Postwar Prosperity

Although most Americans in the 1950s assumed that the country’s prosperity provided everyone with a comfortable existence, at least one in five Americans:

• did not have access to medical care

• lived below the poverty line

• lived in crowded housing projects

• struggled against discrimination

Suburbs accounted for about 85 percent of new home construction in the 1950s, and many people believed suburbs offered:

• a better life

• the G.I. Bill

• a departure from traditional values

• homes closer to their jobs

After World War II, the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act—popularly called the G.I. Bill—made it possible for many returning soldiers to:

• find blue-collar jobs

• make careers in the military

• buy homes

• move into the nation's urban centers

A key factor that enabled the U.S. economy to continue to grow after World War II was

• expansion of the labor market

• increased consumer spending

• inflation and higher prices

• government intervention

The map shows the transportation network initiated by the Federal Highway Act in 1956. What was an important impact of this network on the United States?

• state control of immigration routes has increased

• travel and trade between states became easier and faster than before

• towns bypassed by the interstate system generally grew just as fast as those on the highways

• increased traffic made it more difficult for the armed forces to move troops around the country