NOT last more
than a few years
Planned obsolescence
500- Ike gave would-be vacationers an easy way to
drive cross country when he ordered this created.
Interstate Highway System
w- These 3 ideas summed up 1950s postwar US
Conservatism, Consumerism, Conformity
100- This 50/60s phenomenon caused urban areas
to decay at an even faster rate
White flight
200- This referred to the inability of a Mex-Am
family to arrange a funeral for their WWII hero son
b/c of white racism
Longoria Incident
300- Instead of helping them, this moronic idea left
Native Americans isolated from each other and
without financial or medical support
Termination Policy
400- To try and curb urban decay, LBJ established
this fed department aimed at improving low-income
housing and development in cities
Dept of HUD (Housing & Urban Development)
500- Many of these temporary hired helpers stayed
in the U.S. illegally after WWII ended.
Braceros
w- A postwar housing shortage led to the
implementation of these “ready-made” houses
Pre-Fab Housing
Politics in the 50s
Sex, Drugs, & Rock & Roll
100- They were the original counterculture, defying
50s consumerism with jazz & poetry
Beat Movement
200- 2 of the 3 major themes of early rock and roll
Youthful rebellion/life, Cars, Love
300- One effect of the Counterculture’s Sexual
Revolution was a rise in these
STDs/Illegitimate Children
400- Besides rural communes and NYC’s East
Village, other big home to hippies
Haight-Asbury, San Francisco, CA
500- This mind-altering drug rose in popularity, in
part due to a Harvard professor
LSD (acid)
w- Af-Am creators of Tutti Frutti & Johnny B.
Goode
Little Richard, Chuck Berry
100- Leader of the racist Dixiecrats who split the
Repub party in 1948
Strom Thurmond
200- His victory in 1948, gave him greater freedom
to continue FDR’s ideas & add his own
Harry Truman
300- This 1952 Repub candidate’s victory ushered
in the prosperous and conservative 1950s
Dwight Eisenhower
400- Name of program that extended FDR’s
programs in the late 40s and early 50s
Fair Deal
500- This subject caused Truman to lose popularity
with many Southern voters
Civil rights
w- This idea, characterizing1950s politics, is seen in
the pro-business, anti-social justice attitudes of the
Eisenhower Admin
Conservatism
Great Societies R Better than Good Ones
100- LBJ’s idea of fighting poverty by having a
domestic Peace Corps.
VISTA
200- This liberal court showed the changes that
existed in 60s culture- but they started in the 1950s.
Warren Court
300- Created to encourage an appreciation of culture
and art in all Americans, not just the wealthy.
Nat Endowment for the Arts
400- 2 ways LBJ tried to help young people whose
poverty was a roadblock to academic success
Head Start/ Higher Education Act
500- Miranda v AZ and Gideon v. Wainwright were
two Supreme Court cases that dealt with this idea
Rights of the Accused
w- LBJ’s answer to the inability of the poor &
elderly to afford health care
Medicaid/Medicare
Frontiers, New & Final
100- JFK’s ideas rarely met with success in
Congress because he was elected without this proof
of popular approval
Mandate
200- JFK’s New Frontier was probably best seen in
his idea to put a man on the moon, winning this
competition with the Soviets
Space race
300- Improving our image in Latin America was as
much a goal as helping the people in this JFK
overseas program
Alliance for Progress
400- One lone gunman did it, was the verdict for this
study led by a Supreme Court justice
Warren Commission
500- JFK’s “Ask not what your country can do for
you, but ask what you can do for your country” was
best answered by this program where college grads
aided developing countries voluntarily.
Peace Corps
w- This was the romantic term given to the Kennedy
White house, implying a belief in vital young king and
queen who would bring happiness to the nation
Camelot
Home Economics
100- This kept WWII vets out of the job market and in
college
GI Bill of Rights
200- Guiding agency in charge of LBJ’s War on
Poverty
Office of Econ Opportunity
300- Great Society’s answer to providing basic
nutrition to those in poverty
Fed Food Assistance (Food Stamps)
400- This agency ended price controls in 1946, and
inflation rose but not as fast as spending
OPA (Office of Price Admin)
500- Truman should have helped these guys out, but
instead he threatened to draft them.
Striking miners/steelworkers
w- Her book the feminine Mystique discussed the
frustration women felt trapped at home.
Betty Friedan
Hodge-Podge
100- He created the polio vaccine
Dr. Jonas Salk
200- AT&T, General Electric, and Xerox were 3
examples of these new huge diversified corporations
Conglomerates
300- Post-war lovin’, and early marriage ages, lead to
this phenomenon
Baby Boom
400- His book on child-care became a parenting bestseller and classic
Dr. Benjamin Spock
500- His use of pre-fab housing led to the DRAMTIC
increase in suburbs after WWII
William Levitt
w- Government agency responsible for television,
radio, and telegraph
Fed Communications Commission