Chapter 26 - Triumph of the Middle Class, 1945-1963 Flashcards
kitchen debate
1959 debate over the merits of their rival systems between U.S. VP Richard Nixon and Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev at the opening of an American exhibition in Moscow
Bretton Woods
an international conference in New Hampshire in July 1944 that established the World Bank and International Monetary Fund
World Bank
bank created to provide loans for the reconstruction of postwar Europe and for the development of formerly colonized nations
International Monetary Fund (IMF)
set up to stabilize currencies and provide a predictable monetary environment for trade
military-industrial complex
term Eisenhower used to refer to the military establishment and defense contractors who, he warned, exercised undue influence over the national government
Sputnik
the world’s first satellite, launched by the Soviet Union
National Defense Education Act (1958)
funneled millions of dollars into American universities to help many of them become leading research centers of the world
The Affluent Society (1958)
book by John Kenneth Galbraith that analyzed the nation’s successful middle class and argued that the poor were only an “afterthought” in the minds of economists and politicians
The Other America (1962)
book by left-wing social critic Michael Harrington, chronicling “the economic underworld of American life”
Veterans Administration
federal agency that assists former soldiers; formed after WWII
collective bargaining
a process of negotiation between labor unions and employers, which after WWII translated into rising wages, expanding benefits, and an increasing rate of home ownership
teenager
a term for young adult; American youth culture emerged as a cultural phenomenon in the postwar decades
Beats
young white writers and poets centered in New York and San Francisco who disdained middle-class materialism
baby boom
the surge in the American birthrate between 1945 and 1965
Shelley v. Kraemer (1948)
Supreme Court decision to outlaw restrictive covenants on the occupancy of housing developments
National Interstate and Defense Highways Act
1956 law authorizing the construction of a national highway system
Sunbelt
the southern and southwestern states
Kerner Commission
informal name for the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, formed by the president to investigate the causes of the 1967 urban riots
Dwight D. Eisenhower
34th president
Miles Davis
popular jazz trumpeter
Allen Ginsberg
leading Beat poet
Jack Kerouac
Beat novelist and poet
Billy Graham
popular evangelical minister of the postwar era
Dr. Benjamin Spock
American pediatrician and author of the bestselling “Baby and Child Care”, published in 1946
William J. Levitt
real estate developer who created “Levittvilles” of thousands of suburban homes
GI Bill
gave education opportunities to veterans
