POSTWAR AMERICA
Chapter 27
THE ECONOMY

increased consumer
spending


demand for luxury
goods increased
the GI Bill
Returning soldiers
were provided
generous federal loans
for college
 Loans to establish
businesses, buy homes

INTERSTATE HIGHWAYS
Motivated by a need to move troops and military
equipment across the country quickly
 Direct reaction to the Cold War
 President Dwight D. Eisenhower proposed and
built a 41,000-mile network of multi-lane
interstate highways
 Changed American Life:
 Suburban and urban sprawl
 New road culture
 More efficient distribution of goods

THE SUBURBS
More Americans than
ever purchased their
own homes; moved to the
suburbs
 Mass produced homes,
similar designs
 William Levitt, created
Levittown, a
community of simple
homes for veterans
outside NYC


Similar communities
were built in other
metropolitan areas
THEN
NOW
THEN AND NOW
WHITE FLIGHT




African Americans
moved to cities in
Northeast and West for
jobs, and to escape
poverty, racism
Whites begin to move
out of cities, take jobs
with them
Cities left with high
unemployment, limited
services, shrinking tax
base
Sets stage for race riots
in 1960s
SUBURBAN LIFESTYLE
A NEW CONSUMER CULTURE
GNP increased by 50%
 Salaries increased by 35%
 Americans consumed 50% of all the
goods produced in the world

INDUSTRIAL GROWTH


Supported by
Government spending
Defense spending (10%
of GNP)



Aeronautics and weapon
industries grew in the
western states
Government funding
paid for roads, financed
mortgages, supported
farm prices, and
encouraged scientific
research
Cheap Gasoline and the
development of
computers increased
productivity




By 1960 a few
international
conglomerated
controlled most business
Government debt rose
Science and
mechanization replaced
millions of farmers
Fertilizers and
Insecticides began to
poison the environment


Rachel Carson: Silent
Spring
AFL-CIO lost members
b/c of automation
THE SPACE RACE




Motivated by the Soviet
launching of Sputnik
JFK committed the
nation to a moon
landing by the end of
the 1960s
Sparked an increase in
spending and a focus on
science education
In 1969, Neil
Armstrong was the
first man to walk on the
moon
POLIO EPIDEMIC




Medical miracles, polio
vaccine discovered by
Jonas Salk
Polio was epidemic in
the 1950s, usually
attacked the young
Crippled them for life if
it didn’t kill them first
People were afraid to
allow their children to
interact with one
another for fear of polio
THE BABY BOOM
GIs returned civilian
lives, started families
 Between 1945-1961,
birthrate exploded
 The baby boom,
more than 65 million
children were born in
the U.S.
 Baby boomers later
known for being
rebellious

TECHNOLOGY
Age of computers
begins after war
 Manhattan
Project: jet aircraft,
radar, microwaves,
synthetic rubber
 Transistors make
radios, calculators
smaller
 Chuck Yeager
breaks the sound
barrier in 1947

MEDICINE






WWII field doctors
adapted new techniques
in hospitals
Heart surgery developed
Penicillin-antibiotics,
became widely used
Med. technology impacts
demographic patterns
Americans lived longer,
infant mortality rate fell
Changed society and
politics
AGRICULTURE
Demand for food
during war, postwar
prosperity led to
improvements
 Pesticides, chemical
fertilizers improved
crop yield
 Later leads to
environmental impact,
global warming

SPACE RACE
Soviet Union launches first artificial satellite to
orbit the Earth-Sputnik in 1957,
 U.S. alarmed, realized they were behind on
missile technology
 Following year, Congress created the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration
(NASA)
 Researched rocket science and space exploration
 Also passed the National Defense Education
Act (NDEA) to provide funds for math science
and foreign language education

STUDY GUIDE
Name the dictators of Italy, Soviet Union and
Germany
 Difference between fascism and communism
 When was the bombing of Pearl Harbor?
 How did Western European countries avoid war
with Germany in the late 1930s?
 Who attacked us at Pearl Harbor?
 What type of industries were quickly switched
over to make wartime tanks, jeeps and planes?
 Who are the Tuskegee Airmen, WAC, WASPs?
 Which country was the best at wartime
industrialization?

Why did Japan invade Manchuria, China?
 Who wrote Mein Kampf? What was it about?
 What is internationalism?
 What is blitzkrieg?
 Why was the Maginot Line built?
 How many people were killed in the Holocaust?
 Who was forced into internment camps?
 What is the name of the first peacetime draft in
American history?
 Who was Winston Churchill and FDR?
 What is the significance of the Battle of Midway,
D-Day, Battle of the Bulge?

What is the soft underbelly of Europe?
 Who is Dwight D. Eisenhower and his
significance?
 Who were the Big Three?
 What is Operation Overlord and and did the
mission take place? Where?
 What is V-E Day and V-J Day?
 Which president gave the order to drop the atom
bomb?
 What city was first bombed? Which was the
second? The name of the plane?

What were the Nuremburg trials?
 What was decided at the Yalta Conference?
 What is the Truman Doctrine?
 What are the satellite nations?
 What is the Berlin Airlift?
 What was the significance of the Korean War?
 What is McCarthyism and what caused it?
 What was postwar U.S. like?
 How did interstate highways and the GI Bill give
rise to prosperity and the suburbs?
 Who was Jonas Salk and his contributions?

What contributed to the baby boom?
 Why did the U.S. and the Soviet Union enter into
a space race?
 Who was the first man on the moon and when did
this occur?
