Name: ________________________________________________ Date: _____________________________ Class: ____ The Postwar Economy: 1945-1960 In the decade and a half after World War II, States in America grew even larger. There had economic been earlier waves of mergers in the growth and consolidated its position as 1890s and in the 1920s; in the 1950s the another experienced the United After 1945 the major corporations phenomenal world's richest country. Gross wave Franchise McDonald's fast-food national product (GNP), a measure of all operations goods and services produced in the restaurants allowed small entrepreneurs United about to make themselves part of large, efficient $200,000-million in 1940 to $300,000- enterprises. Big American corporations million in 1950 to more than $500,000- also developed holdings overseas, where million labor costs were often lower. States, in jumped 1960. from More and more Americans now considered themselves part of the middle class. like occurred. Workers found their own lives changing as industrial America changed. The growth had different sources. Fewer workers produced goods; more The economic stimulus provided by large- provided services. As early as 1956 a scale public spending for World War II majority of employees held white-collar helped get it started. Two basic middle- jobs, working as managers, teachers, class needs did much to keep it going. The salespersons, and office operatives. Some number produced firms granted a guaranteed annual wage, annually quadrupled between 1946 and long-term employment contracts, and 1955. A housing boom, stimulated in part other benefits. With such changes, labor by of easily returning automobiles affordable servicemen, mortgages for militancy was undermined and some fueled the class distinctions began to fade. expansion. The rise in defense spending Farmers – at least those with small as the Cold War escalated also played a operations – faced tough times. Gains in part. productivity Free K-12 Worksheets and More led to agricultural www.STUDENTHANDOUTS.com Name: ________________________________________________ Date: _____________________________ Class: ____ consolidation, and farming became a big As suburbs into the grew, new businesses business. More and more family farmers moved areas. Large left the land. shopping centers containing a great Other Americans moved too. The variety of stores changed consumer West and the Southwest grew with patterns. The number of these centers increasing rapidity, a trend that would rose from eight at the end of World War II continue through the end of the century. to 3,840 in 1960. With easy parking and Sun Belt cities like Houston, Texas; Miami, convenient evening hours, customers Florida; Albuquerque, New Mexico; and could avoid city shopping entirely. An Phoenix, Arizona, expanded rapidly. Los unfortunate Angeles, California, moved ahead of "hollowing-out" of formerly busy urban Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, as the third cores. largest U.S. city and then surpassed New by-product highways was created the better Chicago, metropolis of the Midwest. The access to the suburbs and its shops. The 1970 census showed that California had Highway Act of 1956 provided $26,000- displaced New York as the nation's million, largest state. By 2000, Texas had moved expenditure in U.S. history, to build more ahead of New York into second place. than 64,000 kilometers of limited access An even more important form of movement led Americans out of inner the largest public works interstate highways to link the country together. cities into new suburbs, where they Television, too, had a powerful hoped to find affordable housing for the impact on social and economic patterns. larger families spawned by the postwar Developed in the 1930s, it was not widely baby boom. Developers like William J. marketed until after the war. In 1946 the Levitt built new communities – with country had fewer than 17,000 television homes that all looked alike – using the sets. Three years later consumers were techniques of mass production. Levitt's buying 250,000 sets a month, and by houses were – partly 1960 three-quarters of all families owned assembled in a factory rather than on the at least one set. In the middle of the final location – and modest, but Levitt's decade, the average family watched methods cut costs and allowed new television four to five hours a day. owners to possess a part of the American Popular shows for children included dream. Howdy Doody Time and The Mickey prefabricated Free K-12 Worksheets and More www.STUDENTHANDOUTS.com Name: ________________________________________________ Date: _____________________________ Class: ____ Mouse Club; older viewers preferred 4. What is the Sun Belt? situation comedies like I Love Lucy and ____________________________________________ Father Knows Best. Americans of all ages ____________________________________________ became ____________________________________________ exposed sophisticated to increasingly advertisements for ____________________________________________ products said to be necessary for the good life. 5. During the postwar years, many Americans left the inner cities for new 1. Define the term gross national product _____. (GNP). a. downtowns ____________________________________________ b. farms ____________________________________________ c. nations ____________________________________________ d. suburbs ____________________________________________ 6. What was the unfortunate by-product 2. List three reasons why the American of large shopping centers? economy grew after World War II. ____________________________________________ ____________________________________________ ____________________________________________ ____________________________________________ ____________________________________________ ____________________________________________ ____________________________________________ ____________________________________________ ____________________________________________ ____________________________________________ 7. What 1956 act was the largest public works expenditure in U.S. history? ____________________________________________ 3. What undermined labor militancy in ____________________________________________ the 1950s? ____________________________________________ 8. Name four popular television shows of ____________________________________________ the postwar years. ____________________________________________ ____________________________________________ ____________________________________________ ____________________________________________ ____________________________________________ ____________________________________________ ____________________________________________ ____________________________________________ Free K-12 Worksheets and More www.STUDENTHANDOUTS.com