Lectures 23-24, The Red Scare and McCarthyism & The Growth of Suburbia and the "Good Life"

Harry S. Truman

Fair Deal

Employment Act of 1946

asserted that the government would be responsible for the state of the economy

Taft-Hartley Act (1947)

• Outlawed specific union activities such as “closed shop”, you had to join the union in order to work for a certain company

• “Slave labor bill”

• held unions responsible for damages incurred during disputes between unions

• required union leaders to take loyalty oaths

• Allowed the president to invoke an 80 day cooling off period to avoid strikes that might endanger

Democratic party splits 3 ways

establishment democrats, dixiecrats, and progressive democrats

Truman

Establishment democrats

Strom Thurmond

Dixiecrats

Henry Wallace

Progressive democrats

the most significant result of the Korean War

the implementation of the NSC68

• defense spending soars and army boosted in troops

North Korea

communist

South Korea

non communist

go over the events of the korean war

i will!!!

reasons for a second red scare

• Nearly everyone is america harbored anti-communist feelings, consensus

• Many if not most americans had little concern for the civil liberties of political decanters

• Partisanship, democrats were anti communist

• 1933-1953

Loyalty Program

investigating federal employees and dismissing people suspected of being disloyal

Joseph McCarthy

senator, started mccarthyism

Red Scare’s effect on culture

a lot of anti communist films produced

not a single black person lived in

Levittowns

William Levit

the Henry Ford of Housing

Consensus and Conformity

• Many felt to join, political orgs, churches

• Manicured lawns, kept up the appearances of their homes

• Most expected their neighbors to fit in

  • Those who stood out were labeled as a “snob” risked being ostracized

• Conservative decade socially

Sex

• on the surface, americans seemed to abide by latter day puritism

• double standards existed for men and women

• led to the imagination, had to learn their own way

Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1934

sending large numbers of veterans to college to secure well paying jobs

the greatest stimulus for economic growth

federal and defense spending

boosted industries and jobs

infrastructure spending, highway aid act

The Beats

• represented dissent

• detested cold war culture displasency

• preferred dark clothing, beards, and goatees

• mingled in cities of blacks and the poor

• smoked marijuana, popped pills, drank

• disliked everything conventional, mainstream entertainment and boring occupation