UNIT 8, CH 26

After World War II, consumer culture expanded in the United States because of economic prosperity, rising wages, and new technologies that made goods more affordable. Government programs such as the GI Bill and infrastructure investments like the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 encouraged suburban growth and homeownership. Businesses mass-produced appliances, cars, and other products, and advertising encouraged Americans to buy more. Consumer prosperity also became part of Cold War competition, shown in events like the Kitchen Debate, where U.S. leaders argued that capitalism produced a higher standard of living than communism. However, this culture also created social tensions. Critics pointed out that many Americans were still poor, as described in The Other America, and some young people rejected conformity through movements like the Beat Generation. Overall, consumer culture shaped politics by promoting capitalism and influenced society through suburbanization, youth culture, and debates about inequality.

Kitchen Debate

1959 debate in Moscow between Richard Nixon and Nikita Khrushchev that compared American consumer capitalism with Soviet communism

Bretton Woods Conference

Meeting where Allied nations created a new global economic system after WWII and established institutions to stabilize currencies and encourage trade

World Bank

International financial institution created in 1944 that provides loans and aid to help rebuild and develop economies

International Monetary Fund (IMF)

Organization formed at Bretton Woods to stabilize exchange rates and provide short-term financial assistance to countries

Dwight D. Eisenhower

U.S. president from 1953–1961 who promoted moderate conservatism, expanded highways, and warned about the military-industrial complex

military-industrial complex

Close relationship between the military, defense contractors, and government that can influence policy and military spending

Sputnik

First artificial satellite launched by the Soviet Union in 1957; it shocked the U.S. and intensified the Space Race

National Defense Education Act

Law passed after Sputnik that increased federal funding for science, math, and foreign language education

The Affluent Society

1958 book by John Kenneth Galbraith arguing that America’s wealth created consumer abundance but neglected public needs

The Other America

1962 book by Michael Harrington that exposed persistent poverty in the United States despite overall prosperity

Veterans Administration

Government agency that provides benefits such as healthcare, education, and housing loans to military veterans

collective bargaining

Negotiation process between workers (usually through unions) and employers over wages, hours, and working conditions

teenager

Social category that expanded after WWII as young people gained their own culture, spending power, and influence in music, fashion, and media

Miles Davis

Influential jazz trumpeter who helped shape cool jazz and modal jazz during the 1950s–60s

Beat Generation

Group of writers and artists in the 1950s who rejected conformity and celebrated spontaneity, spirituality, and counterculture

Allen Ginsberg

Beat poet known for challenging traditional values and criticizing materialism and conformity

Jack Kerouac

Beat writer famous for On the Road, which captured the rebellious spirit of the Beat movement

Billy Graham

Prominent evangelical preacher who led large religious revivals and promoted Christianity in American public life

baby boom

Dramatic increase in births in the United States between 1946 and 1964 following World War II

Benjamin Spock

Pediatrician whose book Baby and Child Care influenced modern parenting by encouraging a more flexible approach to raising children

William J. Levitt

Real estate developer who built mass-produced suburban housing developments such as Levittown

Shelley v. Kraemer

Supreme Court decision that ruled racially restrictive housing covenants could not be legally enforced

Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956

Law signed by Eisenhower that funded the construction of the Interstate Highway System

Sun Belt

Rapidly growing region in the southern and western U.S. known for population growth, new industries, and migration after WWII

Kerner Commission

Commission formed after urban riots in the 1960s that concluded racial inequality and segregation were major causes of unrest