01:512:205 Lecture 37: Chapter 37
18 May 2018
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Chapter 37: The Cold War Begins, 1945-1952
Postwar Economic Anxieties
• The American people (140 million) cheered their nation’s victories at the end
of WW II
• In the 1930s joblessness and insecurity had pushed up the suicide rate and
dampened the marriage rate—war had banished the blight of depression
• The economy faltered in the initial postwar years as the gross national product
slumped in 1946 and 1947 from its wartime peak and with the removal of price
controls, prices shot up 33%
• Epidemic of strikes swept the country (4.6 million in 1946 alone)—annoyed
many conservatives
• In 1947 a Republican Congress passed Taft-Hartley Act over President
Truman’s veto (slave labor law) that outlawed closed (all-union) shop, made
unions liable for damages resulting from jurisdictional disputes among
themselves, and made union leaders to take a noncommunist oath
• Labor’s postwar efforts to organize in the South and West were hard
compared to the Northeast’s
• CIO’s Operation Dixie aimed at unionizing southern textile workers and
steelworkers and failed miserably in 1948 to overcome lingering fears of racial
mixing; workers in the growing service sector of the economy proved much
more difficult to organize (part-time, women)
• Union membership peaked in the 1950s and began a long, unremitting decline
• Democratic administration took steps to forestall an economic downturn by
selling war factories to private businesses and secured passage of the
Employment Act (1946) that created a Council of Economic Advisers in
promoting maximum employment, production, and purchasing power
• The Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944, the GI bill, made generous
provisions for sending the former soldiers to school—fear that employment
markets would not be able to absorb 15 million returning veterans at war’s
end—8 million veterans proceeded to advance their education
• Act enabled the Veterans Administration to guarantee $16 billion in loans for
veterans to buy homes, farms, and small businesses—nurtured economic
expansion in the late 1940s
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•
The Long Economic Boom, 1950-1970
• GNP began to climb haltingly in 1948 and by 1950 the American economy
surged onto a plateau of sustained growth that lasted for two decades
(national income doubling in 1950s and 1960s)
• This economic boom transformed the lives of a majority of citizens; prosperity
underwrote social mobility and paved the way for the eventual success of the
civil rights movement and gave Americans confidence to exercise
unprecedented international leadership in the Cold War era
• Millions of souls sought to make up for the sufferings of the 1930s depression
• Americans owning own homes, cars, washing machines, and 90% owned a
television set (1920s)
• Urban offices and shops provided a bonanza of employment for female
workers; the majority of new jobs created in the postwar era went to women—
boom of the service sector (1/4 women)
• Culture glorified traditional feminine roles of homemaker and mother—feminist
revolt in 1960s
The Roots of Postwar Prosperity
• WW II provided a powerful stimulus; US had used the war crisis to fire up its
factories and rebuild its depression-plagued economy—much of the prosperity
of the 1950s and 1960s rested on the underpinnings of colossal military
budgets (permanent war economy)
• The economic upturn of 1950 was fueled by massive appropriations for the
Korean War and defense spending accounted for some 10 percent of the
GNP (aerospace, plastics, electronics)
• The military budget financed much scientific research and development
• Cheap energy fed the economic boom; American and European companies
controlled the flow of abundant petroleum from the Middle East and kept
prices low (consumption of oil)
• Americans engineered a six-fold increase in the country’s electricity-
generation capacity
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find more resources at oneclass.com
• Workers chalked up spectacular gains in productivity (rising educational level
of work force)
• Productivity was the key to prosperity and doubled the average American’s
stand of living
• There was an accelerating shift of the work force out of agriculture, which
achieved productivity gains virtually unmatched by any other economic sector
(giant agribusinesses thanks to mechanization and new fertilizers as well as
gov’t subsidies and price supports)
The Smiling Sunbelt
• The economic changes of the post-1945 period shook and shifted the
American people, amplifying the population redistribution set in motion by
World War II; Americans on the move
• Families felt the strain as distances divided parents from children and siblings
from one another
• Popularity of advice books on child rearing—Dr. Spock’s The Common Sense
Book of Baby and Child Care—instructed millions of parents on how to take of
their children
• Striking was the growth of the Sunbelt—a fifteen-state area stretching from
Virginia through Florida and Texas to Arizona and California—region
increased in population at double the rate
• In 1950s, CA accounted for one-fifth of the entire nation’s population growth
(most populous)
• The South and Southwest were a new frontier for Americans after World War
II; pioneers came in search of jobs, a better climate, and lower taxes (jobs in
abundance, military installations)
• Federal dollars poured into the Sunbelt but southern and western politicians
led the cry against gov’t spending—shifts of population and wealth broke
historic grip of the North on political life
The Rush to the Suburbs
• In all regions America’s migrants (if they were white) fled from the cities to the
new suburbs as gov’t policies encouraged this movement—Federal Housing
Administration (FHA) and Veterans Administration (VA) home-loan guarantees
made it more economically attractive to own a home
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Postwar economic anxieties: the american people (140 million) cheered their nation"s victories at the end of ww ii. In 1947 a republican congress passed taft-hartley act over president. Korean war and defense spending accounted for some 10 percent of the. The smiling sunbelt: the economic changes of the post-1945 period shook and shifted the. American people, amplifying the population redistribution set in motion by. World war ii; americans on the move: families felt the strain as distances divided parents from children and siblings from one another, popularity of advice books on child rearing dr. Book of baby and child care instructed millions of parents on how to take of their children: striking was the growth of the (cid:1688)sunbelt(cid:1689) a fifteen-state area stretching from. Virginia through florida and texas to arizona and california region increased in population at double the rate.
