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The Postwar Years at Home

The Postwar Years at Home. 1945 - 1960. Setting the Scene. Returning soldiers wanted to get on with their lives. Women had “ nest eggs ” STRONG desire for consumer goods and homes. Setting the Scene. Marriage rate skyrocketed Baby boom Suburbs boomed By 1960 75% owned a car

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The Postwar Years at Home

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  1. The Postwar Years at Home 1945 - 1960

  2. Setting the Scene • Returning soldiers wanted to get on with their lives. • Women had “nest eggs” • STRONG desire for consumer goods and homes.

  3. Setting the Scene • Marriage rate skyrocketed • Baby boom • Suburbs boomed • By 1960 • 75% owned a car • 80% had television

  4. Businesses Reorganize • GDP BOOMED! • Per capita Income increased • Industries quickly switched from war goods to consumer goods

  5. Industries Make Changes • The growth of conglomerates and corporations. • Less family owned businesses

  6. Growth of Restaurants • The Birth of Fast Food • The birth of the franchise

  7. Technology Transforms Life • TELEVISION! • By 1955 families watched 4 – 5 hours of tv a day.

  8. Favorite Shows: • I Love Lucy!

  9. Favorite Shows • Father Knows Best

  10. Favorite Shows • Leave It To Beaver

  11. Favorite Shows • Howdy Doody

  12. Favorite Shows • The Mickey Mouse Club

  13. Favorite Shows • American Bandstand

  14. Television • ONLY 3 networks on until 1970. • CBS • NBC • ABC

  15. The Computer Industry • Grace Hopper (Admiral) pioneered the first computers • Invented the term “debugging”

  16. The invention of the TRANSISTOR • First circuit device that amplifies, controls and generates electrical signal. • Didn’t take as much space.

  17. Nuclear Power • Ideas that nuclear power would be part of everyday lives. • Nuclear wallpaper • Nuclear children’s toys

  18. Advances in Medicine • 1954 - Dr. Jonas Salk: Polio Vaccine • Penicillin – the first antibiotic • Improvements in surgery

  19. Changes in the Work Force • 1940: • 55.2% workers blue collar • 44.8 white collar workers • 1960: • 56.2% white collar workers • 43.8% blue collar workers

  20. White Collar Worker Drawbacks • Often impersonal • Less connection with products and services • Employees felt pressure to dress, think and act alike

  21. Suburbs and Highways • The Baby Boom • 1940s’– 19 births per 1,000. • 1957 30 births per 1,000! • Baby Boom Generation 1945 - 1963

  22. Moving to the Suburbs • With growing families • With new prosperity • Families wanted to live more “nuclear” • Families wanted “modern” housing.

  23. Moving to the Suburbs • Families wanted ranch-style houses. • Quickly assembled tract homes for the growing demand.

  24. Cars and Highways • To follow customers, downtowns moved to strip malls closer to the suburbs.

  25. Cars and Highways • Public transportation often didn’t reach to the the suburbs. • More demand for cars. • Cars were status symbols (were?)

  26. Cars and Highways • 1950s – auto makers began to do yearly models with new and improved features. • 1948 – 1958 car sales went up 50%

  27. Growth of the Car Culture • People wanted to travel • 1956 – the Federal Highway Act, started the interstate system through the country. • I – 80 in Nebraska completed in 1968

  28. Little Known Fact About Interstates • Bigger lanes were meant for quicker evacuation of cities in case of nuclear attack and quicker movement of military equipment.

  29. Car Culture created changes: • Gas Stations • Drive-in Movies • Drive-in restaurants. • Urged people to take trips and see the USA.

  30. Growth of Consumer Credit • The birth of the credit card! • Counter checks

  31. The Mood of the 1950s • Comfort and security. • After the insecurities and “doing without” in the Depression and WWII – people didn’t want conflict.

  32. The Mood of the 1950s • Americans encouraged conformity as a way of achieving harmony between individuals and groups. • Compromise over conflict was the motto

  33. Comfort and Security: Tootle the Engine • Children’s book • Powerful parable “Always stay on the track no matter what.” • Tootle the little engine in “Engineville”

  34. Youth Culture: The Silent Generation • Little interest in the problems and crises of the world. • Strong economy allowed more teens to stay in school rather than leaving to find jobs.

  35. Youth Culture: The Silent Generation • Students had more leisure time to be in sororities / fraternities. • Lots of parties

  36. Youth Culture: The Silent Generation • Advertising and movies built an image of how teens should look. • Bobby socks • Poodle skirts • Letter sweaters • “Clean cut” teens

  37. Teen Girls: Conformity • About the only acceptable jobs for teen girls was babysitting. • With the Baby Boom there were LOTS of jobs. • Building their “Hope Chests” • Cabinets for things they would need as brides or new wives. • Silver, linens, and bridal stuff

  38. Resurgence in Religion • Church attendance was up. • Was it in response to “godless communism”? • Was it to protect against nuclear war?

  39. Resurgence in Religion • Dial-a-Prayer phone lines • “The Family that prays together, stays together.” • Televangelists like Billy Graham • 1959 – 95% of Americans said they felt connected to formal religious groups

  40. Government in Religion • 1954 –“Under God” added to the Pledge of Allegiance • 1955 –“In God We Trust” added to our money. • Felt it would show us who the Communists were.

  41. Men’s and Women’s Roles • Men • Go to school, find a job, support the wife and children. • Earn the money and make important political, economical, and social decisions. • Be part of the world

  42. Men and Women’s Roles • Play a supporting role to husband’s life. • Keep house • Cook meals • Raise children • Hostess • Do volunteer work • PTA, Campfire Girls, etc.

  43. Challenges to Conformity • Social conformity made it easy to mask the differences among individuals and groups. • Ethnicity was discouraged.

  44. Women at Work • Not all women left the workforce when they got married. • 1950 – 24% of workforce was women • 1960 – 31% was women.

  45. Women at Work • Accepted in traditional jobs • Secretaries, teachers, nurses and sales clerks

  46. “Typical” Woman in 1950s • Woman married at 16 • 4 children • Kept busy with PTA, Campfire Girls, charity causes • Home manager, mother, hostess and useful civic worker.

  47. Challenges to Conformity • Betty Friedan “The Feminine Mystique” • 1963 • First voice to say women were frustrated with their roles in the 1950s.

  48. “The Feminine Mystique” • “It was unquestioned gospel that women could identify with nothing beyond the home – not politics, not art, not science, not events large or small, unless it could be approached through female experience as a wife or mother or translated into domestic detail.” • Betty Friedan

  49. Youthful Rebellions: Not every train was on the track! • Rebel Without a Cause – • James Dean became a symbol of rebellion • Catcher in the Rye – • Holden Caulfield troubled by “phonies” around him.

  50. The Birth of Rock and Roll! • Alan Freed – DJ in Cleveland Ohio in 1951. • Came up with the description of a new type of rhythm and blues sound. • RADICAL! He played both black and white musicians.

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