Postwar America

1. Postwar America Chapter 19 Section 1 The Truman and Eisenhower administrations led the nation to make social, economic, and political adjustments following World War II http://www.affordablehousinginstitute.org/blogs/us/Levittown_house_1948_small.jpg

2. Readjustment and Recovery • Congress passed GI Bill of Rights in 1944 to help veterans return to normal life • Paid part of their tuition • Guaranteed a year’s worth of unemployment benefits • Offered low-interested, federally guaranteed loans • Returning veterans faced a severe housing shortage • William Levitt offered small homes in residential communities surrounding cities, called suburbs, for less than $7,000 • First postwar development named Levittown, located on New York’s Long Island • Divorce rates increased from the tension created by changes in men’s and women’s roles after the war http://faculty.smu.edu/dsimon/AAAAAAChange06/Change05/Feb%203/levittown.jpg

3. Economic Readjustment • After the war, nearly 3 million people were unemployed and seeking work • OPA had halted inflation by imposing maximum prices on goods, but when these controls ended, prices skyrocketed • Prices continued to rise for the next two years • By the late 40s, people had gone without goods for so long that savings were beginning to add up • Americans suddenly had to money to spend • People bought houses and automobiles • The economy boomed • New jobs were created • Foreign-aid programs, such as the Marshall Plan, provided another boost to the American economy

4. Economic Challenges • Harry S. Truman: became president after Franklin D. Roosevelt's death in 1945. • Viewed as a honorable, down-to-earth, and self confident man. “The buck stops here” • Promblems: • Strikes; 4.5 million discontented workers, including steelworkers, coal miners, and railroad workers, went on strike in 1946. • Outcome: Truman generally agrees with organized labor, but he refused to let strikes cripple the nation. Went before Congress asking for the authority to draft the workers into the army, but before he could finish the unions gave in.

5. 1946 in Congressional elections, Republican part won control of both Senate and House of Representative. Truman created a President’s Commission on Civil Rights. Asked Congress for a federal anti-lynching law, ban poll tax for a voting requirement & permanent civil rights commission. Ordered an end to discrimination in the hiring of government employees. Had Enough? Supporting African Americans

6. 1948“Whistlestop Campaign” • Dixiecrats: Southern Democrats that formed the States Rights Democratic Party and nominated their own President of South Carolina. ( Governor J. Strom Thurmond) • In Elections, Governor Thomas E Dewey gets in a comfortable lead against Truman • Truman takes his campaign to the people by traveling to one end of the county to the other by TRAIN. • Truman successfully wins the election • Fair Deal: Proposals for nationwide system of compulsory health insurance and a crop-subsidy system to provide a steady income for farmers.

7. 1952 Republicans Take the Middle Road • During 1951 President Truman approval rating sank to 23 percent with • this he decided not run in the next election. • The Democrats elected Stevenson of Illinois • General Dwight D. Eisenhower, also know as “IKE” was running for • the Republicans. He was a war hero, a conservative with money and liberal with people. • Richard M Nixon Eisenhower running mate was accused of Profiting from a secret • slush fund set up by wealthy supporters • He made a speech to 58 million people know as the “checkers Speech it was very emotional • In November 1952, Eisenhower won 55 percent of the • popular vote • In 1954 Supreme Court ruled in Brown V. Board of • education of Topeka that public schools must be racially • integrated • His administration raised the minimum wage, extended social security, and back the creation of education and welfare • His popularity soared, and he won reelection in 1956

8. True or False Review Questions • The GI Bill of Rights encouraged vets to get an education by paying part of their tuition. • In the summer of 1946 about 50 million troops had been released from the armed forces • Levitts first housing community was called Coney Island. • By helping nations in Western Europe recover from the war, the U.S. helped create strong foreign markets. • The nick name given to southern democrats was dixiecrats.

9. Answers • True • False • False • True • True