Chapter 25
Suburbanization: The movement of people from cities to surrounding residential communities.
FHA (Federal Housing Administration): Helped qualified buyers get long-term mortgages with low interest rates.
VA (Veterans Administration): Helped veterans buy homes with low mortgage rates and little or no down payment.
African Americans and other minorities faced housing discrimination.
1. How did the conversion from war to peacetime affect the economy, society, and politics in the United States?
After World War II, the economy shifted from military production to consumer goods and housing. Families had more money, more people married and had children, and demand for homes increased. The government supported homeownership and highway construction, encouraging suburban growth.
2. What factors contributed to the economic and population growth of the 1950s, and how did they contribute to
suburbanization and the growth in the Sun Belt?
Economic prosperity, larger families, government-backed mortgages, veterans' benefits, and highway construction encouraged suburbanization. War-related industries, new jobs, warmer weather, and air conditioning attracted people to the Sun Belt, especially California, Texas, and Florida.
What was the purpose of restrictive covenants in postwar suburban housing?
To preserve the racial exclusivity of a neighborhood.
Why? Restrictive covenants were agreements that prohibited homeowners from selling their houses to African Americans and other racial or ethnic minorities. They were used to keep many suburban neighborhoods predominantly white
Progress in civil rights
Despite discrimination, African Americans and civil rights advocates made gradual progress during the 1950s.
Why did Eisenhower adopt a moderate domestic agenda? What were his most notable domestic accomplishments and failures?
Eisenhower wanted stability and gradual change rather than major government expansion. His accomplishments included signing the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 and enforcing school desegregation in Little Rock, Arkansas. However, civil rights progress was limited, and racial discrimination continued.
2. Why did Kennedy win the 1960 presidential election?
Kennedy won because he appeared more presidential in the first televised debate, gained support from Catholic voters, and won back African American voters after helping Martin Luther King Jr. He also benefited from concerns about the economy.
Family problems :
Divorce rate increased:
Juvenile delinquency:
Traditional family:
What was the New Deal Coalition?
The New Deal Coalition was an alliance of different groups of voters who supported the Democratic Party.
Why did Truman win the 1948 presidential election?
He kept the New Deal coalition together and campaigned effectively.
Why did President Harry Truman win reelection in 1948?
Truman out-campaigned Dewey and his other challengers failed to draw significant votes from him.
With rare exceptions, how were American Indians portrayed in 1950s U.S. television?
As antagonists and savages
In light of the Cold War, why was the situation of civil rights in America a problem per the 1947 federal government report To Secure These Rights?
Segregation gave America's Communist opponents evidence of the failings of the American way of life
The 1947 report To Secure These Rights explained that racial segregation made the United States look hypocritical during the Cold War. America claimed to defend democracy and freedom, but African Americans were denied equal rights. The Soviet Union could use this discrimination as propaganda against the United States.
How did churchgoing illustrate the differences between the United States and the Soviet Union?
The Soviet Union promoted atheism, and churchgoing highlighted this difference.
Why? During the Cold War, Americans connected religion with American identity and contrasted it with Soviet communism, which promoted atheism
What was the primary message women received about personal fulfillment during the 1950s?
They could find it only though marriage and motherhood.
button.
What stance did Dwight Eisenhower's Modern Republicanism of the 1950s take relative to the New Deal?
Modern Republicanism tried to fit Republican ideals into the New Deal framework.
Recognizing the political suicide of attempting to destroy the well-entrenched New Deal, Eisenhower tried to fit the traditional Republican Party ideals of individualism and fiscal restraint within the broad framework of Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal.
What patterns of migration occurred in the United States during the postwar period?
Movement from cities to suburbs and to the West and South
The economic and demographic booms encouraged migration out of the cities so that growing families could have their own homes, greater space, and a healthier environment. No section of the nation expanded faster than the West and South.
What advantages did an African American have in New York in 1950 that they did not have in Mississippi in 1950?
The New Yorker could vote and attend integrated schools.
Palmer Raids
The government arrested and deported some immigrants suspected of supporting radical political movements after World War I.
Clue: First Red Scare → raids and deportations.
1938 HUAC — House Un-American Activities Committee
A congressional committee that investigated suspected Communist influence in the United States.
Clue: HUAC → congressional investigations.
1940
Smith Act
Made it illegal to advocate the violent overthrow of the U.S. government or belong to a group with that aim.
Alger Hiss and Richard Nixon
In 1948, former Soviet spy Whittaker Chambers accused Alger Hiss, a former State Department official, of passing classified government documents to him.
Hiss denied the accusations. Richard Nixon, then a member of HUAC, helped keep the investigation going.
Documents were found in Chambers's possession.
Hiss was prosecuted for perjury, meaning lying under oath.
He was convicted in a second trial and sentenced to prison.
The case damaged the Democratic Party politically because Republicans accused Democrats of being soft on communism.
In 1950, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were prosecuted for espionage, meaning spying for another country. They were accused of helping the Soviet Union obtain atomic secrets.
They were convicted and executed in 1953. Their case became highly controversial during the Cold War.
Americans feared that Soviet access to nuclear secrets threatened national security.
Richard Nixon accused liberal Democrat Helen Gahagan Douglas of being too sympathetic to communism
In 1950, Congress passed the McCarran Internal Security Act over Truman's veto. It required Communist organizations to register with the federal government and included provisions for detaining suspected radicals during national emergencies.
McCarthyism refers more broadly to the practice of making accusations of Communist connections, often with inadequate evidence, and damaging people's reputations or careers.
On March 12, 1947, President Harry Truman announced the Truman Doctrine.
Its main goal was to contain communism by supporting countries threatened by Communist movements or outside pressure.
The United States provided $400 million in military and economic assistance to Greece and Turkey
Containment was the American policy of preventing communism from spreading to additional countries.
The United States believed that if one country became Communist, nearby countries might follow.
. Why was the Truman Doctrine important?.
The United States supported governments that opposed communism, even when those governments were not fully democratic.
This created a contradiction: the United States said it was defending freedom, but sometimes supported authoritarian governments because they were anti-Communist.
Clue: Anti-Communist governments could receive U.S. support, even if they were dictatorships.
Guided Primary Source: Henry Wallace, “The Way to Peace” (1946)
Henry Wallace disagreed with the idea that the United States should take an aggressive approach toward the Soviet Union.
Truman's approach: contain communism by supporting countries threatened by it.
Wallace's approach: avoid provoking the Soviet Union and try to achieve peace through diplomacy.
Wallace did not agree with everything the Soviet Union did. He criticized its restrictions on freedom, but believed both countries could coexist peacefully.
According to Wallace, why do some countries want the United States to confront the Soviet Union?
Wallace believed that some countries wanted the United States and the Soviet Union to fight because they hoped both countries would weaken or destroy each other.
How does recognition of a nation’s spheres of influence affect Wallace’s thinking?
Wallace believed that the United States and the Soviet Union should respect each other’s spheres of influence and avoid interfering in each other’s affairs. This could help prevent conflict and maintain peace.
What does Wallace indicate the United States would gain from pursuing peace with the Soviet Union?
The United States would reduce the risk of war, improve relations with the Soviet Union, and allow both countries to coexist peacefully while continuing trade.
Why do you think American foreign policy leaders rejected Wallace’s perspective in the postwar period?
Many American leaders feared that the Soviet Union wanted to expand communism. They believed that cooperating with the Soviets could allow communism to spread, so they preferred containment and military aid.
Why did religion grow after World War II?
Fear of the Cold War: The arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union made people afraid of a possible war.
Need for community: Social and economic changes made some people feel anxious or isolated. Religion helped them feel connected to others.
Americans also used religion to distinguish their country from the Soviet Union, which promoted communism and officially rejected religion.
Why did religion grow? Cold War fears, anxiety, and the need for community.
What did religion represent during the Cold War? It helped distinguish American identity from Soviet communism.
He introduced Modern Republicanism, a political approach that combined traditional Republican ideas with some programs from Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal.
Traditional Republican ideas: individualism and fiscal restraint (limiting government spending).
New Deal programs: Social Security, unemployment insurance, labor protections, and farm programs
National Interstate and Defense Highway Act of 1956 had two main purposes:
National defense: Help the military move people and supplies.
Suburbanization: Make it easier for people to travel between suburbs and cities.
However, highway construction often destroyed Black neighborhoods. Many African American families lost their homes, businesses, churches, and community spaces.
the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the first artificial satellite to orbit Earth.
In response, Eisenhower signed the National Defense Education Act in 1958.
It provided federal support for:
Science and mathematics education.
Foreign-language instruction.
College loans and graduate fellowships.
Eisenhower's administration adopted policies that harmed many Native American tribes.
Termination = ending federal tribal protections. Relocation = moving Native Americans from reservations to cities.
What best describes Modern Republicanism?
Eliminating all New Deal programs
• Keeping many New Deal programs while following Republican principles
What was the significance of the desegregation of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1957?.
Correct: President Dwight Eisenhower used federal power to enforce desegregation.
Emmett Till was a 14-year-old Black boy from Chicago who was visiting family in Mississippi.
He was accused of flirting with a white woman in a store.
He was kidnapped and murdered.
Two white men were accused of killing him.
An all-white jury found them not guilty (acquitted).
Years later, the woman, Carolyn Bryant, admitted that parts of her accusations were false.
Little Rock Nine (1957): Nine Black students tried to attend the all-white Central High School in Arkansas. Governor Orval Faubus used the National Guard to block them. President Eisenhower took control of the National Guard and sent federal troops (101st Airborne Division) to protect the students and enforce desegregation. Even with protection, the students faced harassment from white classmates.
Even after the Supreme Court declared school segregation unconstitutional, many white southerners used political resistance, violence, and economic intimidation to maintain segregation.
What did the authors of the novel Modern Women, the Lost Sex mean when they argued that the phrase "independent woman" was a "contradiction in terms"?
That women could only find their purpose through marriage
How did black musicians' influence on Elvis Presley affect his reception among white audiences?
Although older whites tended to view Presley's music with skepticism and fear, many young white people flocked to Presley's music.
Although blacks pioneered the sound, the music entered the mainstream largely through white artists who added rural flavor to rhythm and blues. Born in Tupelo, Mississippi, and living in Memphis, Tennessee, Elvis Presley adapted the fashion and sensuality of black performers to his own style. Elvis's snarling singing and pelvic gyrations excited young people, both black and white, while upsetting their parents.