The 1950s Flashcards
Growth in Seatle, California and Rocky Mountains from aircraft, guided missiles, and radar systems
Growth of government bases in the South
Growth in New England of aircraft engines and submarines
Economic Benefits of Cold War
Factory labor fell slightly in 1950s
Clerical workers grew by 25%
Salaried workers in large corporations grew by 60%
White collar workers outnumbered blue collar in 1956
Growth of Services Economy
Efficient machinery
Chemical fertilizers and insecticides
Use of irrigation on open land
Development of new crop strains
Causes of Shift to Larger and Fewer Farms
First suburban neighborhood built after World War II
Built on 1,200 acres of potato field on Long Island
10,000 houses assembled quickly from pre-fabricated parts
Soon home to 40,000 people
Develoed by William and Alfred Levitt
Levittown
30m people moved west of the Mississippi between WWII and 1975
California population surpassed New York in 1963
Growth of “centerless” cities united by a web of highways: Houston, Phoenix, Los Angeles
Growth of the West
“The consumer is the key to our economy. Our ability to consume is endless. The luxuries of today are the necessities of tomorrow.”
Jack Staus
Chairman of Macy’s
During WWII: 100,000 units
1948: 1m units
1952: 15.3m units
Nearly 9 of 10 Americans owned one
Replaced newspaper as the most common source of information
Provided a common cultural experience
Television
- The Goldbergs*
- The Honeymooners*
- Leave it to Beaver*
- The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet*
Early TV Shows
Part of the “standard socialogical package”
80% of American familes owned one by 1960
14% of American familes owned two
Most were manufactured in the United States
Designed to be replaced every year or two
Enabled long distance commuting and vacationing
Led to growth of motels, roadside eating
Automobile
Opened in Illinois in 1954
Franchised by Ray Kroc
McDonalds
After WWII, most went back to low-salary jobs
By 1940, 36% grew to 60% in 1960
Earned only 60% of men
Women at Work
American population rose by 30m or 20%
Mostly driven by large number of births
Other factors included longer life expectancy and availability of miracle drugs like penicillin
Led to growth of suburbia and the “youth culture”
Baby Boom
“If we sell one house to a Negro family, then 90 or 95 percent of our white customes will not buy into the community.
Levitt
Refusal to allow blacks to rent or purchase
Supreme Court ruling that did not stop racial covenants – considered them private agreements
Declared that courts could not enforce them because the process of enforcement violated the Fourteenth Amendment
Shelley v. Kraemer
Authorized construction of 800,000 units of public housing
Provided a “decent home for every American family”
Set low ceiling on the income of residents
Confined to segregated neighborhoods in the city
Housing Act of 1949
Destroyed poor neighborhoods in cities
Developers built retail centers in place of the old neighborhoods
States built urban universities and stadiums
“Urban Renewal”
500,000 moved to New York in 1950-1970
Had been forced off of small farms by expanding sugar plantations
Most ended up in New York City’s East Harlem
West Side Story dramatized their conflicts with older residents of East Harlem
Puerto Ricans
Dramatized the conflict between Puerto Ricans and more established residents of East Harlem
West Side Story
“He’s probably a nice guy, but every time I see him, I see $2,000 drop off the value of my house.”
White Suburbanite
Quoted in Life Magazine and expressing preference for on-going racial exclusion
Tactic of real-estate brokers of circulating exaggerated warnings of influx of blacks
Persuaded white residents to quickly sell their houses
Converted all white neighborhoods to all black neighborhoods
Earned brokers very fast commissions
“blockbusting”
Idea that all Americans shared values of…
…individualism
…respect for private property
…belief in equal opportunity
Result was a relatively placid time compared to 1930s and 40s
End of Ideology
Idea that Catholics, Protestants and Jews shared the same history and values
Freedom of religion differentiated America from communism
Reflected decline of anti-Semitism and anti-Catholicism
“Judeo-Christian” Heritage
Evangelist who used radio, TV to spread Christianity
Became an advisor to many presidents
Billy Graham
Book that promoted the idea that religion had…
… less to do with spiritual activities
…more to do with personal identity, group assimilation, promotion of traditional morality
Written by Will Herberg in 1955
Protestant-Catholic-Jew
System resting on private ownership that united the free world
Truman replaced Freedom from Want and Freedom from Fear
Advertising Council used images like Statue of Liberty and Liberty Bell to promote
Free Enterprise
Group of thinkers who..
…opposed strong national government
…believed in individual autonomy
…believed in unregulated capitalism
…belived in limited government
Libertarian Conservatives
Identified the free market as the foundation of individual liberty
Called for turning over government functions to private sector,
Repeal of minimum wage laws, graduated income tax and Social Security
Wrote Capitalism and Freedom in 1962
Milton Friedman
Argued that free markets were the foundation for individual liberty
Writen by Milton Friedman in 1962
Capitalism and Freedom
Argued that government should regulate personal behavior
Belived that toleration of differences was no substitute for the search for absolute truth
Wanted to create the “good man”
Wrote Ideas Have Consequences
Richard Weaver
Emerged as the leader after World War II with the greatest political appeal
Had a fatherly persona
Decided to become a Republican in order to blunt Robert Taft’s ambitions and likely promotion of isolationism
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Vigorous anti-communist who pursued Alger Hiss while a member of the HUAC
Won election to the Senate in 1950
Developed a reputation for dishonesty and opportunism
Transformed the Republican Party to be the champion of the “forgotten man” who paid heavy taxes
Richard Nixon
Nixon’s televised broadcast on September 23, 1952
Defense against charges of secret payments by the rich
Acknowledged that he got a dog from friends and that would not return the dog
Revived Nixon’s political career
Highlighted the importance of TV to political campaigning
Checkers Speech
Eisenhower’s campaign slogan for the Election of 1952
“I Like Ike”
Eisenhower won 55.1% of the popular vote and 442 electoral votes
Stevenson won 44.4% of the popular vote and 89 electoral votes
Republicans won a thin margin in Congress
Election of 1952
Democrats regained control of Congress
Election of 1954
Eisenhower beat Stevensen
Democrats held Congress
Eisenhower became the first president elected when his party controlled neither houses of Congress
Election of 1956
“What is good for the country is good for General Motors, and vice versa”
Charles Wilson
Secretary of Defense
Speaking in support of big business
“Should any political party attempt to abolish Social Security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm program, you would not hear from that party again in our political history”
Eisenhower
Speaking about the Republican idea to roll back the New Deal
Eisenhower’s domestic agenda
Sever public opinion association with prior Republicans especially…
…Herbert Hoover, Great Depression, general indifference
Continued or increased several New Deal programs
Modern Republicanism
Largest public works enterprise in American history
Built 41,000 miles of roads
Encourage the American reliance on the automobile
Supported in part by the idea that it would allow for rapid exit of cities in the event of a nuclear war as well as the facilitation of troop movements
Interstate Highway Act of 1956
Formed single organization representing 35% of workers
AFL-CIO Merger
Elements included…
…long term contracts with labor
…decisions on capital investment, plant location, output in management hands
…prevent unauthorized “wildcat strikes”
…employers stopped effort to eliminate existing unions
New “Social Contract” between
Labor and Management
Unauthorized strike
New Social Contract between labor and management limited the prevalence of these
Wildcat Strikes
Atomic weapon much more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
U.S. tested in 1952
Soviets tested in 1953
Hydrogen Bomb
“Every gun that is made, every warship launched…signifies a theft from those who hunger and are not fed.”
Eisenhower
Speaking against War
Doctrine announced by John Foster Dulles, Secretary of Defense, in 1954
Any Soviet attack on an American ally would be countered by a nuclear assault on the Soviet Union itself
Update to the policy of containment
Led to nuclear proliferation
Massive Retaliation
Eisenhower’s Secretary of Defense
Announced the doctrine of Massive Retaliation
John Foster Dulles
Nuclear warheads rose from 1,000 in 1953 to 18,000 in 1960
Brought about in part by the doctrine of Massive Retaliation
Nuclear Proliferation
Strategy of getting very close to war in order to press an advantage or make a point
Brinksmanship
Idea that all out war would lead to so much devestation that both the U.S. and the Soviets became very cautious
Inspired widespread fear in the populations
Mutual Assured Destruction
First since Potsdam in 1945
Led to Khrushchev detailing in a speech to the Communist Party the details of some of the crimes that Stalin had committed
Called for “peaceful coexistance” with the United States
Summit of 1955
Eisenhower and Khrushchev
Anticommunist uprising that had been urged by United States Republicans
Dulles had declared “liberation” as the goal of U.S. policy
Eisenhower refused to extend aid, believing it impossible to roll-back Soviet domination
Hungary Uprising
Demanded halt to nuclear weapon testing
Rationale was public health frisk from radioactive fallout
U.S. and Soviets agreed to stop nuclear testing from 1958 but it restarted in 1961
National Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy
U.S. reconnaissnce over Soviet Union at 80,000 feet, belived to be well above Soviet anti-aircraft
Plane shot down – the pilot was not able to set the automatic self-destruct
Eisenhower initially denied the plane was doing espinage
Soviet Union produced the pilot
Increased Cold War tensions and caused the cancellation of another summit meeting
U-2 Incident
Developing countries not aligned with the two Cold War powers
Most desired to find their own model of development between the extremes of Soviet centralized planning and free market capitalism
Third World
U-2 pilot
Shot down over Soviet Union in 1956
Gary Powers
Meeting of leaders of 29 Asian and African nations
Appeared to be emergence of a new force in global affairs but none of the countries could avoid being affected by the Cold War
Bandung Conference of 1955
Process that began when…
India and Pakistan acheived independence
Many nations followed: Ghana, Indonesia, Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania
Decolonization
Third World nation whose land reform policies threatened the commercial interests of the United Fruit Company
Guatemala
British owned oil company that made enormous profits in Iran
Mossadegh, the Iranian Prime Minister, nationalized it
Anglo-Iranian Oil Company
Affected both…
…Jacobo Arbenz Guzman of Guatemala
…Mohammed Mossadegh of Iran
CIA Ouster
After Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal, Israel, France and Britain invaded Egypt
Nassar turned to the Soviets for arms
Eisenhower forced Israel, France and Britain to stop the invasion
Suez Canal Crisis
Pledged US defense of Middle Eastern governments
Established to prevent communism from gaining ground
First used to help King Hussein of Jordan defeat rebels
Eisenhower Doctrine
Eisenhower funneled billions of dollars to help French in Vietnam
Nation Building
Vietnamese forces defeated French in 1954
French decided to leave Vietnam and all of Indochina
Led to the Geneva Peace Accords
Battle of Dien Bien Phu
Conference in 1954
Divided Vietnam into north and south along 17th parallel
U.S. not a party to the conference; installed anti-communist government in the south
Set schedule for elections in 1956
Geneva Peace Accords
New leader of Iran after the U.S. ousted Mohammed Mossadegh
Agreed to give British and American oil companies 40% of the nations oil revenue
Shah of Iran
Critisized the corporate accumulation of power in the 1950s claiming it was dangerous to individual freedoms
Hans Morgenthau
Challenged the vision of democratic pluralism
Pointed out the “power elite” – interlocking directorate of corporate leaders, politicians – made political democracy obsolete
C. Wright Mills
Book arguing that Americans lacked the inner resources to lead independent lives
“Organization men” are not capable of independent thought
Written by David Riesman
The Lonely Crowd
Described the American economy and society as being enraptured with appliances and homes
The Affluent Society
by John Kenneth Galbraith
Books critical of the monotony of modern work, emptiness of suburban life, and the persuasive influence of advertising
The Organization Man
and
The Hidden Persuaders
Books and movies that captured the alienation of youth in the 1950s
- The Catcher in the Rye* by Salinger
- Blackboard Jungle*
- Rebel Without a Cause*
Emerged in 1950 from black rhythm and blues
Popular in the south
Revealed the growing economic power of teenagers
Became a form of rebellion
Rock and Roll
First published in 1953 and soon reached 1m copies per month
Highlighted, reinforced the sexual liberation
Playboy magazine
Small group of poets who critisized the conformity of American society
Included Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg
Celebrated impulsive action, immediate pleasure, sexual experimentation
Beat Generation
Wrote the beat generation classic On The Road about a spontaneous roadtrip
Jack Kerouac
“I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked”
Allen Ginsberg in Howl
Included..
…destabilization of the racial system during WWII
…mass migration out of the segregated south
…black voters who became important to the Democratic coalition
…gap between American rhetoric and reality was an embarrasment
Causes of the Freedom Movement
Formed by a group of Mexican-Americans in 1929
Won Mendez v. Westminster in California, repealing all laws requiring segregation
League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC)
Led NAACP challenges against Plessy
Thurgood Marshall
Ruling by the Supreme Court that the University of Texas Law School did not meet the “seperate but equal” standard
marked the begining of the end of segregation
Sweatt v. Painter
Attacked unequal funding in schools
Local school board had spent $179 on white children and $43 on black children
One of five cases that got combined for the Supreme Court
Claredon Case
Marshall argued segregation was inherently unequal
Drew on work of New York psychologists Kenneth and Mamie Clark showing segregation did lifelong damage
Earl Warren managed to create unanimous opinion
Segregation violated equal protection clause
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas
“In the field of education, the doctrine of ‘seperate but equal’ had no place. Seperate educational facilities are inherently unequal.”
Earl Warren
in Brown v. Board of Education
Refused to give up her seat on a bus on Dec 1, 1955
Was arrested
Rosa Parks
For 381 days, black maids, janitors, teachers refused to take the bus.
Supreme Court ruled in November 1956 that bus segregation was illegal
Montgomery Boycott
Pastor of Baptist church in Montgomery
Emerged as leader of the freedom movement
Martin Luther King
“one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free”
King
in opening of “I Have a Dream” speech
“Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”
King
closing of the “I Have a Dream” speech
Coalition of black ministers and civil rights activists
Pressed for desegregation
Southern Christian Leadership Conference
Denounced the Brown decision as a “clear abuse of judicial power”
Signed by 8 of 106 southern congressmen
Signed by all but three southern Senators
Southern Manifesto
Eisenhower action to integrate Little Rock Central High School
Resulted in the 101st Airborne escorting nine black children into the school
Opposed Arkansas Governor Orbal Faubus effort to use Arkansas National Guard to block integration
Executive Order 10730
Democratic nominee was John F. Kennedy
Kennedy won 49.7% and 303 electoral votes
Nixon won 49.6% and 219 electoral votes
Election of 1960
Soviet sattelite launched on October 4, 1957
Shocked the United States and eroded confidence
Prompted federal support for the sciences
Sputnik
“I do not speak for my church on public matters, and the church does not speak for me.”
Kennedy
Defending his Catholic faith
New type of missile that was able to cross the ocean
Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM)
Included warnings against…
…the drumbeat of calls for a new military buildup
…the danger of the military-industrial complex
Eisenhower’s Farewell Address
Arose during Republican administration and put the US at a disadvantage in delivering nuclear warheads
Missle Gap
