Postwar America:
Peace, Prosperity &
Progress
I. Politics – Readjustment
& Challenges
§  Truman’s Fair Deal
§  Increase Min Wage, Agric & Educ, National
Health Insurance
§  Blocked by Republican Congress
§  Truman Barely Wins Reelection
§  Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower
(General Eisenhower WWII) Elected
1952
I. Politics – Readjustment
& Challenges
II. Economic Growth = Age
of Affluence
§  Consumer Demand
Spurs Growth
§  Wartime Savings =
Post War Spending
§  Mid 1950’s twice real
income as 1920s
§  Age of shopping malls,
credit cards, planned
obsolescence
II. Economic Growth = Age
of Affluence
§  Shift from Goods to
Services
§  From Steel to Fast
food
§  Blue Collar to
White Collar
Poverty Amid Affluence
§  Economic growth
favored middle and
upper classes
§  1/3 lived substandard usually based on race
due to continued
legacies of racial
inequality
III. Society – Marriage,
Families & Baby Boom
Birthrate per 1,000 women - 1920-2010
III. Society – Marriage,
Families & Baby Boom
§  Depression saw drops in
marriage & children
§  Post War booms in both
§  1946 – 2.3 million
marriages
§  Avg Age – 20 women
& 22 men
§  1957 peak of baby
boom – 4.3 million
§  1964 – 4 in 10 were
under 20
III. Society – Marriage,
Families & Baby Boom
§  WWII gender roles
temporary change
§  After -return to
traditional roles
§  Slow change
allowed mostly
single women to
enter workforce
IV. Population Shifts
§  To the Suburbs
§  Middle class
families
§  Cookie Cutter
development
§  Commute to
work
IV. Population Shifts
§  To the South
(sunbelt)
§  Low labor costs
move businesses
§  People followed
jobs
§  Water/Irrigation &
Air Conditioning
V. Technology &
Automobile
§  War & Space Tech
§  ENIAC – first
computer
§  Transistor 1947
§  Nuclear Energy
§  Consumer Tech
§  Home appliances
§  Medical Advances
§  Vaccinations
V. Technology & the
Automobile
§  American Dream
= 2 Cars in
every garage
§  Interstate
Highway System
§  1960 – 10,000
miles
§  Today – 45,000