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1950s

Terms in this set (35)

How did the Kitchen Debate embody the essence of Cold War politics?
At the height of the Cold War, in 1959, U.S. Vice President Nixon debated Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev on the merits if Pepsi-Cola, TV dinners, and electric ovens. Face-to-face at the opening of an American exhibition in Moscow, Nixon and Khrushchev strolled through a model American home, assembled to demonstrate the consumer products available to the typical citizen of the United States. Nixon explained to Khrushchev that although the Soviet Union may have had superior rockets, the US was ahead in other areas, such as color television. This was Cold War politics by other means- a symbolic contest over which country's standard of living was higher.
What was the main idea behind the Bretton Woods system?
An international conference in New Hampshire in July 1944, that established the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). It established an international framework for overseeing trade rules and practices. The chief idea of the system was to make American capital available, on cheap terms, to nations that adopted free-trade capitalist economies.
Why was the World Bank established after WWII?
The World Bank created to provide loans for the reconstruction of war-torn Europe as well as for the development of former colonized nations- the so-called Third World or developing world.
What was the purpose of the creation of the International Monetary Fund (IMF)?
The IMF was set up to stabilize currencies and provide a predictable monetary environment for trade, with the US dollar serving as the benchmark. It was created to primarily to ensure the stability of the global monetary system in turn creating a safe environment for international trade.
Why is the Military-Industrial Complex so important?
Eisenhower warned about the military-industrial complex, in his farewell address, because he feared of allowing this complex to take control the US. It is a nation's military establishment, as well as the industries involved in the production of armaments and other military materials.
How did Sputnik contribute to the Space Race?
The Soviet Union launched the world's first satellite, Sputnik, in 1957, the startled United States went into higher gear to catch up in the Cold War space competition.
What did the National Defense Education Act symbolize?
The NDEA of 1958 funneled millions of dollars into American universities, helping institutions become the leading research centers in the world.
What is the idea of "Affluent Society" during the Cold War?
In The Affluent Society (1958), which analyzed the nation's successful, "affluent" middle class, economist John Kenneth Galbraith argued that the poor were only an "afterthought" in the minds of economists and politicians, who largely celebrated the new growth.
Why was the GI Bill important?
The Bill gave educational opportunities to war veterans. The GI Bill stimulated the economy and expanded the middle class in another way: by increasing home ownership and job opportunities.
What is the purpose of the Veterans Administration (VA)?
In cities and suburbs across the country, the VA, which helped former soldiers purchase new homes with no down payment, sparked a building boom that created jobs in the construction industry and fueled consumer spending in home appliances and automobiles.
How did collective bargaining and trade unions change in the Cold War era?
Organized labor also expanded the ranks of the middle class. For the first time ever, trade unions and collective bargaining became major factors in the nation's economic life. The power balance shifted during the Great Depression, and by the time the dust settled after WWII, labor unions overwhelmingly represented America's industrial workforce. By the beginning of the 1950s, the nation's major industries, including auto, steel, clothing, chemicals, and virtually all consumer product manufacturing, were operating with union contracts.
What new term characterized youth culture in a Cold War- consumer world?
One of the most striking developments in American life in the postwar decades was the emergence of the teenager as a cultural phenomenon. Ads targeted the teenagers with their small incomes.
What was the Beats Movement?
Beats were a group of writers and poets centered in New York and San Francisco who disdained middle-class materialism. The Beats glorified spontaneity, sexual adventurism, drug use, and spirituality.
Why was the Baby Boom important?
A popular 1945 song was called "Gotta Make Up for Lost Time," and Americans did just that. Marriages were more stable and married couples were intent on having babies. More babies were born in the 6 years between 1948 and 1953 than in the previous 30 years.
What did Alfred Kinsey argue?
Kinsey researched sexual practices of Americans. He argued that Americans were much more sexually active than most believed. Kinsey revealed that homosexuality was more common than most believed, especially among men.
Why was the SCOTUS ruling of Shelley vs. Kraemer (1948) important?
In Shelley vs. Kraemer (1948), the Supreme Court outlawed restrictive covenants, but racial discrimination in housing changed little. The practice persisted long after Shelley, because the FHA and VA continued the policy of redlining: refusing mortgages to African Americans and members of other minority groups seeking to buy in white neighborhoods. Indeed, no federal law- or even Court decisions like Shelley- actually prohibited racial discrimination in housing units Congress passed the Fair Housing Act in 1968.
How did the Federal Housing Administration shape the suburban nation?
The FHA provides mortgage insurance on loans made by FHA-approved lenders throughout the US and its territories. The FHA and VA brought the home mortgage market within the reach of a broader range of Americans than ever before.
Why was there an increase in homeowners from 1945-1960?
within a decade, farmland on the outskirts of cities filled up with tract housing and shopping malls. By 1960, one-third of Americans lived in the suburbs. People were earning higher incomes which combined with the consumer culture, encouraged more to buy homes.
What did the National Interstate and Defense Highways Act do?
The National Interstate and Defense Highways Act authorized $26 billion over a ten-year period for the construction of a nationally integrated highway system- 42,500 miles.
Why were more highways being built? What does that say to the broader theme during the Cold War?
More cars required more highways, and the federal government obliged. Cast as a Cold War necessity because broad highways made evacuating crowded cities easier in the event of a nuclear attack.
How did the food and restaurant industry change?
No one was more influential in creating suburban patterns of consumption than a Chicago-born son of Czech immigrants named Ray Kroc. Kroc bought McDonald's from the brothers and turned it into the largest chain of restaurants in the world. Based on inexpensive, quickly served hamburgers that hungry families could eat in the restaurant, in their cars, or at home, Kroc's vision transformed the way Americans consumed food. "Drive-in" or "fast" food became a staple of the American diet.
Why were people moving to the Sunbelt?
Suburban living, although a nationwide phenomenon, was most at home in the Sunbelt (the southern and southwestern states), where taxes were low, the climate was mild, and open space allowed for sparking subdivisions.
Why was the Kerner Commission formed?
In 1968, a report by the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders (informally known as the Kerner Commission and formed by the president to investigate the causes of the 1967 urban riots), delivered to President Johnson, warned that "our nation is moving toward two societies, one black, one white, and separate and unequal."
What was the urban crisis during the 1950s?
The intensification of poverty, the deterioration of older housing stock, and the persistence of racial segregation produced what many at the time called the urban crisis.
How did life for immigrants change in the 1950s?
Most immigrants gravitated towards major cities; however, immigration remained relatively low and slowly increased every 10 years.
How did productivity and efficiencies change in major industries?
From 1947-1975, worker productivity more than doubled across the whole of the economy. American factories replaced manpower with machines, substituting cheap fossil energy for human muscle. As industries mechanized, they could turn out products more efficiently and at lower costs.
What was the primary idea behind "The Other America" during the 1960s?
In the Other America (1962), the left-wing social critic Michael Harrington chronicled "the economic underworld of American life," and a US government study, echoing a well-known sentence from Franklin Roosevelt's second inaugural address, declared "one-third of the nation" to be poorly paid, poorly educated, and poorly housed. It appeared that in economic terms, as the top and the middle converged, the bottom remained far behind
How was the 1920s and 1950s similar in mass consumption and how were they different?
The postwar decades seemed like the 1920s all over again, with an abundance of new gadgets and appliances, a craze for automobiles, and new types of mass media. Yet there was a significant difference: in the 1950s, consumption became associated with citizenship. Buying things, once a sign of personal indulgence, now meant participating fully in American society and, moreover, fulfilling a social responsibility.
What is a consumer republic as coined by historians?
Increased educational levels, growing home ownership, and high wages all enabled more Americans than ever before to become members of what one historian has called a consumer republic.
What did postwar America emphasize in terms of culture?
The postwar nation had an emphasis on nuclear families and suburbs. In the emerging suburban nation, three elements came together to create patterns of consumption that would endure for decades: houses, cars, and children.
What was consumption like for the American people?
Consumption for the home, including automobiles, drove the postwar American economy as much as, or more than, the military-industrial complex did. People bought more homes which included all items inside the home. Children encourage consumption with meeting their needs with the increase in birth rate.
How did technology change in the Cold War era?
The emergence of commercial television in the US was swift and overwhelming. In the realm of technology, only the automobile and the personal computer were its equal in transforming everyday life in the 20th century. In 1947, there were 7,000 TV sets in American homes. A year later, the CBS and NBC radio networks began offering programming, and by 1950 Americans owned 7.3 million sets.
How did advertising change in the 1950s?
By creating powerful visual narratives of comfort and plenty, television revolutionized advertising and changed forever the ways products were sold to American, and global, consumers.
What new type of music emerged during the Cold War?
What really defined the youth culture, however, was its music. Rejecting the romantic ballads of the 1940s, teenagers discovered rock n' roll (Elvis Presley), which originated in African American rhythm and blues.
How did religion change in the Middle Class- who was Billy Graham?
Americans yearned for a reaffirmation of faith. Church membership jumped form 49 percent of the population in 1940 to 70 percent of the population in 1960. People flocked to the evangelical Protestant denominations, beneficiaries of a remarkable are crop of preachers. Most eloquent was the young Reverend Billy Graham, who made brilliant use of television, radio, and advertising. He believed that Americans that so long as they lived moral lives, they deserved the material blessings of modern life.
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