1950’s America An Affluent Society Consolidation & Conflict

1950’s America

An Affluent SocietyConsolidation & Conflict

Changing Economy

• Last industrial age decade

• Fewer farmers

Postwar Baby Boom & ConsumerismAdded 50 million babies by end of 1950s

(*1957) toys & baby products, schools, clothes –

“youth culture”Increased power & influence of middle class

People of Plenty Increase in consumer credit Prosperity was consumer not investment

driven

Consumer Freedom

• Luxuries become necessities• Freedom now measured by ability to

purchase• Personal life freedom replaces

workplace freedom• Cold War weapon

Suburban LifeEasy access loans, tax deductions & new

highways all incentives for movingBy 1960 - 25% suburban living Levittown & tract developments White flight by homeowners & businessesBirth of “the mall”Perceived homogeneity but diverse

Ethnically, socioeconomically, occupationally lower-middle class & affluent suburbs

Supported emphasis on family lifeAssumption/expectation: women only

worked if they had to Domestic freedoms for womenDr. Benjamin Spock – Baby and Child Care Conflicted with consumer reality of

increasingly needing 2nd income Creates conditions for women’s rights

movement of 1960s

Television Revolution in electronics inspired by

transistorSponsorship key to content decision makingadded to sense of conformity Conflicting images (Honeymooners, Amos N

Andy, I Love Lucy) portrayed as nonthreatening

Excludes real social issues & controversies

Car CultureNecessity of suburban lifestyle & status

symbol Drive-ins, drive-thrusMotel industry Fast food + drive-in + franchise =

McDonald’sMcDonaldization of America begins

Segregated Landscape/divided society

“Consensus”

Free Enterprise & Capitalism

Libertarian & New Conservatives

Dwight D. EisenhowerSeen as political outsider – very little experienceClaim to fame: military career – made Amers. feel safe b/c he was in chargeDomestic policies conservative & major changes were “brought” upon himForeign policies extension of opposition to communism“In those things which deal with people, be liberal, be human…but in those things which deal with people’s money or their economy, or in their form of government, be conservative”

Eisenhower Republicanism1st Repub. president in more than 20 yearsCabinet filled w/businessmen & admin

focused on business needs again (saw them differently now)

Supported tempered New Deal ideals Upset farmers in cuts to supports

Believed private not federal investments in development

Strove for balanced budget

“Should any political party attempt to abolish Social Security, unemployment insurance and eliminate labor and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history.”

Reversed bracero program – Operation Wetback – more than 1 million Mexicans sent home by 1954

Federal Highway Act of 1956 – bigger than any New Deal public works project - $27 billion, 42,000 milesrr not happy – especially passenger business

trainsCities feel sting of drawn off shoppers for

downtown areasAir quality & energy consumption issues

McCarthyism ContinuesWith Repub. victory, accusations grew

bolderPolls showed majority of Amers approved

crusadeEisenhower avoided conflict w/him “I will

not get in the gutter with that guy” – controlled personnel policy @ St. Dept – banned books

Army-McCarthy hearings Senate formally condemns – “conduct

unbecoming a member”

McCarthyism’s legacyHurt foreign service – International

reputation hurt When demanded

exec. files Eisenhower successfully denied turning them over so strengthened “executive privilege”

Eisenhower’s Second TermElection of 1956: Eisenhower & Stevenson again

Republican win for White House but neither house in Congress

Criticized for more recreation activities than governing

Slow to move on labor problems (7.5% unemp)Consolidation of industry and farming to few

large corporationsSerious corruption in unions

Gangsterism,strong-arming, fraud –Teamsters/HoffaLandrum-Griffin Act (1959)

Science & Technology

Medical – widespread penicillin use – TB, influenza & polio vaccinations

Decline in infant & young child mortality ratesLife expectancy increases to 71

Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane – WW2 godsend becomes household product

ComputersComputers become smaller & more

practical business toolsUNIVAC – involved in census data & predicting

pres. election (fantastic publicity) Computer tech. related to space techFocus on teaching math & science Role of German scientists ICBMs

Space ProgramSputnik (1957)NASA (1958)Gagarin 1st - Shepard 1st American (Mercury

Program)

Foreign Policy John Foster Dulles –

Sect. of St – believed containment was weak

Promised policy of “boldness” Focus on air fleet of nuclear

superbombers – cut budget but increase warheads

Strategic Air Command (SAC)“Massive retaliation” if communists over step“Brinkmanship” – art of bringing us to brink of

war as policy of winning w/out engagingCreated alliances w/non-comms (SEATO, CENTO)

Hot Spots - EuropeNikita Khrushchev –”secret speech” (1956)Hungarian Revolt (1956)Conflict over “Open skies” –mutual inspection“Berlin Crisis” (1958)“Kitchen Debate” w/Nixon (1959)Plans for Camp David meetingParis Summit fiasco

U2 spy plane (1960) Francis Gary Powers

Third World

Hot Spots – Middle East Israel relationship Iran (1953) - Mohammed Mossadegh – Reza

PahleviEgypt (1956) – Gamal Abdel Nasser (OPEC

1960)Eisenhower Doctrine (1957)Lebanon (1958) – Christians & Muslims

Hot Spots – Latin AmericaNo more Good Neighbor PolicyGuatemala (1954) – United Fruit

Company/Jacobo Arbenz Guzman Cuba (1959) Fulgencio Batista – Fidel

Castro

Hot Spots – Far EastKorean armistice (1953)Vietnam-

Nationalism v colonialismDien Bien Phu Geneva Accords

Ho Chi Minh/Vietminh & Ngo Dinh Diem

CIA – Allen Dulles – very active extension of foreign policy – The Good Shepherd

Threats not always clearly “communist” in nature – sometimes nationalism was the danger

“Both sides increasingly saw local conflicts in global terms, political conflicts in moral terms, and relative differences as absolute differences”

Not everyone was happySerious concerns over conformity &

materialismThe Lonely CrowdThe Man in the Grey Flannel SuitThe Catcher in the Rye

About 20% of nation in constant state of poverty

Rural population shrinking & many of those in agriculture economically vulnerable

Concern over urban decay

Rock &Roll

Grew out of rhythm & bluesSuggestive lyrics created even more controversy“American Bandstand” help spread moves & sounds- Dick Clark

Elvis Little RichardBuddy Holly Bill Haley

Youth CultureBeatniks – highly critical of mainstream

society’s promise of fulfillment Jack Kerouac – On the RoadAllen Ginsberg - Howl

To greater extent - solidified angst-ridden teenager

Law breaking, living fast, sexuallydriven, anti-authority

Desegregating America In 1950: 15 million black Americans (more

than 2/3 still living in South) Jim Crow laws dictate lifeOnly 20% of eligible citizens registered -fewer

than 5% in Deep South(MS & AL)Emmitt Till (1955) Robeson & Baker performing in Europe & LA publicized ugliness of segregated AmericaInternational pressure for US to live up to reputation

Rosa Parks (1955) – Montgomery bus boycott

Segregation & The Court

Vinson Court (‘46-’53) – working w/inconstraints of “Plessy”

Sweatt v Painter- black professionalschools were not equal so integrate

Warren Court (‘53-’69) – new leadership in civil rights

Brown v BOE of Topeka, Kansas- (1954) – public school segregation is “inherently unequal” – “with all deliberate speed”

Little RockEisenhower unwilling to publically support

Brown decisionOrval Faubus – Sept ‘57 - Ark. governor –

used Nat’l Guard to block 9 black students from Little Rock’s Central HS

Eisenhower couldn’t allow disregard of federal authority – 101st Airborne sent inThe “Lost Year”

Civil Rights Act of 1957 – permanent Civil Rights Commission investigating violations & allowed for federal injunctions to protect voting rights

Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) -1957- Martin Luther King, Jr (involve black churches - best organized institutions allowed to flourish under segregation)

Lunch counter sit-ins – (1960)Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee

(SNCC) Young movement – frustrated by “stately tactics” of

SCLC & “deliberate legalisms” of NAACPCivil Rights Act of 1960 – federal supervision

to guarantee no being denied right to register or vote

Brown ruling being expanded to other public facilities but de facto segregationstill in place

End of the EraElection of 1960 – Nixon/Henry Cabot Lodge

(Repub) & Kennedy/Lyndon Johnson (Dem)Amer. influence abroad waning & econ

strugglingDems represented a “New Frontier”

highlighted by new innovation – tv debateJFK’s win – closest since 1888Not a mandate!

Eisenhower’s farewell speech warns against “military industrial complex”

Legacy: solidified New Deal hold as a realityDid little to address social problems of

civil rights, urban struggles, poverty, energy

Foreign policy: empowered CIA, wavering of US role in world policy