The document summarizes major economic, social, political, and technological developments in the United States from 1945-1960. Key points include: - Rapid economic growth during this period with GDP up 250% and low unemployment and inflation. This was fueled by increased government spending and a strong postwar economy. - Population growth due to the postwar baby boom increasing the population from 150 million to 179 million from 1950-1960. - Suburbanization and rise of mass-produced housing developments like Levittown, fueling car-dependent lifestyles. - Advances in science and technology including the polio vaccine, color TV, and the transistor as well as the beginning of the space race. - Eisenhower

1. The
Affluent
Society
Chapter 28

2. Economic Growth
1945-60 GNP up 250%
Unemployment 5%
Inflation 3%

3. WHY?
Government spending:
Defense & highway
program

4. Economic Growth
4.7% through 1956
2.25% after

5. Baby Boom
US population:
150m in 1950
179m in 1960

6. Milk: 97 cents/gal
What Things Cost in 1956:
Car: $2,100
Gasoline: 30 cents/gal
House: $17,800
Bread: 18 cents/loaf
Postage Stamp: 3 cents
Stock Market: 499
Average Annual Salary: $5,300
Minimum Wage: $1.00 per hour

7. Keynesian Economics
Varying flow of government
spending and the supply of
currency a state can stimulate
or slow the economy

8. Theory used to recover from
53 recession
In 57 Ike won’t do it-slows
recovery

9. Business & Labor
Conglomerates- by 1960 50%
of corporate income made by
top 1/10% or top 500

10. POSTWAR CONTRACT
Unions get raises & benefits
Agree not to ask for voice in
management & production

11. UAW get automatic cost of
living increases based on
consumer price index

12. Union Troubles
Teamsters President Dave Beck
forced to resign
Jimmy Hoffa goes to jail
Mine Workers Pres. Tony Boyle
convicted on murder charges

15. Science &
Technology

16. 1950 UNIVAC

17. 1954
Jonas
Salk-
polio

18. 1950’s color
TV

19. 1948
Transistor

20. 1952 H-Bomb

21. SPACE RACE

22. 1957 Sputnik
Why is this
a threat?

23. Vanguard
Rocket
Launched
December 6,
1957
Vanguard

24. April 12,1961
Yuri Gagarin

25. Alan
Sheppard
1st
American
in Space
May 1961

26. John Glen
1st
American
in orbit
February
1962

27. Mercury-
Atlas
Rocket

28. Gemini
Project

29. Ed White 1st space walk

30. Apollo 1
January 27, 1967
Gus Grissom
Ed White
Roger Chaffee

33. Apollo 11

35. July 20, 1969

36. Consumer Culture
Large scale advertising on TV
Mickey Mouse Club made
demand for Disney products

38. 26,000 sold per week

42. Levittown

43. William Levitt
Mass production of homes
2 Bedroom home on a slab
$90 down $58 per week
Mortgages by GI Bill

44. Burbs have sense of community
*Mostly young families
*Husbands work
*Wives stay home-get involved
with PTA and Torch Drive

45. Move to suburbs truly makes
America an automobile
culture

46. Drive in
Restaurants

48. 1950’s
Zenith
TV

51. 1946 17,000 TV Sets
1957 40,000,000
More people had TV’s
than Refrigerators

52. Mr.
Television
Milton Berle

53. Lucy
&
Desi

54. Your
Show
of
Shows

56. Philco Television Playhouse

57. Leave it
to
Beaver

58. Ozzie
and
Harriet

61. Rawhide
Clint
Eastwood

62. Literature & Criticism of
American Society

63. William Whyte – The
Organization Man
Self-reliance gives
way to get along as
America stresses team
work

64. David
Riesman
The Lonely
Crowd
Inner directed
gives way to
other directed

65. Literature of the outsider
Saul Bellow
1976 Nobel Prize

66. J. D. Salinger
The Catcher in
the Rye

67. The Beats
Most caustic critics of
American society and Middle
Class
Against sterility and
conformity of American life

68. Jack
Kerouac
On the
Road

69. Allen
Ginsberg

70. Michael Harrington
The Other America
1960 1/5 of families live in poverty
80% of this group move in and out
20% have poverty as a continuing
existence

71. Rural Poverty
1948 Farmers got 8.9% of national
income
1956 Farmers got 4.1%
Farm prices drop 33% from 48-56

72. Changes in American Culture

73. Bebop
Dizzy Gillespie

74. Charlie
Parker
“Bird”

75. James
Dean

77. Ed
Sullivan

82. Eisenhower Administration
Cabinet made up of wealthy
corporate leaders and
lawyers

83. Charles
Wilson
Sec. of
Defense
“What’s good
for General
Motors is good
for the country”

84. Balances the budget
Adds people to Social Security
Increases min. wage to $1

85. Federal Highway Act:
40,000 miles
$25 billion 10 years
Largest public works project
in history

86. 1955:
Ike has a Heart Attack
Will he run again?

87. 1956 Ike beats Stevenson
again
457 to 73

88. Key member of the Administration is
Secretary of State John Foster Dulles
Feels containment is too passive
Believes in :
MASSIVE
RETALIATION

90. US giving aid($) to France to
help in French Indo-China-
Vietnam
French lose
1954 Geneva Accords divides
Vietnam

91. US supports
South Vietnam
leader Ngo Dinh
Diem
He refuses UN
mandated
election in 1956

92. Other Foreign Policy
Adventures
•CIA sets up the Shah
in Iran

93. U2 spy plane shot down

95. Dulles refuses loan to Egypt to
build Aswan Dam
Nasser goes to Soviets

96. Give total support to Cuban
dictator Fulgencio Batista

97. Fidel
Castro
1959

99. Castro with
Che