Life in Postwar America Essential Vocabulary
Truman Years:
Return to peace time economy
G.I. Bill
Inflation
Strikes
Republican midterm control
Taft Hartley Act
Closed shop
Right to Work Laws
Union Shops
Featherbedding
Truman’s Legislative Agenda: expand SS, raise minimum wage; federal spending for full
employment, public housing slum clearance, long range environmental planning, public works
planning, and a national health insurance; a broad civil rights bill, end segregation in armed
forces
Truman’s opposition: republicans and conservative democrats
“Do-Nothing” Congress
Election of 1948
Fair Deal
Eisenhower Years:
Election of 1952
“Dynamic Conservatism”: business influence, curb federal spending, veto school construction
bill, slash spending on public housing, abolish RFC, cut funding to TVA, Federal Highway Act,
Expansion of SS, Increase minimum wage, Aid to farmers
Affluent Society:
“Economy of Abundance”
Spread of Wealth
White Collar and Blue Collar
Multinational Corporations
Franchises
“The Organization Man”
Consumerism
Suburbia/Levittown
Baby Boom
Women’s roles in the fifties
Technology: transistors, computers, televisions, medical miracles (pharmaceuticals, vaccines)
American Satellite
Jet airplanes
1950’s Pop-Culture
Television
Cinematic improvements
Frank Capra Movies (solidifies American dream)
Movies relating to Cold War/Nuclear Arms Race
Rock-n-roll (Alan Freed, Elvis Presley)
The Beat Movement
African-American entertainers (Chuck Berry, Ray Charles, Little Richard, etc.)
Poverty in America:
Poverty line
Impoverished groups: African-Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans, Appalachians,
Decline of the inner city
Urban Renewal
Juvenile Delinquency
Michael Harrington
Essential Questions
1.
How was Truman’s domestic agenda representative of FDR’s New Deal?
2.
How was Eisenhower’s “Dynamic Conservatism” fiscally conservative and socially
moderate?
3.
How was the 1950’s a resurgence of the American Dream?
4.
**How did the pop culture of the 50’s “romanticize” American society and how was the
“American Dream” challenged by 1950’s critics?
Remedial
1.
Two columns (New Deal and Fair Deal) and a word bank of events. Place the events
in the appropriate column.
2.
Reteach the concepts of liberal, moderate, conservative political views. Given a list of
Eisenhower’s domestic programs, the students will identify them as liberal, moderate or
conservative and explain how they fit the criteria.
3.
Define what is meant by the American Dream in the 1950’s. Then provide a couple of
examples that support and criticize the 1950’s concept of the American Dream.
Enrichment
1.
National Healthcare – trace its evolution from Truman to Obama.
2.
Compare and contrast Eisenhower’s administration to Clinton’s economic and social
programs.
3.
Provide examples of the 1950’s “American Dream” as demonstrated in TV, film and
print materials from that decade. Then analyze materials from Ginsberg, Kerouac and
Harrington and their view of America in the 1950’s. How do the two compare?