Post War United States into the 1960s

The Affluent Society, Suburbia and the Baby Boom!

1950s - The Affluent Society!

1.) Corporations grew larger and more profitable

Why did Americans sense prosperity at home?

Why did Americans sense prosperity at home? 2.) Labor unions promised generous wages and benefits to their members (Taft-Hartley outlawed “closed-shop” in states – allowed “right-to-work”)

Why did Americans sense prosperity at home? 3.) Consumer goods were more plentiful and affordable than ever before (CONSUMER CULTURE)

1950's & 1960's Car Commercials - Amazing New Features!

Why did Americans sense prosperity at home? 3.) Consumer goods were more plentiful and affordable than ever before (CONSUMER CULTURE)

Why did Americans sense prosperity at

home? 4.) The G.I. Bill subsidized low-cost mortgages and scholarships for returning soldiers (Servicemen's Readjustment Act)

Why did Americans sense prosperity at home? 5.) Medical breakthroughs allowed for new treatments (radiation, chemotherapy for cancer; CPR; pacemakers for heart disease; antibiotics for TB; vaccine for polio, Jonas Salk in 1955)

Why did Americans sense prosperity at home? 5.) Medical breakthroughs allowed for new treatments (radiation, chemotherapy for cancer; CPR; pacemakers for heart disease; antibiotics for TB; vaccine for polio, Jonas Salk in 1955)

Why the Baby Boom?

3.) Americans felt certain that they could give their families all the material comfort that they themselves had done without!

1.) Older Americans, who had postponed marriage and childbirth during the Great Depression and World War II, were joined in the nation’s maternity wards by young adults who were eager to start families!

2.) Many people in the postwar era looked forward to having children because they were confident that the future would be one of comfort and prosperity…

How did Baby Boomers affect families? 1.) Confining effect on women…

How did Baby Boomers affect families? 2.) Books and magazine articles (“Don’t Be Afraid to Marry Young,” “Cooking to Me Is Poetry,”

“Femininity Begins At Home”) urged women to leave the workforce and embrace their roles as wives and mothers.

How did Baby Boomers affect families? 3.) Idea that a woman’s most important job was to bear and rear children placed the baby boomers at the center of the suburban universe – it also generated a great deal of dissatisfaction among women who yearned for a more fulfilling life.

How did Baby Boomers affect families? 4.) This dissatisfaction contributed to the rebirth of the feminist movement in the 1960s.

How did this “post war prosperity” affect the growth of the suburbs?

1.) Developers such as William Levitt (whose “Levittowns” in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania would become the most famous symbols of suburban life in the 1950s) began to buy land on the outskirts of cities and use mass production techniques to build modest and inexpensive houses. (MASS PRODUCTION)

How did this “post war prosperity” affect the growth of the suburbs?

2.) These houses were perfect for young families–they had informal “family rooms,” open floor plans and backyards–and so suburban developments earned nicknames like “Fertility Valley” and “The Rabbit Hutch.” (CONVENIENCE)

How did this “post war prosperity” affect the growth of the suburbs?

3.) The G.I. Bill subsidized low-cost mortgages for returning soldiers, which meant that it was often cheaper to buy a new suburban house than it was to rent an apartment in the city. (G.I. BILL)

How did this “post war prosperity” affect the growth of the suburbs?

4.) Automobiles once again rolled off the assembly lines of the Big Three: Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler. The Interstate Highway Act authorized the construction of thousands of miles of high-speed roads that made living farther from work a possibility.