Overview of the 1950s

Dwight Eisenhower (“Ike”)

• 1945-1952: Democrat Truman clashed with Republican Congress

• High inflation, low wages led to strikes

• Congress weakened unions, outlawing “closed shops” and “sympathetic strikes” despite Truman’s veto

• 1952: War hero Eisenhower elected– Conservative financially– “Liberal when it comes to

human beings”– Favored a huge military arms

build-up, which he warned against when in his final presidential speech

Economic Growth

• Wartime factory technology efficiently made new consumer goods

• McDonald’s symbolized efficiency in “fast food”

• “Real” income = income adjusted for inflation

• 1950s real family income was twice that of 1920s (and products were more efficiently made)

• Companies encouraged purchasing:

– Shopping centers– Ads– Planned Obsolescence (always

coming out with a newer, better model)– (Remind you of cell phones?)

Blue Collar to White Collar

• Americans increasingly provided services instead of making products– Major product companies: cars,

like Ford, Chrysler, General Motors (GM)

– Services: restaurants and hotels, like McDonald’s and Holiday Inn

• “Franchises” spread new chain companies around the country– Local owners bought rights to

open a store– Company provided services,

branding, menus, etc.• White-collared workers (desk

jobs) out-numbered blue-collared workers (skilled physical work) by end of 1950s

Suburbs and the Baby Boom

• Baby Boom: children born between 1946-1964

• Huge growth in child population due to return from WW2 and prosperity

• Middle-class families moved to new “tract” homes outside of cities: suburbs– Levittown: example new NYC:

17,447 homes in just 4 years– Men commuted to city to work;

women stayed home to watch children

• Americans moved to Sunbelt (especially south west and California)

Cars and Technology

• Cars defined American life– 1956 Interstate Highway

System began– Commuting– Personal Image associated with

car– Shopping centers with parking

• Polio vaccine ended threat of polio in US

• Manhattan project created atomic bomb in 1945. 1950s saw– Nuclear power plants– Computers began to store data

and do complex calculations• Transistors replaced tubes,

shrinking electronics dramatically