YAWP

The Golden Age

A period during which a society attains prosperity and cultural achievements - economic expansion, stable prices, low unemployment, & rising standard of living.

The Rise of the Middle Class:

A New Era marked by widespread Innovation

Increased access to televisions, Air Conditioning, long-distance phone calls, jet travel, electricity, central heat, and indoor plumbing.

John Kenneth Galbraith's "The Affluent Society"

An economist who attacked the prevailing notion that sustained economic growth would solve America's chronic social problems. Encouraged the wealthy to spend more for the common good.

Levittown- William and Alfred Levitt

The prototypical suburban community. Mass production techniques to build inexpensive homes in suburban New York to help relieve the postwar housing shortage. This became a symbol of the movement to the suburbs in the years after WWII.

1950s

Last decade of the industrial age, shift toward service over manufacturing.

Consumer culture

American consumption hit new levels, attitudes about debt change. 1950, the first credit cards.

Consumer Products

After WWII there was an increase in these available which included, cars, refrigerators, washing machines, and televisions. Advertisement was also on the rise to increase the consumption.

Television

This was invented in the 1920's it wasn't until the late 1950's that it became the primary source of information and entertainment. In 1946 there were only 17,000 in America, but by 1957 there were 40 million. The percentage of Americans that owned at least one television increased from 12 percent in 1950 to more than 87 percent in 1960.

Baby Boom

Refers to the dramatic post-World War II increased birth rate during which an estimated 78.3 million Americans were born.

Housing Act of 1949

Act passed by Congress that's goal was to provide a decent home for every family in America, funded by public housing and urban renewal programs.

Authorizes Federal advances, loans, and grants to localities to assist slum clearance and urban redevelopment. Converts the Public Housing program from its war and defense housing status and substantially expands it by authorizing Federal contributions and loans for up to 810,000 additional units of housing over a six year period. Significantly increases the FHA mortgage insurance program for non-defense housing (during the War and post-war period FHA mortgage insurance primarily was provided for defense housing and veterans).

HOLC (Home Owners Loan Corporation)

Began purchasing and refinancing existing mortgages at risk of default. The HOLC introduced the amortized mortgage, allowing borrowers to pay back interest and principal regularly over fifteen years. Home ownership was opened to the multitudes

Redlining

The least secure, highest-risk neighborhoods for loans received a D grade and the color red. Refusing to make loans secured by property located in certain neighborhoods for discriminatory purposes. It was a reason for the development of highly segregated cities in the North, and the decline of inner-cities.

Blockbusting

A process by which real estate agents convince white property owners to sell their houses at low prices because of fear that persons of color will soon move into the neighborhood, also known as "panic peddling".

Federal Housing Administration (FHA)

A federal agency established in 1943 to increase home ownership by providing an insurance program to safeguard the lender against the risk of nonpayment, so more home loans were available for consumers.

Suburban Americanization

A move away from urban ethnic communities.

Establishment of rigid racial boundaries.

Brown v. Board of Education

In 1954 The Supreme Court overruled Plessy v. Ferguson, declared that racially segregated facilities are inherently unequal and ordered all public schools desegregated.

Jim Crow

Laws designed to enforce segregation of blacks from whites

Martin Luther King Jr.

U.S. Baptist minister and civil rights leader. A noted orator, he opposed discrimination against blacks by organizing nonviolent resistance and peaceful mass demonstrations. Wrote, Stride Toward Freedom, in 1958

Montgomery Bus Boycott

In 1955, after Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a city bus, Dr. Martin L. King helped lead this effort.. After 11 months the Supreme Court ruled that segregation of public transportation was illegal.

Emmett Till

A 14 year old black boy who was murdered in 1955 for whistling at a white woman by her husband and his friends. They kidnapped him and brutally killed him. His death led to the American Civil Rights movement.

SCLC (Southern Christian Leadership Conference)

Organization formed by MLK in 1957 to organize nonviolent resistance to achieve equality for African Americans

Leave It to Beaver

Popular TV show that exemplifies the 1950s ideal that women should return home to their roles as wives and mothers

Dr. Spock

This author wrote a best selling parenting guide that advised emphasized flexibility and focusing on the individuality of the child to help them develop. Spock emphasizes that ultimately, the parents' "natural loving care" for their children is most important.

Rebel Without a Cause

Created in 1955, It was an example of the changes in conformity to ideals of the 50s. Movies like this made people fearful of the delinquency.

Massification of American Culture

Some claim that this is the result of the rise in corporations, and mass media in the 50;s as 3 television was broadcast, chains such as McDonald's, and Howard Johnson's emerge, and food was similar throughout supermarkets in the nation.

Elvis Presley

1950s; a symbol of the rock-and-roll movement of the 50s when teenagers began to form their own subculture, dismaying to conservative parents; created a youth culture that ridiculed phony and pretentious middle-class Americans, celebrated uninhibited sexuality and spontaneity; foreshadowed the coming counterculture of the 1960s

Beat Generation

Group of American writers who came to prominence in the 1950s, and also the cultural phenomena that they wrote about and inspired (later sometimes called "beatniks"). Central elements of "Beat" culture include a rejection of mainstream American values, experimentation with drugs and alternate forms of sexuality, and an interest in Eastern spirituality. Examples: Ginsberg and Kerouac

Keynesian Economics

Theory based on the principles of John Maynard Keynes, stating that government spending should increase during business slumps and be curbed during booms.

The New Conservatism

Emphasized the search for absolute truth, suburban constituency. Emphasis on tradition, community, moral commitment

Libertarianism and Libertarian Economics

An ideology that cherishes individual liberty and insists on minimal government, promoting a free market economy, a non-interventionist foreign policy, and an absence of regulation in moral, economic, and social life.

Liberals

Those who believes that government should promote equality and provide social services, and should provide civil liberty.

Conservatives

Believed in personal responsibility, limited government. Believed in free markets, individual liberty, traditional values, strong national defense

Election of Eisenhower (R)

The ex-World War II general was so popular, both the Democrats and the Republicans wanted him to run under their party banner. Ike ran as a Republican and won two terms.

"Middle of the Road"

Eisenhower's political policy to stay neutral within parties

Massive Retaliation

The "new look" defense policy of the Eisenhower administration of the 1950's was to threaten "massive retaliation" with nuclear weapons in response to any act of aggression by a potential enemy.

National Interstate and Defense Highways Act

1956 act that provided funds for construction of 42,500 miles of roads throughout the US

General Dwight Eisenhower ("Ike")

Won Presidency in 1952, but in office he was

Unpopular with Republicans

and Liberal Democrats felt he was too moderate

Freedom Train (1947)

It was a collaborative effort of Americans to promote the freedoms afforded to our country following the devastation of WWII; The train carried 127 "documents of liberty" and 6 historical flags: the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, the Emancipation Proclamation, the Gettysburg Address, the German and Japanese surrender documents that ended WW2, and the Constitution.

Freedom Train (Langston Hughes)

Langston Hughes published a new poem, "Freedom Train," in The New Republic, about the contradictions of the actual "Freedom Train".

Iron Curtain

Term coined by Winston Churchill, he spoke about the "Iron Curtain" that split Europe, West mostly democratic and East communist.

The Cold War

A global political and ideological conflict; competing notions of freedom and social justice.

Grew out of a failure to achieve a durable settlement among leaders from the "Big Three" Allies—the US, Britain, and the Soviet Union to shape the postwar order.

Truman Doctrine

--"Europe's impoverished masses"

The US should give support to countries or peoples threatened by Soviet forces or communist insurrection. First expressed in 1947 by US President Truman in a speech to Congress seeking aid for Greece and Turkey, the doctrine was seen by the communists as an open declaration of the Cold War.

Marshall Plan (European Recovery Program)

- Pumped enormous sums into Western Europe.

- From 1948-1952 the US invested $13 billion toward reconstruction while simultaneously loosening trade barriers

- Designed to rebuild Western Europe, open markets, and win European support for capitalist democracies

NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization)

Military alliance created in 1949 made up of 12 non-Communist countries including the United States that support each other if attacked.

Warsaw Pact (1955)

The Soviet Union would formalize its own collective defensive agreement in 1955, the Warsaw Pact, which included Albania, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Poland, and East Germany.

Long Telegram (1946)

Telegram written to the US State Department by George Kennan who worked at the US Embassy in Moscow. He alarmed them that the Soviet Union had to be contained because the Soviet Union had plans for expansionism of their communist ideology

National Security Memorandum 68 (NSC-68)

A 1950 Cold War Manifesto - National Security Memorandum 68:urged a "rapid build-up of political, economic, and military strength" in order to "roll back the Kremlin's (Russia) drive for world domination

"Long Roots" of it all

An alliance of convenience during World War II to bring down Hitler's Germany was not enough to erase decades of mutual suspicions.

-The two powers (US and Soviet Union) were brought together only by their common enemy, and, without that common enemy, there was little hope for cooperation

Security Council

An important division of the United Nations that contains five permanent members — the United States, Britain, China, France, and Russia — and ten rotating members. It is often called into session to respond quickly to international crises.

Allied Airlift

The Soviet Union initiated a ground blockade, cutting off rail and road access to West Berlin to gain control over the entire city. The United States organized and coordinated a massive airlift that flew essential supplies into the beleaguered city for eleven months, until the Soviets lifted the blockade on May 12, 1949.

Korean War

Fighting erupted in Korea between communists in the north and American-backed anti-communists in the south

- North Koreans launched a successful surprise attack and Seoul, the capital of South Korea, fell to the communists on June 28.

-General MacArthur, growing impatient and wanting to eliminate the communist threats, requested authorization to use nuclear weapons against North Korea and China. Denied, MacArthur publicly denounced Truman. Truman, unwilling to threaten World War III and refusing to tolerate MacArthur's public insubordination, dismissed the General in April.

McCarran Act (Internal Security Act)

Mandated all "communist organizations" to register with the government, gave the government greater powers to investigate sedition, and made it possible to prevent suspected individuals from gaining or keeping their citizenship

Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD)

Both sides, then, would theoretically be deterred from starting a war, through the logic of "mutually-assured destruction," Oppenheimer likened the state of "nuclear deterrence" between the US and the USSR to "two scorpions in a bottle, each capable of killing the other," but only by risking their own lives

Intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM)

After the end of the war, American and Soviet rocket engineering teams worked to adapt German technology in order to create an intercontinental ballistic missile. The Soviets achieved success first.

Sputnik

They even used the same launch vehicle on October 4, 1957, to send Sputnik 1, the world's first human-made satellite, into orbit. It was a decisive Soviet propaganda victory.

DARPA

Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency

As a secretive military research and development operation, DARPA was tasked with funding and otherwise overseeing the production of sensitive new technologies

- develop the world's first system of "network packing switches" and computer networks would begin connecting to one another.

McCarthyism

"McCarthyism" was only a symptom of a massive and widespread anti-communist hysteria that engulfed Cold War America

The Spy Trials :Rosenburgs & Hiss

Rosenburgs were accused of passing secret bomb-related documents onto Soviet officials and were indicted and later executed

-Hiss was convicted on two counts of perjury

House UnAmerican Activities Committee (HUAC)

The House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) was created in 1938 to investigate alleged disloyalty and subversive activities on the part of private citizens, public employees, and those organizations suspected of having Communist ties.

Executive Order 9835

Loyalty reviews for Federal employees. The order established the first loyalty program in the United States, designed to root out communist influence in the U.S. federal government.

Popular Front

Many communists joined the "Popular Front," an effort to make communism mainstream by adapting it to American history and American culture

J.E. Hoover

was the longtime director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)

-took an active role in the domestic battle against communism

Godless Communism

American religion was facing a battle of godless communism vs God-fearing Americanism

-Politicians infused government with religious symbols, The Pledge of Allegiance was altered to include "one nation under God"

-The official national motto was "In God We Trust"

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Movements for Social Justice

From civil rights to gay rights to feminism, were all suppressed under Cold War conformity.

Dominoes Theory

Unless Soviet power in Asia was halted, Chinese influence would ripple across the continent, and one country after another would "fall" to communism. Easily transposed onto any region of the world

-became a standard basis for the justification of US interventions abroad

military-industrial complex

the Cold War facilitated a new permanent defense establishment

- informal alliance between a nation's military and the arms industry which supplies it

- both sides benefit--one side from obtaining war weapons, and the other from being paid to supply them

Smith-Mundt Act of 1948

to "promote a better understanding of the United States in other countries."

- in order to showcase American values through its artists and entertainers

General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT)

An international treaty that committed signatories to lower barriers to the free flow of goods across national borders.

Totalitarianism

Aggressive, an ideologically-driven state seeking to subdue all of society. A political system in which the government has total control over the lives of individual citizens.

Taft-Hartley Act (1947)

Anti-union law passed by increasingly conservative Congress over Truman's veto. Prohibited the closed shop (union only), permitted states to ban union-shop agreements (to become anti-union "right to work" states), forbade union contributions to candidates in federal elections, forced union leaders to swear in affidavits that they were not communists, and mandated an 80 day cooling off period before carrying out strikes. This enraged labor, who called it a "slave labor" law. Helped contribute to massive decline in unions.

Bretton Woods Conference

Meeting of Western allies to establish a postwar international economic order. Led to the creation of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, designed to regulate currency levels and provide aid to underdeveloped countries.

Fair Deal (1949)

Truman's extension of the New Deal that increased min wage, expanded Social Security, and constructed low-income housing

Executive Order 9981

An executive order abolishing segregation in the armed forces and ordering full integration of all the services. The order also established an advisory committee to examine the rules, practices, and procedures of the armed services and recommend ways to make desegregation a reality.

Dixiecrats

A short-lived break-away segregationist political party determined to protect states' rights to legislate racial segregation from what its members regarded as an oppressive federal government.

Strom Thurmond (South Carolina)

SC governor; southerners did not like Truman's proposed civil rights bill and they went and formed a "Dixiecrat" party and ran Thurmond for president.

World War II

The United States joined the war in 1941, two years after Europe exploded into conflict in 1939.

Four Freedoms (1941)

FDR announced his Four Freedoms:

Freedom of speech, of worship, from want, and from fear—that all of the world's citizens should enjoy.

Good Neighbor Policy (FDR)

- Franklin D. Roosevelt's policy in which the U.S. pledged that the U.S. would no longer intervene in the internal affairs of Latin American countries.

- Withdrew troops from Haiti & Nicaragua

- Accepted Cuba's repeal of the Platt Amendment

- Expanded trade in the Western Hemisphere

- Promoted respect for American culture in Latin America

Japan invades China "Rape of Nanjing"

The broken Chinese army gave up Beiping (Beijing) to the Japanese on August 8, Shanghai on November 26, and the capital, Nanjing (Nanking), on December 13. Between 250,000 and 300,000 people were killed, and tens of thousands of women were raped, when the Japanese besieged and then sacked Nanjing.

Chinese Communist Party (CCP)

Chinese communist party. Founded in 1921 and came to power in 1949. It is the ruling party for the people's republic of China.

Pearl Harbor, 1941

December 7-Japanese ambush attack-led to American involvement in WWII

Adolf Hitler (Germany)

Championing German racial supremacy, fascist government, and military expansionism. Hilter became chancellor in 1933 and the Nazis conquered German institutions. Democratic traditions were smashed. Leftist groups were purged. He rebuilt the German military and navy.

Benito Mussolini (Italy)

The fascist Italian leader who had risen to power in the 1920s. Invaded Northern Africa seeking to expand their African empire. Ally of Adolf Hitler.

Blitzkrieg (The German Army)

"Lighting war", typed of fast-moving warfare used by German forces against Poland, Scandinavia, Belgium, Netherlands

Operation Sea Lion

Hitler's plan to invade Britain by both air and sea

Blitz

the British term for the German air raids on British cities and towns during World War II

D-Day (Operation Overlord)

Allied invasion of France on June 6, 1944 (Normandy) The largest amphibious assault in history

Bataan Death March (1942)

American and Filipino soldiers surrendered to Japan. The prisoners were marched eighty miles to their prisoner-of-war camp without food, water, or rest. Ten thousand died.

Iwo Jima

A bloody and prolonged operation on the island of Iwo Jima in which American marines landed and defeated Japanese defenders (February and March 1945)

Manhattan Project

A secret U.S. project for the construction of the atomic bomb, a hugely expensive, ambitious program to harness atomic energy and create a single weapon capable of leveling entire cities.

Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan

Two Japanese cities on which the U.S. dropped the atomic bombs to end World War II.

Rosie the Riveter

A propaganda character designed to increase production of female workers in the factories. It became a rallying symbol for women to do their part.

Double V Campaign

The World War II-era effort of black Americans to gain "a Victory over racism at home as well as Victory abroad."

Hideki Tojo

Prime minister of Japan during World War II-obsessed with industrializing

American Isolationism

America's interests were best served by secluding itself from other nations and avoiding alliances at the beginning of WWII; opposing any involvement in the conflicts burning in Europe and Asia

Neutrality Acts

4 laws passed in the late 1930s that were designed to keep the US out of international incidents:

- Banned travel on belligerent ships

- Banned sales of arms to countries at war

Represented a compromise that accommodated the isolationist sentiment of the American public.

Axis Powers (WWII)

Germany, Italy, Japan

Battle of Britain (1940)

Germans launched daily bombing raids against military targets. The British royal air force surprised Germans, , saving the islands from immediate invasion and prompting the new prime minister, Winston Churchill, to declare, "Never before in the field of human conflict has so much been owed by so many to so few."

America First Committee (AFC)

-largest organized anti-war group with 800,000 members at the time of Pearl Harbor (isolationists)

-called for enforcement of Neutrality Acts and keeping America out of war.

4 Basic Principles:

1) US must build strongest defense

2) No foreign power could successfully attack

3) Preserve American democracy by avoiding European war

4) "Aid short of war" weakens national defense and threatens involvement in war

Lend-Lease Act

1941 law that authorized the president to aid any nation whose defense he believed was vital to American security