Postwar Boom

Postwar Boom

By Mr. Carrasco

• The GI Bill of Rights, passed in 1944, helped returning veterans afford education and housing.

• Encouraged veterans to get an education paying for tuition

• Guaranteed a year of unemployment benefits while job hunting

• Offered low-interest loans allowing them to buy homes and farms

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The Impact of the GI Bill

• A housing shortage occurred in the years after the end of the World War

• William Levitt and Henry Kaiser used efficient, assembly-line methods to mass-produce houses (e.g., Levittown).

• Many veterans and their families moved to suburban communities where homes were as cheap as $7,000.

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Housing Crisis

• Traditionally, men were the breadwinners and heads of households, while women were expected to stay home and care for the family. Women who worked during WWII resisted returning to traditional roles.

• During the War, about 8 million women, 75 percent of whom were married, entered the paid work force.

• This shift contributed to a rising divorce rate after the war.

• By 1950, more than a million war marriages had ended in divorce.

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Social Changes

• The U.S. shifted from a wartime to a peacetime economy, the U.S. government immediately canceled war contracts totaling $35 billion and more than a million defense workers were laid off.

• Unemployment increased as veterans joined laid-off defense workers in the search for jobs.

• Price controls were lifted, causing prices to rise, but Congress reintroduced controls on wages, prices, and rents.

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Economic Transition

Multiple Choice

The Transition from a Wartime Economy went as smoothly with no issues at all

• There were minor issues but nothing significant
• The transition was flawless
• True
• False

• The economy began to recover, with a strong demand for consumer goods

• People had gone without many goods for so long that by the late 1940s, with more than $135 billion in savings from defense work, service pay, and investments in war bonds, Americans suddenly had money to spend

• Consumers snatched up everything from automobiles to houses, including cars and appliances, driven by new affluence.

• The Economy Boomed in the 1950s

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Economic Recovery

• Truman faced multiple issues after WWII, including labor unrest.

• In 1946, 4.5 million strikers, who were steel workers, coal miners, and railroad workers, threatened the economy.

• Truman, who was pro-labor, was determined to keep the country working and threatened to draft striking workers into the army.

Post-War Problems for Truman

Multiple Choice

How did Truman deal with the threat of Steel, Coal, and Railroad workers Strike?

• Truman called for a national holiday to avoid the strikes.
• Truman threatened to draft workers and used the Taft-Hartley Act to manage strikes.
• Truman supported the workers' demands and granted them all their requests.
• Truman ignored the strikes and let them proceed without intervention.

• Strikes were settled, but economic struggles such as inflation and shortages upset many Americans.

• Many voters became more conservative, leading to Republican gains in the 1946 election.

• Conservative Republicans took control of Congress.

Labor Unrest and the 1946 Election

• A wave of racial violence erupted in the South

• African Americans, particularly those who had served in the armed forces during the war, demanded their rights as citizens.

• African American leaders met with Truman to push for a federal antilynching law, an end to the poll tax, and a permanent civil rights commission.

Racial Violence and Civil Rights Demands

• Congress blocked civil rights measures.

• In 1948, Truman issued an executive order to desegregate the armed forces and end discrimination in government hiring.

• The Supreme Court ruled that African Americans couldn’t be kept from living in certain neighborhoods.

• These actions marked the start of the federal government’s commitment to racial equality.

Truman's Executive Actions on Civil Rights

• Truman faced a divided Democratic Party due to his civil rights stance.

• Southern Democrats (Dixiecrats) formed the States’ Rights Democratic Party. Nominated Governor J. Strom Thurmond of South Carolina

• Liberals created the Progressive Party.

• Opinion polls gave the Republican candidate, New York governor Thomas E. Dewey, a comfortable lead

1948 Re-election Campaign

• Truman called a Republican-dominated Congress into a special session. He challenged it to pass laws supporting such elements of the Democratic Party platform as public housing, federal aid to education, a higher minimum wage, and extended Social Security coverage.

• Not one of these laws was passed.

• Truman campaigned hard, criticizing the “do-nothing” Republican-controlled Congress, and won a narrow victory, surprising the press.

Election Upset

Multiple Choice

During the 1948 campaign Truman criticized congress for not passing any of the legislation he asked for and called it a

• Model Congress for future generations

• "Do-nothing" Congress

• The Laziest Congress in history

• Congressional Elective

• Truman’s proposed reforms were part of his “Fair Deal”, viewed as an extension of Rosevelt's New Deal

• He fought for health insurance, a crop-subsidy program, and public housing.

• Congress blocked many of these initiatives but passed increases in the minimum wage from 40 cents to 75 cents, extended Social Security to about 10 million more people, and city financial aid to clear out slums and build 810,000 housing units for low-income families.

The Fair Deal

• Truman did not seek re-election in 1952, and the main issues were the stalemate in the Korean War and McCarthyism, which cast doubt on the loyalty of some federal employees

• The Republican Party nominated General Dwight D. Eisenhower.

• Eisenhower, with his moderate policies, defeated Democrat Adlai Stevenson.

1952 Election

• Eisenhower was a popular President

• During his Presidency, he had some major achievements at home

  • Balanced the budget

  • Created the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare

  • Raised the minimum wage

  • Extended Social Security and Unemployment Benefits

  • Increased funding for public housing

  • Created the Interstate Highways

Eisenhower is Popular

Multiple Choice

Which of the following were major domestic achievements during President Eisenhower’s administration?

• Creation of the Interstate Highway System, raising the minimum wage, and extending Social Security benefits

• The Civil Rights Act, ending the Great Depression, and launching the Peace Corps

• The New Deal, establishing Medicare, and signing the Voting Rights Act

• Ending segregation in schools, proposing the Great Society, and creating the United Nations

• Under Eisenhower, two significant civil rights events occurred:

  • the Supreme Court Case Brown v. Board of Education decision (1954) that ended segregation in Public Schools

  • Rosa Parks' arrest in 1955 for refusing to give up her seat to a white man lead to the Bus boycott in Montgomery,Alabama.

Eisenhower and Civil Rights

Multiple Choice

Under President Eisenhower, which two significant civil rights events took place?

• The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the March on Washington

• The Brown v. Board of Education decision and the Montgomery Bus Boycott

• The Voting Rights Act and the Freedom Rides

• The Emancipation Proclamation and the Harlem Renaissance