Chapter 27 The Age of Affluence - Bedford-St. Martin's

Chapter 27

The Age of Affluence

1945–1960

Teaching Resources as well as for the development of Third
World countries, and the IMF was de-
Chapter Instructional Objectives signed to stabilize the value of currencies,
thereby helping to guide the world econ-
After you have taught this chapter, your students omy after the war.
should be able to answer the following questions: 5. A second linchpin of postwar prosperity
was defense spending. The military-
1. What factors explain the rise of American pros- industrial complex that President Eisen-
perity during the two decades following World hower identified in his 1961 Farewell Ad-
War II? dress had its roots in the business-
government partnerships of the world
2. What were the changing roles of cities and sub- wars. But unlike after 1918, the massive
urbs in American society? commitment of government dollars for
defense continued after 1945.
3. In what ways were the “fifties” the historical norm 6. As permanent mobilization took hold, sci-
of American life? ence, industry, and the federal government
became increasingly intertwined. Accord-
4. Who were the members of the “other America,” ing to the National Science Foundation,
and why did they occupy this status? federal money underwrote 90 percent of
the cost of research on aviation and space,
Chapter Annotated Outline 65 percent of that on electricity and elec-
tronics, 42 percent of that on scientific in-
I. Economic Powerhouse struments, and 24 percent of that on auto-
A. Engines of Economic Growth mobiles.
1. By the end of 1945, war-induced prosper- 7. The growth of this military-industrial es-
ity had made the United States the richest tablishment had a dramatic impact on na-
country in the world, a preeminence that tional priorities. Between 1900 and 1930,
would continue unchallenged for twenty excepting World War I, the country spent
years. less than 1 percent of Gross Domestic
2. American economic leadership abroad Product (GDP) on the military. By the
translated into affluence at home; domes- early 1960s the figure had risen close to 10
tic prosperity benefited a wider segment of percent.
society than anyone had thought possible 8. America’s annual GDP jumped from $213
in the dark days of the Great Depression. billion in 1945 to more than $500 billion
3. A meeting in Bretton Woods, New Hamp- in 1960; by 1970, it approached $1 trillion.
shire, established the U.S. dollar as the To working Americans, this sustained eco-
capitalist world’s principal reserve cur- nomic growth meant a 25 percent rise in
rency and resulted in the creation of two real income between 1946 and 1959. Post-
global institutions—the International war prosperity also featured low inflation.
Bank for Reconstruction and Develop- 9. Even so, the picture was not entirely rosy.
ment (World Bank) and the International The distribution of income remained
Monetary Fund (IMF).
4. The World Bank provided private loans 409
for the reconstruction of war-torn Europe

410 Chapter 27: The Age of Affluence, 1945–1960 8. Climbing the corporate ladder rewarded
men without hard edges—the “well ad-
stubbornly skewed, with the top 10 per- justed.” In The Lonely Crowd (1950) the
cent of Americans earning more than the sociologist David Riesman contrasted the
bottom 50 percent. Moreover, the econ- independent businessmen and profession-
omy was plagued by periodic recessions, als of earlier years with the managerial
damaging especially to the most disadvan- class of the postwar world. He concluded
taged Americans. that the new corporate men were “other-
B. The Corporate Order directed,” more attuned to their associates
1. For more than half a century, American than driven by their own goals.
enterprise had favored the consolidation
of economic power into big corporate C. Labor-Management Accord
firms. That tendency continued as domes- 1. For blue-collar workers, collective bar-
tic and world markets increasingly over- gaining after World War II became for the
lapped after 1945. first time the normal means for determin-
2. The classic, vertically integrated corpora- ing how their labor would be rewarded.
tion of the early twentieth century had 2. General Motors implacably resisted this
produced a single line of goods that “opening wedge” into the rights of man-
served a national market. This strategy agement. The company took a 113-day
worked even better in the 1950s, when so- strike, rebuffed the government’s interven-
phisticated advertising and the modern tion, and soundly defeated the United
media enabled large corporations to break Auto Workers (UAW) union. Having
into hitherto resistant markets. made its point, General Motors laid out
3. National firms now added a new strategy the terms for a durable relationship. It
of diversification. CBS, for example, hired would accept the UAW as its bargaining
the Hungarian inventor Peter Goldmark, partner and guarantee GM workers an
who perfected color television during the ever higher living standard.
1940s, long-playing records in the 1950s, 3. The price was that the UAW abandon its
and a video recording system in the 1960s. assault on the company’s “right to man-
4. More revolutionary was the sudden rise age.” On signing the five-year GM contract
of the conglomerates, giant enterprises of 1950—the Treaty of Detroit, it was
comprised of firms in unrelated in- called—Walter Reuther, the leader of the
dustries. Conglomerate-building resulted UAW, accepted the company’s terms.
in the nation’s third great merger wave 4. In postwar Europe, America’s allies were
(the first two had taken place in the 1890s constructing welfare states. That was the
and the 1920s). Because of their diverse preference of American unions as well. But
holdings, conglomerates shielded them- having lost the bruising battle in Washing-
selves from instability in any single market ton for national health care, they turned to
and seemed better able to compete the bargaining table. By the end of the
globally. 1950s, union contracts commonly pro-
5. Expansion into foreign markets also vided defined-benefit pension plans (sup-
spurred corporate growth. At a time when plementing Social Security), company-
“made in Japan” still meant shoddy work- paid health insurance, and for two million
manship, U.S. products were considered workers, mainly in steel and auto, a guar-
the best in the world. anteed annual wage (via supplementary
6. In their effort to direct such giant enter- unemployment benefits).
prises, managers placed more emphasis on 5. The sum of these union gains was a new
planning. Companies recruited top execu- sociological phenomenon, the “affluent”
tives who had business-school training, worker—as evidenced by relocation to the
the ability to manage information, and suburbs (half of all workers by 1965), by
skills in corporate planning, marketing, homeownership, by cars and other
and investment. durable goods, and, infallible sign of rising
7. To man their bureaucracies, the postwar expectations, by installment buying. For
corporate giants required a huge supply of union workers, the contract became, as
white-collar foot soldiers. They turned to Reuther boasted, the passport into the
the universities, which, fueled partly by middle class.
the GI Bill, grew explosively after 1945.

6. The labor-management accord that gener- Chapter 27: The Age of Affluence, 1945–1960 411
ated labor’s good life seemed in the 1950s
absolutely secure. The union rivalries of practice continued until the civil rights
the 1930s had abated. In 1955, the laws of the 1960s banned private dis-
industrial-union and craft-union wings crimination.
joined together in the AFL-CIO, repre- 8. New growth patterns were most striking
senting 90 percent of the nation’s 17.5 in the South and West, where inexpensive
million union members. land, unorganized labor, low taxes, and
warm climates beckoned; California grew
7. Though impressive, the labor-management the most rapidly.
accord was never as durable as it seemed. 9. Automobiles were essential to the growth
Vulnerabilities lurked, even in the accord’s of suburbs and to the development of the
heyday. For one thing, the sheltered mar- “Sun Belt”; the 1950s gas guzzlers became
kets—the essential condition—were in fact symbols of status and success.
quite fragile. 10. Highways were funded by federal govern-
ment programs such as the National In-
8. The postwar labor-management accord, it terstate and Defense Highway Act of 1956;
turns out, was a transitory event, not a air pollution and traffic jams soon became
permanent condition of American eco- problems in cities.
nomic life. And, in a larger sense, that was 11. As Americans began to drive to suburban
true of the postwar boom. It was a transi- shopping malls and supermarkets, down-
tory event, not a permanent condition. town retail economy dried up, helping to
precipitate the decay of the central cities.
II. The Affluent Society B. The Search for Security
A. The Suburban Explosion 1. There was a reason for Congress calling
1. Americans began to leave older cities in the 1956 legislation creating America’s
the North and Midwest for newer ones in modern freeway system the National Inter-
the South and West; there was also a state and Defense Highways Act. The four-
major shift from city to the suburbs. lane freeways, used every day by com-
2. Both processes were stimulated by the muters, might some day, in a nuclear war,
dramatic growth of a car culture and the evacuate them to safety. That captured as
federal government’s support of housing well as anything the underside of postwar
and highway initiatives. life, when suburban living abided side by
3. By 1960, more Americans lived in suburbs side with the shadow of annihilation.
than in cities; because few new dwellings 2. The Cold War, reaching as it did across the
had been built during the depression or globe, was omnipresent at home as well,
war years, the country faced a housing permeating domestic politics, intruding on
shortage. the debate over racial injustice, and creat-
4. Arthur Levitt applied mass-production ing an atmosphere that stifled dissent.
techniques to home construction; other 3. Most alarming was the nuclear stand-off
developers followed suit in subdivisions all with the Soviet Union. Bomb shelters and
over the country, hastening the exodus civil defense drills provided a daily re-
from farms and cities. minder of mushroom clouds. In the late
5. Many homes were financed with mort- 1950s, a small but growing number of citi-
gages from the Federal Housing Adminis- zens raised questions about radioactive
tration (FHA) and the Veterans Adminis- fallout from above-ground bomb tests.
tration at rates dramatically lower than 4. By the late 1950s, public concern over nu-
those offered by private lenders, demon- clear testing had become a high-profile
strating the way the federal government issue, and new antinuclear groups such as
was entering and influencing daily life. SANE (the National Committee for a Sane
6. New suburban homes, as well as their Nuclear Policy) and Physicians for Social
funding, were reserved mostly for whites; Responsibility called for an international
some homeowners had to sign a restric- test ban.
tive covenant prohibiting occupation in 5. In an age of anxiety, Americans yearned
the development by blacks, Asians, or for a reaffirmation of faith. Church mem-
Jews. bership jumped from 49 percent of the
7. Although Shelley v. Kraemer (1948) ruled population in 1940 to 70 percent in 1960.
that restrictive covenants were illegal, the

412 Chapter 27: The Age of Affluence, 1945–1960 worthy about American families after
World War II. First, marriages were re-
People flocked especially into the evan- markably stable. Not until the mid-1960s
gelical Protestant denominations, which did the divorce rate begin to rise sharply.
benefited from a remarkable new crop of Second, married couples were intent on
preachers. Most notable was the young having babies. After a century and a half of
Reverend Billy Graham, who made bril- decline, the birth rate shot up: more babies
liant use of television, radio, and advertis- were born between 1948 and 1953 than
ing to spread the Gospel. were born in the previous thirty years.
6. The resurgence of religion, despite its 2. To keep all those baby-boom children
evangelical bent, had a distinctly moderate healthy and happy, middle-class parents
tone. An ecumenical movement bringing increasingly relied on the advice of ex-
Catholics, Protestants, and Jews together perts. Dr. Benjamin Spock’s best-selling
flourished, and so did a concern for the Baby and Child Care sold a million copies
here and now. a year after its publication in 1946. Spock
C. Consumer Culture urged mothers to abandon the rigid feed-
1. In some respects, postwar consumerism ing and baby care schedules of an earlier
seemed like a return to the 1920s—an generation.
abundance of new gadgets and appliances, 3. The baby boom had a vast impact on
more leisure time, the craze for automo- American society. All those babies fueled
biles, and new types of mass media. Yet the economy as families bought food,
there was a significant difference. In the diapers, toys, and clothing for their ex-
1950s, consumption became associated panding broods. The nation’s educational
with citizenship. Buying things, once a sign system also got a boost. The new middle
of personal indulgence, now meant fully class, America’s first college-educated gen-
participating in American society and, eration, placed a high value on education.
moreover, fulfilling a social responsibility. Suburban parents approved 90 percent of
2. As in the past, product makers sought to proposed school bond issues during the
stimulate consumer demand through ag- 1950s.
gressive advertising. More money was E. Contradictions in Women’s Lives
spent in 1951 on advertising ($6.5 billion) 1. Parents of baby boomers were expected to
than on primary and secondary education adhere to rigid gender roles as a way of
($5 billion). maintaining the family and undergirding
3. Advertising heavily promoted the appli- the social order.
ances that began to fill the suburban 2. Men were expected to conform to an ideal
kitchen, many of them unavailable during that emphasized their role as responsible
the war, others new to the postwar mar- breadwinners, while women were advised
ket. In 1946 automatic washing machines that their proper place was in the home.
replaced the old machines with hand- 3. Endorsing what Betty Friedan called the
cranked wringers, and clothes dryers also “feminine mystique”—the ideal that “the
came on the market. highest value and the only commitment
4. TV’s leap to cultural prominence was swift for women is the fulfillment of their own
and overpowering. There were only 7,000 femininity”—psychologists pronounced
sets in American homes in 1947, yet a year motherhood the only “normal” female sex
later the CBS and NBC radio networks role and berated mothers who worked
began offering regular programming, and outside the home.
by 1950 Americans owned 7.3 million TV 4. Many working-class women embraced
sets. Ten years later, 87 percent of Ameri- their new roles as housewives, while at the
can homes had at least one television set. height of the postwar period more than a
5. What Americans saw on television, besides third of women held jobs outside the
the omnipresent commercials, was an home and coincided with a dramatic rise
overwhelmingly white, Anglo-Saxon world in the number of older, married, middle-
of nuclear families, suburban homes, and class women who took jobs.
middle-class life. 5. Women justified their jobs as an extension
D. The Baby Boom of their family responsibilities, enabling
1. The baby boom era increased the size of
American families. Two things were note-

their families to enjoy more of the fruits Chapter 27: The Age of Affluence, 1945–1960 413
of the consumer culture.
6. Working women still bore full responsibil- 3. The federal government welcomed Mexi-
ity for child care and household manage- can labor under its bracero program but
ment, allowing families and society to deported those who stayed illegally; 4 mil-
avoid facing the social implications of lion Mexicans were deported during “Op-
women’s new roles, departing significantly eration Wetback.”
from the cultural stereotypes.
F. Youth Culture 4. Residents of Puerto Rico had been Ameri-
1. The emergence of a mass youth culture can citizens since 1917, so they were not
had its roots in the democratization of subject to immigration laws; they became
education and the increasing purchasing America’s first group to immigrate by air.
power of teenagers.
2. America’s youth were eager to escape sub- 5. Cuban refugees were the third largest
urban conformity, and they became a dis- group of Spanish-speaking immigrants;
tinct new market that advertisers eagerly the Cuban refugee community turned
exploited. Miami into a cosmopolitan, bilingual city
3. What really defined this generation’s almost overnight.
youth culture was its music; the rock-and-
roll that teens were attracted to in the 6. Internal migration from rural areas
1950s was seen by white adults as an invi- brought large numbers of people to the
tation to race-mixing, sexual promiscuity, cities, especially African Americans, after
and juvenile delinquency. the introduction of innovations like the
G. Cultural Dissenters mechanical cotton-picker, which reduced
1. Postwar artists, musicians, and writers ex- southern demand for labor.
pressed their alienation from mainstream
society through intensely personal, intro- 7. By 1960, about half of the nation’s black
spective art forms. population was living outside the South,
2. Jackson Pollock and other painters re- compared with only 23 percent before
jected the social realism of the 1930s for World War II.
an unconventional style that became
known as abstract expressionism, which 8. After the 1953 “Termination” programs,
captured the chaotic atmosphere of the many Indians settled together in poor
nuclear age. urban neighborhoods alongside other
3. A similar trend developed in jazz, as black nonwhite groups; many found it difficult
musicians originated a hard-driving im- to adjust to an urban environment and
provisational style known as “bebop.” culture.
4. The Beats were a group of writers and
poets who were both literary innovators B. The Urban Crisis
and outspoken social critics of middle- 1. Between 1950 and 1960, the nation’s
class conformity, corporate capitalism, twelve largest cities lost 3.6 million whites
and suburban materialism; they inspired a and gained 4.5 million nonwhites.
new generation of rebels in the 1960s. 2. As affluent whites left the cities, urban tax
III. The Other America revenues shrank, leading to the decay of
A. Immigrants and Migrants services and infrastructure; growing racial
1. With jobs and financial resources flowing fears accelerated “white flight” to the sub-
to the suburbs, urban newcomers inher- urbs in the 1960s.
ited a declining economy and a decaying 3. In the inner cities, housing continued to
environment—the “Other America.” be a crucial problem; urban renewal pro-
2. The War Brides Act, the Displaced Persons duced grim high-rise housing projects
Act, the McCarran-Walter Act, and the re- that destroyed community bonds and cre-
peal of the Chinese Exclusion Act all ated anonymous open areas that were vul-
helped to create an influx of immigrants nerable to crime.
into American cities. 4. Postwar urban areas increasingly became
places of last resort for America’s poor;
once there, they faced unemployment,
racial hostilities, and institutional barriers
to mobility.
5. Two separate Americas emerged: a largely
white society in suburbs and an inner city
populated by blacks, Latinos, and other
disadvantaged groups.

414 Chapter 27: The Age of Affluence, 1945–1960 the White House. In the meantime, how-
ever, NAACP lawyers Thurgood Marshall
6. In the turbulent decade to come, the con- and William Hastie had been preparing
trast between suburban affluence and the the legal ground in a series of test cases
“other America” would spawn growing de- challenging racial discrimination, and in
mands for social change that the nation’s 1954 they hit pay dirt.
leaders in the 1960s could not ignore. 7. A landmark civil rights case, the Brown v.
Board of Education decision involved
C. The Emerging Civil Rights Struggle Linda Brown, a black pupil in Topeka,
1. In the South, segregation prevailed after Kansas, who had been forced to attend a
World War II. In most southern states, distant segregated school rather than the
blacks could not eat in restaurants patron- nearby white elementary school. The
ized by whites or use the same waiting NAACP’s chief counsel, Thurgood Mar-
rooms and toilets at bus stations. All shall, argued that such segregation, man-
forms of public transportation were dated by the Topeka Board of Education,
rigidly segregated by custom or by law. was unconstitutional because it denied
Even drinking fountains were labeled Linda Brown the “equal protection of the
“White” and “Colored.” laws” guaranteed by the Fourteenth
2. The battle against racial injustice, as it Amendment.
took shape after World War II, proceeded 8. In a unanimous decision on May 17, 1954,
on two tracks—on the ground, where the Supreme Court agreed, overturning
blacks began to stand up for their rights, the “separate but equal” doctrine of Plessy
and in the courts and corridors of power, v. Ferguson.
where words sometimes mattered more 9. In the South, however, the call went out
than action. for “massive resistance.” A Southern Mani-
3. During World War II, the National Associ- festo signed in 1956 by 101 members of
ation for the Advancement of Colored Congress denounced the Brown decision
People (NAACP) redoubled its efforts to as “a clear abuse of judicial power” and
combat discrimination in housing, trans- encouraged their constituents to defy it.
portation, and other areas. Black demands That year 500,000 southerners joined
for justice continued into the postwar White Citizens’ Councils dedicated to
years, spurred by symbolic victories, as blocking school integration. Some whites
when Jackie Robinson broke through the revived the old tactics of violence and in-
color barrier in major league baseball by timidation, swelling the ranks of the Ku
joining the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. Klux Klan to levels not seen since the
4. African American leaders also had hopes 1920s.
for President Truman. Although capable 10. President Eisenhower accepted the Brown
of racist language, Truman supported civil decision as the law of the land, but he
rights on moral grounds. He understood, thought it was a mistake and was not
moreover, the growing importance of the happy about committing federal power to
black vote in key northern states, a fact enforce it.
driven home by his surprise 1948 victory. 11. A crisis in Little Rock, Arkansas, finally
Truman also worried about America’s forced his hand. In September 1957, nine
image abroad. It didn’t help that the black students attempted to enroll at the
Soviet Union often compared the South’s all-white Central High School. Governor
treatment of blacks with the Nazis’ treat- Orval Faubus called out the National
ment of the Jews. Guard to bar them. Then the mob took
5. Lacking support in Congress, Truman over. Every day the nine students had to
turned to executive action. In 1946 he ap- run a gauntlet of angry whites chanting
pointed a National Civil Rights Commis- “Go back to the jungle.” As the vicious
sion, whose 1947 report called for robust scenes played out on television night after
federal action on behalf of civil rights. In night, Eisenhower acted. He sent 1,000
1948, under pressure from A. Phillip Ran- federal troops to Little Rock and national-
dolph’s Committee against Jim Crow in ized the Arkansas National Guard, order-
Military Service, Truman signed an execu- ing them to protect the black students.
tive order desegregating the armed forces.
6. With Dwight Eisenhower as president,
civil rights no longer had a champion in

Chapter 27: The Age of Affluence, 1945–1960 415

Eisenhower thus became the first presi- of properties to classes of the population consid-
dent since Reconstruction to use federal ered “undesirable,” such as African Americans,
troops to enforce the rights of blacks. Jews, or Asians. Such clauses were declared unen-
12. The Brown decision validated the forceable by the Supreme Court decision in Shelley
NAACP’s legal strategy, but white resis- v. Kraemer (1948) but continued to be instituted
tance also revealed that winning in court informally despite the ruling. (838)
was not enough. Prompted by one small
act of defiance, southern black leaders em- Lecture Strategies
braced nonviolent protest.
13. On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, a seam- 1. Compose a lecture focusing on the shift in the
stress in Montgomery, Alabama, refused to economy from producing goods to providing ser-
give up her seat on a city bus to a white vices and what that change meant for the labor
man. She was arrested and charged with force and for organized labor in particular. What
violating a local segregation ordinance. factors went into creating this shift? Note that
14. Once the die was cast, the black commu- women and ethnic minorities occupy the lowest
nity turned for leadership to the Reverend rungs of the service economy. Describe the way in
Martin Luther King Jr., the recently ap- which high-wage blue-collar work was replaced by
pointed pastor of Montgomery’s Dexter low-wage white-collar and service jobs, and ex-
Street Baptist Church. The son of a promi- plain why it drove more women into the work-
nent black minister in Atlanta, King em- place.
braced the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi,
whose campaigns of passive resistance had 2. Create a lecture analyzing the impact of suburban-
led to India’s independence from Britain in ization on American cities. Students should see the
1947. After Rosa Parks’s arrest, King en- ways in which federal financing of home mort-
dorsed a plan by a local black women’s or- gages and highway construction spurred the
ganization to boycott Montgomery’s bus growth of suburbs at the expense of inner-city re-
system until it was integrated. newal, often at a high cost to minorities. The ex-
15. The Montgomery bus boycott catapulted ample of the Levittown developments can help to
King to national prominence. In 1957, illustrate this process.
along with the Reverend Ralph Abernathy,
he founded the Southern Christian Lead- 3. Write a lecture focusing on aspects of contempo-
ership Conference (SCLC), based in At- rary urban life and the federal policies of the 1945
lanta. The black church, long the center of to 1965 period that helped to create cities that
African American social and cultural life, were increasingly inhabited by the poor. The
now lent its moral and organizational process of urban renewal and patterns of racial
strength to the civil rights movement. discrimination tended to force African Americans
16. The battle for civil rights entered a new and other nonwhite ethnic minorities into dense
phase in Greensboro, North Carolina, on and racially isolated sections of older cities.
February 1, 1960, when four black college
students took seats at the “whites-only” 4. Changes in U.S. immigration laws and shifts in
lunch counter at the local Woolworth’s. patterns of external and internal migration began
They were determined to “sit in” until to change the demographic profile of the American
they were served. Although they were ar- population. Write a lecture examining the process
rested, the sit-in tactic worked—the Wool- by which an increasing number of Spanish-
worth lunch counter was desegregated— speaking groups came to reside in certain urban
and sit-ins quickly spread to other areas at the same time that the cities were experi-
southern cities. encing a decline in services and infrastructure.
17. The victories so far had been limited, but Students should see how the loss of entry-level un-
the groundwork was laid for a civil rights skilled employment in the inner cities affected the
offensive that would transform the na- prospects of the urban poor.
tion’s race relations.
5. Students need to have a clear picture of the depth
Key Term and breadth of racial segregation in the South be-
fore the civil rights movement. Write a lecture fo-
restrictive covenant Limiting clauses in real estate cusing on the impact of racial segregation on black
transactions intended to prevent the sale or rental self-esteem, as well as its economic, political, and
social effects. Daily annoyances involving terms of
address, treatment in commercial establishments

416 Chapter 27: The Age of Affluence, 1945–1960

and at lunch counters, and the lack of “colored” during the 1930s that led to a rise in power by
toilet facilities should be pointed out. The implica- unions during the post-war period.
tions of school segregation should be explored. • A general acceptance of collective bargaining on
the part of management was achieved without
6. The role of television in the 1950s should be ex- the stop of strikes and other labor activities. The
plored so that students can see its importance in result for workers was a rise in income, an in-
fostering the consumer culture and forming im- crease in the social safety net, and an increase in
ages of the “typical” American family. Write a lec- leisure.
ture analyzing the impact of TV and the elements
of American life that were not visible on the The Affluent Society (pp. 837–849)
screen, as well as the ones that were. The implica-
tions of mass media as commercial enterprises 1. In what ways does the growth of the Sun Belt re-
need to be discussed. What did it mean when TV flect key themes of the suburban explosion?
programming was described as “a vast wasteland”?
• The widespread and abundant land of the Sun
7. Much has been made of the baby boom that oc- Belt facilitated suburban growth, as did the surg-
curred in the period after World War II. Write a ing population of the Sun Belt from World War
lecture that answers the following questions: What II defense industry growth.
factors contributed to this development? How did
this phenomenon change the childrearing prac- • Increasing demands for energy and water by
tices of the period? What new or expanding occu- suburban growth created environmental and
pations relied on this development? What were the health problems. So did the increase of car con-
implications of this demographic shift for the lives gestion that fed pollution.
of women and adolescents?
2. What was the relationship between consumer cul-
Reviewing the Text ture and the emphasis on family life in the postwar
era?
These questions are from the textbook and follow each
main section of the narrative. They are provided in the • Buying more things put more people to work,
Computerized Test Bank with suggested responses, for including the head of the family. Buying more
your convenience. things also offered more leisure time for families
to enjoy. An emphasis on social conformity by
Economic Powerhouse (pp. 832–837) parents was also fed by an increase in consumer
culture during the 1950s.
1. In what ways is the prosperity of the 1950s ex-
plained by the Cold War? 3. Is it correct to say that the 1950s was exclusively a
time of cultural conformity?
• Tensions of the Cold War were fed by an increase
in military spending to increase the size of the • Dissenters did arise during the decade, including
U.S. nuclear arsenal. An increase in military the rebellion of youth personified by the Beat
spending put more people to work at higher generation and the rise of rock and roll through
paying jobs, fueling prosperity of the 1950s. Elvis Presley. Artists, writers, and musicians ex-
pressed alienation from the conformity theme of
2. Why is “the man in the gray flannel suit” the rep- American society in their work.
resentative businessman of the 1950s?
The Other America (pp. 849–858)
• University educated, he emphasized conformity,
professionalism, loyalty, sacrifice, a heightened 1. What were the most significant migration trends
sense of the importance of organization, and in this era?
continual absence from home to serve business
needs. • Important migrations included Latinos from
Mexico, Cuba and Puerto Rico; Native Ameri-
3. What do we mean by the “labor-management cans moving from rural reservations to urban
accord”? areas; and blacks continued migration to urban
southern regions as part of the Great Migration
• Labor-management accord refers to the new re- that began before World War II.
lationship between labor and capital formed
2. What were the key components of the urban crisis?

Chapter 27: The Age of Affluence, 1945–1960 417

• Contraction of manufacturing sector in favor of music, art, and literature who felt that the white
service industry, increase of population, increase middle-class suburban ideal of conspicuous
of poverty, increase of urban renewal, increase of consumption and conformity did not meet the
anti-black and racist sentiment towards incom- needs or realities of poor nonwhites and cultural
ing urban immigrants, white flight to the sub- critics. They inherited a declining economy and
urbs, and a general decay of urban infra- a decaying environment in urban America.
structure. Their nonwhite, non–middle-class, and non-
conformist values placed them outside of main-
3. What is the significance of the Brown v. Board of stream America.
Education of Topeka decision?
Class Discussion Starters
• This law overturned the Plessy v. Ferguson deci-
sion of 1894 that legalized “separate but equal” 1. What were some signs of the new affluence in
and struck down legal segregation in public ed- American society after World War II?
ucation. Brown essentially made integration a
federal mission. Possible answers

Chapter Writing Assignments a. The GNP more than doubled between 1945
and 1960.
These questions appear at the end of Chapter 27 in the
textbook. They are provided in the Computerized Test b. The wages and benefits of blue-collar workers
Bank with suggested responses, for your convenience. rose.

1. How do you account for the economic prosperity c. Many people were able to build new homes in
of the postwar era? the suburbs.

• Victory by the United States during World War d. There was a rapid increase in consumer spend-
II made the United States the most powerful na- ing.
tion in 1945, the absence of devastation at home
compared to Europe saved Americans from a e. More young people were able to attend college.
lengthy postwar recovery, the increase in popu-
lation fed by the end of the war provided more f. Automobile ownership became a status symbol
workers for American industry, and the rise of in popular culture.
the military-industrial complex increased man-
ufacturing efficiency and the rise of cheaper 2. How did automobile ownership affect American
consumer goods. culture after World War II?

2. Why did the suburb achieve paramount signifi- Possible answers
cance for Americans in the 1950s?
a. Automobiles were essential to suburban growth.
• With the surge in U.S. population figures during
the “baby boom” era, suburbs grew in number b. Automobiles became symbols of status and
and size. The suburbs absorbed the new popula- wealth.
tion and emphasized cultural conformity
through material consumption and competition c. Construction of highways expanded rapidly,
between families for displays of status. The sub- notably the interstate highway system.
urb became the primary experience through
which the white middle class interpreted a new d. The development of the Sun Belt states pro-
American identity, one based on material con- ceeded at a rapid pace as automobiles made
formity and competition. travel accessible and the transportation of
goods and services easier.
3. Who were the people who occupied “the Other
America”? Why were they there rather than in 3. What important changes in the world of work
mainstream America? began to appear in the 1950s?

• The other America included immigrants from Possible answers
Latin America, internally colonized ethnic mi-
norities, working-class whites, and dissenters in a. The labor force began to shift from blue-collar
to white-collar employment.

b. The economy began to shift from industrial to
service oriented.

418 Chapter 27: The Age of Affluence, 1945–1960

c. The increasing availability of higher education b. To afford the family lifestyle called for by the
led to the emergence of a new managerial class. consumer culture, more middle-class women
entered the labor force.
d. Women and minorities were drawn into low-
paying, dead-end service occupations. c. Because more married women with children
were employed, many of them found them-
e. The rising productivity of agribusiness led to a selves with two full-time jobs: one in the work-
decline in the number of agricultural workers. place and one at home.

4. What factors contributed to the demographic d. Many poor and minority-group women found
changes that took place during the postwar years? their lives further constricted by the demands
of trying to maintain an adequate standard of
Possible answers living for their larger families.

a. The shift in the industrial economy from the 7. Why, during this time of unprecedented afflu-
Northeast and Midwest to the Sun Belt led to a ence, did so many Americans remain impover-
similar shift in the population. ished?

b. Federal support for low-cost mortgages and Possible answers
highway construction led to the expansion of
the suburbs. a. Many agricultural workers of all races were dis-
placed by the rise of agribusiness and often
c. New patterns of external and internal migra- ended up in urban ghettos.
tion increased the concentration of the poor in
declining inner cities. b. The decline of blue-collar employment in the
Northeast and Midwest left many workers un-
d. Urban renewal in the older cities led to the iso- employed.
lation of nonwhite minorities.
c. Long-existing pockets of rural poverty in Ap-
e. The rising birthrate and declining death rate palachia and the South were untouched by the
caused a baby boom in the early 1950s. affluence of the period.

5. What was the relationship between the advent of d. The movement of employment opportunities
television and the rise of consumer culture? from the cities to the suburbs led to an increase
in joblessness and poverty within cities.
Possible answers
e. African Americans and other nonwhite minor-
a. By 1960, the majority of American families had ity groups continued to experience racial dis-
television sets, so advertising on television crimination in housing and employment,
helped to create a common mass-consumer which made it difficult to overcome poverty.
market.
f. Many people employed in the growing low-
b. The depictions of ideal family settings in tele- wage service sector of the economy were unable
vision programming enticed viewers to pur- to earn enough to escape from poverty.
chase similar items and to behave in similar
ways, so as to be like the characters on the Classroom Activity
screen.
1. Create the conditions for an in-class debate about
c. Glimpses of exotic domestic and foreign loca- the issues of conformity and nonconformity dur-
tions on the screen helped to alter the vacation ing the 1950s. Students’ interests could be used as
patterns of the population, leading to increased a focal point—such as music—to discuss the
spending on leisure. “Other America” and its views of mainstream cul-
ture of the 1950s. The goal is for students to more
6. What impact did the baby boom have on the lives deeply understand the conflicting values of the era
of women? and why so many young people of the 1950s be-
came the hippies of the late 1960s.
Possible answers

a. The existence of a “feminine mystique” led
many educated women to forsake careers in
order to focus on motherhood.

Chapter 27: The Age of Affluence, 1945–1960 419

Oral History Exercise 4. McCain speaks knowingly of the figures and
ideas that influenced him. Why do you suppose
• Ask students to find someone who lived during McFerren is silent about such matters? If he had
the 1950s, preferably a baby boomer, to inter- spoken up, do you suppose he would have—or
view regarding their early life. After assisting stu- should have—mentioned Booker T. Washington
dents develop a list of questions, focus the inter- (see Chapter 20)?
views around the basic issue of values and events
experienced during the era. Be sure to steer them • McFerren is from an older and more rural gen-
toward discovering how these individuals re- eration of blacks, influenced by the depression
sponded to conformity at the cultural and per- and World War II, during which most minorities
sonal level during the 1960s as well. were fearful of resisting discrimination for fear
of KKK reprisal.
Working with Documents
• Booker T. Washington, the black leader who em-
COMPARING AMERICAN VOICES phasized economic and political equality before
achieving social equality, would be a natural in-
Challenging White Supremacy (p. 856) spiration to this man.

1. McCain took a stand on segregated lunch coun- VOICES FROM ABROAD
ters. McFerren took a stand on the right to vote.
Why did they choose different targets? Does it Hanoch Bartov:
matter that they did? Everyone Has a Car (p. 840)

• They chose different targets because the civil 1. From Bartov’s observations, what are the pluses
rights movement was complex, and McCain was and minuses of America’s car culture? In what ways
an urban student interested in social equality, was the automobile changing American society?
whereas McFerren was an older and rural prop-
erty owner who wanted equality in the political • Minuses include no incentive to develop public
process and business world. transportation, the growth of suburbia, a
stretched-out city that requires long-distance
• Their choices represent the various strategies travel and more commuting, and more cars on
undertaken by different interest groups during the road.
the civil rights movement.
• Pluses include freedom and independence to
2. McCain speaks of the sense of “manhood” he felt travel great distances and visit places.
as he sat at that Woolworth’s counter. Would that
feeling have been enough to satisfy McFerren? 2. Why did Bartov find owning a car was necessary,
especially in southern California?
• McFerren wants more than just to feel like a man
in terms of social equality. He realized that only • Great distances to public institutions required a
with equality at the voting booth and in business car, as public transportation was minimal and
affairs could violence and social discrimination unpredictable.
decrease toward African Americans.
3. Everyone, of course, didn’t have a car. Who, ac-
3. Almost certainly, McCain and McFerren never cording to Bartov, used public transportation?
met. Suppose they had. What would they have had
in common? Would what they had in common • The city’s poorest and neediest residents, includ-
have been more important than what separated ing the elderly. People who essentially were too
them? poor or no longer able to own a car owing to
health or age reasons.
• They would share more in common than they
had differences, including the general battle to Reading American Pictures
win the civil rights movement, an understanding
of black culture and racism, the desire for social The Cold War and the
equality, access to the ballot box, economic Civil Rights Movement (p. 854)
equality, and the willingness to put their lives on
the line to achieve freedom and equality in the 1. How has the artist’s drawing for the Arkansas
present day. Democrat-Gazette depicted Little Rock segrega-
tionists? Are they the kind of people that the car-

420 Chapter 27: The Age of Affluence, 1945–1960

toonist thinks should be representing America be- Electronic Media
fore the world?
Web Sites
• The artist depicted segregationists as playing
into the hands of Communist propagandists, • Civil Rights Oral History Interviews: Spokane,
who were arguing that the U.S. system of Washington
democracy was hollow owing to exploitation of http://www.wsulibs.wsu.edu/holland/masc/
African American people. xcivilrights.html
This site is a civil rights oral history project
• Segregationists are not the kind of people whom organized around the memories of men and
the artist wanted to advertise American values to women from Spokane, Washington.
the world.
• The African American Odyssey: A Quest for Full
2. Why do you suppose the Oakland Tribune’s artist Citizenship
omitted African Americans and depicted the crisis http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/aaohtml/
as a battle between two groups of whites? Why is exhibit/aointro.html
“The Whole Wide World” paying such close atten- This Library of Congress exhibit explores
tion? black America’s quest for political, social, and
economic equality from slavery through the
• The artist left out blacks because the Little Rock mid-twentieth century.
battle was really between moderate and conser-
vative whites in the decision to allow blacks to • Central High Crisis: Little Rock, 1957
attend Little Rock High School. http://www.ardemgaz.com/prev/central
A collection of newspaper articles and
• The whole world was watching owing to the photographs from two Arkansas newspapers
contradictions of segregation in American covering the crisis in Little Rock.
democratic society, television footage show-
casing the event to foreign audiences, and the Films
fact that the esteemed U.S. Supreme Court had
desegregated public schools in the Brown v. • Eyes on the Prize: America’s Civil Rights Move-
Board of Education decision. ment 1954–1985 Parts 1–6 (1987, PBS Television
Series, 8 hours)
3. Do both cartoons convey the same message, or do Directed by Henry Hampton, this minis-
they suggest different perspectives on the issue? eries documentary is perhaps the best general
overview of the civil rights movement.
• The cartoons reflect a similar perspective: The
tensions surrounding the Little Rock integration • Rebel without a Cause (1955, Warner Bros. Pic-
divided the southern white community and pro- tures, 120 min)
vided negative publicity for the United States. Starring James Dean, this classic film exam-
ines the issue of conformity and nonconformity
4. As historical evidence, how useful do you think within the youth culture of the 1950s.
these cartoons are at explaining why Americans
began to take the civil rights struggle seriously in • On the Waterfront (1954, Columbia Pictures, 120
the 1950s? min)
Starring Marlon Brando, this film sheds
• The cartoons are quite useful though limited in light on the issue of dissent against the govern-
some respects. They do demonstrate that whites ment that captivated American public attention
were becoming increasingly interested in a black during the era of the “Great Fear” over Commu-
movement for social equality. They also show nism.
how the issue had clearly begun to divide the
white community, owing in part to communism Literature
and world opinion.
• John Kenneth Galbraith, The Affluent Society
(New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1998)
The classic text on the growth of prosperity
among postwar Americans.

Chapter 27: The Age of Affluence, 1945–1960 421

Additional Bedford/St. Martin’s • TO SECURE THESE RIGHTS: The Report of Harry S.
Resources for Chapter 27 Truman’s Committee on Civil Rights, Edited with
an Introduction by Steven F. Lawson, Rutgers Uni-
FOR INSTRUCTORS versity

Transparencies • BROWN V. BOARD OF EDUCATION: A Brief History
with Documents, by Waldo E. Martin Jr., Univer-
The following maps and images from Chapter 27 are sity of California, Berkeley
available as full-color acetates:
• U.S. Environmentalism since 1945: A Brief History
• Life in the Suburbs with Documents, by Steven Stoll, Yale University
• Map 27.1 Shifting Population Patterns, 1950–
• The Rise of Conservatism in America, 1945–2000: A
1980 Brief History with Documents, by Ronald Story,
• Map 27.2 Connecting the Nation: The Interstate University of Massachusetts-Amherst, and Bruce
Laurie, University of Massachusetts-Amherst
Highway System, 1930 and 1970
• “Careful, the Walls Have Ears” • Women’s Magazines, 1940–1960: Gender Roles and
• “Right into Their Hands” the Popular Press, Edited with an Introduction by
Nancy A. Walker, Vanderbilt University
Instructor’s Resource CD-ROM
FOR STUDENTS
The following maps, figures, and images from Chapter
27, as well as a chapter outline, are available on disc in Documents to Accompany America’s History
both PowerPoint and jpeg formats:
The following documents and illustrations are avail-
• Map 27.1 Shifting Population Patterns, 1950– able in Chapter 27 of the companion reader by Kevin
1980 J. Fernlund, University of Missouri–St. Louis:

• Map 27.2 Connecting the Nation: The Interstate 1. George M. Humphrey, The Interstate Highway
Highway System, 1930 and 1970 System (1955)

• Figure 27.1 Gross Domestic Product, 1930–1972 2. Herbert Block, “Let’s See, Now—Where Can We
• Figure 27.2 Labor Union Strength, 1900–1997 Raise More Taxes?” (1953)
• Figure 27.3 The American Birthrate, 1860–1980
• Figure 27.4 Legal Immigration to the United 3. Help Wanted—Women (1957)
4. Green Acres (1950)
States by Region, 1931–1984 5. Neil Morgan, The Footloose Migration (1961)
• Life in the Suburbs 6. Carey McWilliams, North from Mexico (1949)
• “Careful, the Walls Have Ears” 7. Herbert Gans, Boston’s West Enders (1962)
• “Right into Their Hands” 8. What Does Chicago’s Renewal Program Mean?

Using the Bedford Series with (1963)
America’s History, Sixth Edition 9. Michael Harrington, The Other America (1962)

Available online at bedfordstmartins.com/usingseries, Online Study Guide at
this guide offers practical suggestions for incorporat- bedfordstmartins.com/henretta
ing volumes from the Bedford Series in History and
Culture into the U.S. History Survey. Relevant titles for The Online Study Guide helps students synthesize the
Chapter 27 include material from the text as well as practice the skills his-
torians use to make sense of the past. The following
• The Movements of the New Left, 1950–1975: A visual and documents activities are available for Chap-
Brief History with Documents, by Van Gosse, ter 27:
Franklin and Marshall College
Visual Activity
• American Social Classes in the 1950s: Selections
from Vance Packard’s THE STATUS SEEKERS, Edited • Reading American Pictures: The Cold War and the
with an Introduction by Daniel Horowitz, Smith Civil Rights Movement
College
Reading Historical Documents Activities
• Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and the Civil
Rights Struggle of the 1950s and 1960s: A Brief His- • Comparing American Voices: Challenging White
tory with Documents, by David Howard-Pitney, Supremacy
De Anza College
• Voices from Abroad: Hanoch Bartov: Everyone
Has a Car

422 Chapter 27: The Age of Affluence, 1945–1960

Critical Thinking Modules at
bedfordstmartins.com/historymodules

These online modules invite students to interpret
maps and audio, visual, and textual sources centered
on events covered in the U.S. History Survey. The rele-
vant module for Chapter 27 is

• The Rise of the Republican Party in the Sunbelt
and the South, 1960–1980