Post War US

Post War Period

1945-1975

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Social

As a result of the new economic prosperity in the United States after World War II, the standard of living and access to
opportunities for Americans increased significantly (with some exceptions).

By 1959, the vast majority of the American population had private pensions. Moreover, the 40-hour week and paid
leave were introduced during this time, and the number of domestic holiday destinations and parks increased.

Many families left the city and moved to the suburbs for a quieter life. By 1960, around one-third of the population
lived in the suburbs, attracted by lower house prices and interest rates. Greater prosperity and soldiers returning from
war resulted in a 'baby boom' in the post-war period.

How did US society benefit after WWII?

Access to social welfare improved significantly as private

insurance programmes such as the Blue Cross expanded their

networks, giving more Americans access to medical protection.

As well as the veterans who received education via the GI Bill,

in general, the percentage of Americans graduating from

university or high school increased, as did the number of

universities opening every year.

The war effort meant many women entered the
world of work for the first time due to increased
labour needs.

When the war ended, women left the workforce as
soon as they entered it, making way for veterans to
take their jobs back.

As a result, the idea of the "ideal woman" emerged,
one who focused on marriage, children, and
domestic duties.

In the post-war period, the Civil Rights Movement took off.

African Americans did not experience the same prosperity as
their white counterparts in the post-war period.
In 1947, around 60% of African American families lived below
the poverty line, and although it had been 80 years since the
abolition of slavery by the end of World War II, systematic
discrimination against Black Americans continued.

The South in particular still had the Jim Crow laws, which
legalised segregation until the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

The Civil Rights Movement is the greatest mass movement in US
history, and was a key element of post-war US society,
transforming the racial dynamics of America.

Social Continued

Date

Event

1954

The Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Board of Education that
segregation in schools was unconstitutional.

1955

The Montgomery Bus Boycott began.

1957

A group of African American students was prevented from
entering a school in Little Rock; President Eisenhower sent the
army to protect them.

1963

250,000 people gathered at the Lincoln Memorial for the March
on Washington where Martin Luther King Jr. gave his ‘I Have a
Dream’ speech.

1966

The famous Black Panther Party was founded.

Reorder

Reorder the following

• The Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Board of Education that segregation in schools was unconstitutional.

• The Montgomery Bus Boycott began.

• A group of African American students was prevented from entering a school in Little Rock; President Eisenhower sent the army to protect them.

• 250,000 people gathered at the Lincoln Memorial for the March on Washington where Martin Luther King Jr. gave his ‘I Have a Dream’ speech.

• The famous Black Panther Party was founded.

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The second superpower that emerged from the war was the Soviet Union or the
(USSR), and the relations between the two nations would dominate
international affairs for most of the 20th century.

Immigration quotas put in place in 1924 were upheld in 1952 by the
McCarran-Walter Act.

These quotas were already very tight but they also favored immigrants from
Northern and Western Europe.

As the beginning of the Cold War immigrants are screened much more heavily to
rule out potential spies.

Political

Operation Wetback (1954)

Immigrants from Central and South America had
a hard time after the war. For example, in 1954,
President Eisenhower launched Operation
Wetback, which aimed to send millions of
Mexican immigrants back to Mexico, regardless
of whether they were legal or illegal immigrants.

The Cold War consisted of numerous crises
and proxy wars that only ended when the

USSR collapsed in 1991.

The Berlin Blockade (1948-9).

The Korean War (1950-3).
The Vietnam War (1955-75).

The Cuban Missile Crisis (1962).

Initial reactions to the threat of communism:

In 1948, President Truman introduced the Marshall Plan

to rebuild European nations after WWII to prevent the

appeal of or imposition of communism.

In 1949, the United States formed the North Atlantic

Treaty Organisation (NATO) to defend against

communism.

McCarthyism (hearings)

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The fear of ​

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influenced events at home. For instance, the post-war ​

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dominated US society, especially through what is known as ​

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.

Drag these tiles and drop them in the correct blank above

communism

Red Scare

McCarthyism

Cold War policy was also dominated by the arms race - the constant push to have a higher quantity and
quality of nuclear weapons. After the USSR successfully tested its own atomic bomb in 1949, the race well
and truly began.

Interaction with Environment & Tech

Oceans during World War II were
damaged not only from chemical
contaminants, but also from
wreckage from naval ships.

Oil contamination in the Atlantic
Ocean due to World War II
shipwrecks is estimated at over 15
million tonnes.

The environmental effects of World
War II were seen across the globe,
from forest fires in the United
States, to severe sand storms in
North Africa.

1952

On November 1, 1952, the United
States successfully detonated
“Mike,” the world's first hydrogen
bomb, on the Eniwetok Atoll in the
Pacific Marshall Islands.

American culture developed in new ways, made possible by the end of the war and technological developments.
Radio had been popular during the war, but television was hot on its heels; equally, the Golden Age of Hollywood was
still in full swing in the post-war era.

Music began to change with the development of rock and roll, which became incredibly popular amongst young
people.

Women were happy with having experienced freedom during the war only to be confined to the home on its end. This
led to the rise of feminism; the dissatisfaction of women in the post-war period was famously described in Betty
Friedan's best-selling book The Feminine Mystique (1963).

Art forms like literature and music helped social and political causes as well, as women and African Americans started
to write about their experiences and the need for change.

Cultural

Economics

●Better economic position than any other post-war nation.

●None of the war was fought in the USA which meant that casualties were much

lower than in European nations and infrastructure damage was non-existent

●An estimated 400,000 soldiers were killed during the war, the attack on Pearl

Harbour was a significant loss and America had to enforce rationing.

●Factories that had focused on wartime production were re-converted to

mass-producing consumer goods, now with new technologies.

●The expansion of the middle class in well-paid jobs meant that there were more

people with more money to spend, which they used to buy consumer luxuries.

●Two of the largest unions, the American Federation of Labour (AFL) and the

Congress of Industrial Organisation (CIO) merged together and began to

organise large-scale industrial action, giving workers better wages and

therefore more money to spend.

Although many Americans began to
live the 'American Dream', this was
not the case for everyone. The
wealth gap between rich and poor
was staggeringly large,
unemployment was a big issue, and
racial discrimination was
widespread amongst employers.