Chapter 24 - An Affluent Society
The Golden Age
End of World War II created a “golden age” of capitalism with economic expansion, stable prices, low unemployment, and rising standards of living.
wages for the average American were increasing
diet, housing, income, education and recreation led to this being the best living conditions a generation of Americans had ever experienced.
Innovations such as television, home air-conditioning, automatic dishwashers, inexpensive long-distance telephone calls, and jet air travel transformed the daily lives of Americans.
Electricity, central heating, and indoor plumbing that used to only be accessible to the rich also became features of common life.
Wages rose faster for low-income than high-income Americans → decreased economic inequality.
Progressive income tax policy (wealthy Americans paid higher rate than others) was responsible for this
This prosperity lasted until 1973 when the economic improvement stagnated
A Changing Economy
Despite the economic recovery of western Europe and Japan after WWII, the US remained the dominant industrial power.
The Cold War fueled industrial production and promoted a redistribution of the nation’s population and economic resources.
The West benefitted enormously from government contracts for aircraft, guided missiles, and radar systems. The South became the home of numerous military bases and government funded shipyards.
The growth in construction of aircraft engines and sbumarines counterbalanced the decline of New England’s old textile and machinery industries (which relocated to the South to take advantage of cheap labor)
The 1950s were the last decade of the industrial age in the US.
Since then, the American economy has shifted rapidly toward services, education, information, finance and entertainment
The long-term trend toward fewer and lager firms continued. Farm population fell but agricultural production rose
made possible by more efficient machinery, chemical fertilizers and insecticides, increased irrigation and new crop strains
In the South, cotton production shifted towards less labor-intensive soybean and poultry raising reduced the need for farm workers.
Both black and white workers/sharecroppers in the South emigrated from the region.
Farming became centered in Texas, Arizona, and especially California
California had large corporate farms worked by Latino and Filipino migrant workers → luxury fruits became essentials to American diet
A Suburban Nation
Residential construction and spending on consumer goods were the main drivers of economic growth during the 1950s.
Postwar baby boom and shift of population from cities to suburbs created an enormous demand for housing, television, home appliances, and cars
During the 1950s, the dream of home ownership (physical embodiment of the American dream), became a possibility for most Americans.
This was made possible by inexpensive mass-building techniques, government-backed low-interest loans to returning veterans
Levittowns (low-cost, mass-produced developments of suburban tracting housing) began popping up in Long Island and were priced to be extremely accessible to the average American.
The Growth of the West
All parts of the country were contributing to the region’s growth.
Federal spending on dams, highways, and military installations helped to fuel the flow of people.
rapid expansion of oil production (due to increased automobile ownersihp) led to explosive growth of urban ceneters such as Denver, Dallas, and Houston
Most of the growth in the west took place in metropolitan areas, not on farms.
However, western cities looked vastly different than traditional urban centers in the East.
Rather than consisting of downtown business districts linked to residential neighborhoods by public transportation, western cities were decentralized clusters of single-family homes and businesses united by a web of highways.
Life centered around the car; helping people navigate their daily lives in western metropolitan areas
A Consumer Culture
Consumerism because more widespread than ever.
consumerism replaced economic independence and democratic participation as central definitions of American freedom.
Attitudes toward debts were shifting: low interest rates and the spread of credit cards encouraged Americans to borrow money to purchase goods.
Americans were now comfortable living in debt, when prior to the 1950s it was seen as a loss of economic freedom
Consumer culture was meant to epitomize the superiority of the American way of life to communism. Participation in consumer goods were seen as patriotic, and a defining aspect of American identity that would help the country win the Cold War.
American consumer goods, once exclusive for the rich, were marketed to customers from around the globe, of different walks of life.
The TV World
By the end of the 1950s, 90% of families owned a TV set.
TV became the most common source of information about public events, and watching TV became the nation’s leading leisure activity.
With a few exceptions, like the Army-McCarthy hearings, TV avoided controversy and projected a bland image of middle-class life.
Large corporations sponsored popular programs aimed primarily at middle-class suburban viewers, conveyed images of the “good life” based on endless consumerism
A New Ford
By the 1960s, 80% of American families owned at least one car, and 14% had two or more.
Most cars were designed to go out of style in a year or two → further promoting consumer purchases
Although in the long term, continued funneling of federal aid from the North and Midwest to the Sunbelt would prove devastating to the old industrial heartland, the booming automobile industry of the 1950s (demand for steel and rubber) would assure the region’s prosperity
Widespread access to cars transformed the daily life of the nation, just as the interstate highway system transformed Americans’ travel habits (making long-distance vacationing by car possible and longer commutes to work possible).
The construction of motels, drive-in movie theaters, and roadside eating establishments ensued.
The car symbolized the identification of freedom with individual mobility and private choice.
Advertising, television, and popular songs reinforced the idea that Americans truly enjoyed freedom due to their technological wealth.
Women at Work and at Home
After 1945, as former soldiers returned to the workforce, women lost mot of the industrial jobs they had performed during the war.
As during most of American history, women who worked outside the home remained concentrated in low-salary, nonunion jobs, such as clerical, sales, and service labor, rather than better-paying manufacturing positions.
After a sharp postwar drop in female employment, the number of women working soon began to the rise.
By 1955, it exceeded WWII levels, but the nature and aims of women’s work had changed.
the modern women was supposed to “work part-time to help support the family’s middle-class lifestyle, not to help pull it out of poverty or to pursue personal fulfillment/independence”
women only earned about 60% of the income of men
Despite increasing numbers of wage-earning women, the suburban family’s breadwinner was assumed to be male, while the wife remained at home.
Film, TV, and advertisements portrayed marriage as the most important goal of American women and reinforced societal norms of family life.
Women married younger, divorced less frequently, and had more children.
Despite low immigration, the baby boom meant that the American population rose by nearly 30 million during the 1950s.
While this was mostly due to the lage number of births, it also reflected the fact that Americans now lived longer than in the past thanks to advancements in healthcare (penicillin, etc).
The concept of the American family also became a weapon in the Cold War. The ability of women to remain at home “separated Americans from the Communist world” (where a high percentage of women worked)
family relationships during the 1950s were modernized, both partners worked together through shared consumption, leisure and sexual pleasure.
Like other forms of dissent, feminism seemed to have disappeared from American life or was widely dismissed as evidence of mental disorder.
prominent psychologists insisted that the unhappiness of individual women or even the desire to work for wages stemmed from a failure to accept the “maternal instinct”
the idea that a woman’s sphere is the home became extremely prevalent
A Segregated Landscape
The general trend of movement towards the suburbs made the home the “center of freedom” and promoted Americanization (assimilation into the world of mass consumption)
While the suburbs promoted freedom they retained the racism deeply embedded throughout American society.
Suburbs were not created equal and there were usually separated by race (whites would rarely live in proximity to nonwhites)
Even during the postwar suburban boom, federal agencies continued to insure mortgages that barred resale of houses to non-whites → exacerbating housing segregation
even after the SCOTUS declared these provisions unenforceable, banks and private developers barred nonwhites from suburbs and the government refused to subsidize their mortgages unless it was in specific colored exclaves
progress towards suburban racial integration was mind-numbingly slow
Public Housing and Urban Renewal
1949 Housing Act authorized construction of more than 800k public housing units in order to provide a “decent home for every American family”
issue was the extremely low ceiling on residents’ income
demanded by private contractors seeking to avoid competition from the government for building homes for the middle class
that regulation led to housing projects being only for the very poor and since white urban/suburban neighborhoods successfully opposed public housing construction, it was increasingly confined to segregated neighborhoods
Under urban renewal programs, cities demolished poor neighborhoods in city centers that occupied potentially valuable real-estate to make way for retail centers and all-white middle income housing
some states even went as far as to build urban public universities on this land
white residents displaced by urban renewal often moved to the suburbs
non-whites were unable to do so, and found housing in run-down city neighborhoods
The Divided Society
The mass emigration of whites from cities to the suburbs and mass migration of blacks from South to North greatly increased the size of existing urban ghettos and creation of new ones
Puerto Ricans, mostly small coffee and tobacco farmers + agricultural laborers were forced off their land when American sugar companies expanded their landholdings on the island → they moved to the mainland and crowded with the longtime residents of the urban ghettos
Non-whites remained concentrated in manual and unskilled jobs as a result of employment discrimination and exclusion from educational opportunities at public and private universities (not just in the South)
as whites fled to the suburbs, poorer blacks and Latinos remained trapped in urban ghettos, seen by whites as places of crime and poverty
Suburban residents became increasingly fearful that non-white residents would tank the quality of life and destroy property value.
Residential segregation was reinforced by “blockbusting” - a tactic used by real estate brokers who circulated exaggerated warnings of an impeding influx of non-whites to persuade alarmed white residents to sell their homes hastily.
led to all-white enclaves quickly transforming into all-minority areas
Suburban home ownership was essentially a white privilege, the freedom of non-whites to rent or purchase a home where they wanted was overriden by claims of private property and “freedom of association”
Despite all of the segregation issues of the 1950s, many Americans celebrated the triumph of the nation’s democratic ideals and capitalism in where everyone shared the same values of individualism, respect for private property, and belief in equal opportunity
if problems remained, the majority of people believed they required technical solutions rather than structural change or aggressive political intervention
Religion and Anticommunism
Both Protestant and Roman Catholic religious leaders played crucial roles in the spread of anticommunism and Cold War culture
the nation’s religiousness was celebrated against the “godlessness” of communism
the 1950s had the highest percentage in the nation’s history where residents were affiliated with some sort of religious institution
to “strengthen [the] national resistance to communism” Congress added the words “under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance and added “In God We Trust” on paper money
shows how the nation is using religion to combat communism
Soviet domination of strongly Catholic eastern Europe inspired powerful waves of anticommunism among Catholic ethnic groups in the US.
Bishop Fulton J. Sheen and Billy Graham used radio and TV to spread a religious message heavily imbued with anticommunism to millions
associated it with the devil
Unlike the heated religious differences seen in America’s history, various religions became united under a common “Judeo-Christian” heritage
this was a notion that sought to demonstrate that Catholics, Protestants, and Jews shared the same history and values that had all contributed to American society.
reflected the decline of anti-Semitism and anti-Catholicism in the wake of WWII as well as the secularization of American life.
Religion was shifting away from spiritual activities or sacred values and going more towards personal identity, group assimilation and the promotion of traditional morality.
Selling Free Enterprise
An economic system resting on private ownership united the nations of the Free World.
The “selling of free enterprise” becomes a major industry
involving corporate advertising, school programs, newspaper editorials, and civic activities
ads became “a new weapon in the world-wide fight for freedom” → patriotic symbols like the Statue of Liberty and the Liberty Bell became used to promote pride in America’s economic ideology
There were disagreements between the free enterprise campaigners
some businessmen believed that defending free enterprise required rolling back much of the power that labor unions had gained in the past decade
rescinding ND regulations and restricting government’s role in the economy
others believed that laborers needed the right to collective bargaining and advocated for the importance of government-business cooperation.
Government policies played a crucial role in the postwar boom
rapid expansion of the suburban middle class owed much to federal tax subsidies, mortgage guarantees for home purchases, dam and highway construction, military contracts, and GI Bill benefits
People’s Capitalism
Until well into the 20th century, most Americans associated big business with images of robber barons who manipulated politics, suppressed economic competition, and treated their workers unfairly.
However, this notion was gradually changing, as while there were still big companies dominating industries, they were enhancing freedom by multiplying consumer goods.
A sharp jump in the number of people investing in Wall Street inspired talk of a new “people’s capitalism”
these kinds of opportunities provided by the capitalist market allowed for individual freedom and economic opportunity → epitomizing American freedom to show the general prosperity of the economy
The Libertarian Conservatives
During the 1950s, a group of people began the task of reviving conservatism and reclaiming the idea of freedom from liberals.
Although they were mostly ignored, their ideas would define conservative thought for the next 50 years.
One core principle was opposition to a strong national government
to these “libertarian” conservatives, freedom meant individual autonomy, limited government, and unregulated capitalism
The ideas of the “libertarian” conservatives had great appeal to conservative entrepreneurs, especially in the rapidly growing South and West.
many of them sympathized with the writings of Milton Friedman
he identified the free market as the necessary foundation for individual liberty
while it was not an uncommon idea during the Cold War, Friedman pushed this notion to the extreme
he called for the government to turn over all of its functions to the private sector and to repeal minimum wage laws, income tax, and Social Security
Friedman extended the idea of unrestricted free choice into virtually every realm of life.
he insisted that government should seek to regulate neither the economy nor individual conduct
The New Conservatism
Friedman’s ideology not only criticized liberalism but also “new conservatism” - a strain of thought that became increasingly prominent in the 1950s
in the belief that the Free World needed to arm itself morally and intellectually, not just militarily, for the battle against communism, writers insisted that toleration of difference - a central belief of modern liberalism - offered no substitute for the search for absolute truth
Richard Weaver’s book, Ideas have Consequences warned that the West was suffering from moral decay and called for a return to a civilization based on values grounded in the Christian tradition and in timeless notions of good and evil
The “new conservatives” understood freedom as first and foremost a moral condition. It required a decision by independent men and women to lead virtuous lives, or governmental action to force them to do so.
Although they wanted government expelled from the economy, new conservatives trusted it to regulate personal behavior and to restore decaying Christian morality
Libertarian conservatives:
valued progress and personal autonomy
too many barriers against the pursuit of individual liberty
New conservatives:
emphasized tradition, community, and moral commitment
condemned an excess of individualism and breakdown of common values
Conservatives across the board believed that big government was dangerous as long as it was controlled by liberates who “tolerated or encouraged immorality”
Republican control of the presidency didn’t lessen conservatives’ hostility to the federal government, partly because Eisenhower was considered an outsider
The Eisenhower Era
Ike and Nixon
Eisenhower emerged from WWII as the military leader with the greatest political appeal
his fatherly public image set him apart from other successful generals like the arrogant Douglas MacArthur.
his political ideology was unknown
both the Dems and the Republicans wanted him as their candidate in 1952.
Eisenhower became convinced that Senator Robert A. Taft of Ohio, a leading contender for the Republican nomination, would lead the US back towards isolationism.
Hence, Eisenhower entered the Republican nomination race and won the nomination
Eisenhower chose Nixon of California, a WWII veteran who had made a name for himself through his vigorous anticommunism.
became famous for attacking his opponent as an advocate for “state socialism” in a congressional run in 1946
persecuted Alger Hiss while a member of the HUAC
built Nixon’s reputation for opportunism and dishonesty
Nixon also pioneered the shift in the Republican Party’s image from defender of business to champion of "the “forgotten man” (hardworking citizens burdened by heavy taxation and unresponsive government bureaucracies)
The 1952 Campaign
Almost as soon as he won the vice-presidential nomination, Nixon ran into trouble over press reports that he had a private fund for his family → Eisenhower considered dropping him from the ticket
Nixon would deny the accusations in the “Checkers speech” which recused his political career
illustrated how television was transforming politics by allowing candidates to bring a carefully crafted image directly into Americans’ living rooms.
the 1952 campaign was the first to make extensive use of TV ads
The public was becoming weary of the Korean War and Eisenhower’s popularity, coupled with his vision for a peaceful resolution won him the presidency in a landslide
Despite Eisenhower’s success, the Republicans barely won a majority in the 1952 election, but Dems regained control in 1952
Eisenhower beat the odds because despite his party’s lack of Congressional control, his popularity won him the presidency
Eisenhower’s campaign resonated deeply amongst moderate whites living in metropolitan and suburban areas of the upper South and border states despite deep-rooted Democrat control over these areas
Modern Republicanism
Wealthy businessmen dominated Eisenhower’s cabinet.
Eisenhower (Ike) was a champion of the business community and a fiscal conservative
he worked to scale back government spending including the military budget.
While right-wing republicans saw his victory as an invitation to roll back the New Deal, Eisenhower realized that such a course would be disastrous.
Eisenhower called his domestic agenda Modern Republicanism
aimed to sever his party’s identification in the minds of Americans with Hoover, the Great Depression, and indifference to the economic conditions of ordinary citizens.
Core ND programs not only remained in place, but expanded.
1955 - millions of agricultural workers became eligible for Social Security for the first time.
Eisenhower also did not reduce the size and scope of government
America was a more limited welfare state compared to those in Western Europe and it left the pillars of the economy in private hands
However, America too used government spending to promote productivity and to boost unemployment
Eisenhower presided over the building of the interstate highway system
the Cold War (the need to provide rapid exit routes from cities in the event of nuclear war) justified this multibillion-dollar project.
obviously automobile manufacturers, oil companies, suburban builders, and construction unions had practical reasons to support highway construction regardless of the Soviet threat
When the Soviets launched Sputnik, Eisenhower’s administration responded with the National Defense Education Act (encouraged education in science and modern languages through student loans, university research grants, and public school aid in the face of perceived inferiority to the Soviets during the Space Race)
Summary:
Eisenhower’s Modern Republicanism didn’t dismantle the New Deal, rather it consolidated and legitimized it.
By accepting its basic premises, he ensured it would persist even if a Democratic president was not in office.
The Social Contract
Labor conflict decreased in the 1950s in thanks to the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947
In leading industries, labor and management created a new “social contract”
unions signed long-term agreements that left decisions regarding capital investment, plant location, and output in management’s hands, and agreed to try to prevent unauthorized “wildcat” strikes.
employers stopped trying to eliminate existing unions and granted wage increases and fringe benefits such as private pension plans, health insurance, and automatic adjustments to pay to reflect rises in the cost of living
Although the social contract didn’t apply to the majority of workers (who weren’t unionized), it did bring benefits to those who labored in nonunion jobs
trade unions advocating for a steady increase in the minimum wage led to the trickling of these benefits to nonunion workers at the bottom of the employment pyramid.
Nonunion employers continued to fight vehemently against labor organization, some viewed unions as unacceptable infringement upon the power of employers. Some firms continued to shift jobs to the less-unionized suburbs and South.
By the end of the 1950s, the social contract was weakening.
Massive Retaliation
Despite Eisenhower approving an armistice that ended fighting in Korea as soon as he took office, it had failed to ease international tensions
rapid weapons development (hydrogen bombs) escalated tensions due to the capacities for mass destruction
Eisenhower hated war, viewing it as a tragic waste. However, his secretary of State, Dulles, advocated for massive retaliation
Massive retaliation - any Soviet attack on an American ally would be countered by nuclear assault on the Soviet Union itself.
the reliance on the threat of a nuclear assault helped to reduce spending on conventional military forces
while the armed forces were shrinking, the American nuclear arsenal was exploding
Massive retaliation ran the risk that any small conflict, or even a miscalculation could escalate into all-out war that would destroy both the US and the Soviet Union.
critics warned of the danger of Dulles’ apparent willingness to bring the world to the brink of nuclear war.
All-out war would lead to “mutual assured destruction” (MAD) which did succeed in making both great powers cautious in directly dealing with one another.
However, it also inspired widespread fear of impending nuclear war → government programs encouraged Americans to build bomb shelters and school drills trained children to hide under their desks in the event of a nuclear attack
these measures were supposed to enforce the idea that nuclear attacks were survivable, but only increased fear
Ike and the Russians
Eisenhower became convinced that the Soviets were reasonable and could be dealt with in conventional diplomatic terms.
In 1955, Ike met with Nikita Khrushchev, the new Soviet leader (after Stalin’s death)
The following year, Khrushchev delivered a speech to the Communist Party Congress in Moscow that detailed Stalin’s crimes, including purges of political opponents
this revelation created a crisis of belief among communists throughout the world
In the US ¾ of the remaining Communist Party members abandoned the organization, realizing they had been blind to the nature of Stalin’s rule
Khrushchev’s speech also called for “peaceful coexistence” with the US and raised the possibility of an easing of the Cold War.
However, the easing of tensions came to a halt later that year
Soviet troops put down an anticommunist uprising in Hungary
Many conservative Republicans had encouraged eastern Europeans to resist communist rule and Dulles had said that America’s foreign policy should be to liberate rather than contain
Despite this, Eisenhower refused to extend aid to the Hungarian rebels, believing it impossible to prevent Soviet domination over Eastern Europe
In 1958, the two superpowers agreed to a voluntary halt of the testing of nuclear weapons that lasted until 1961.
The National Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy (which publicized the danger to public health posed by radioactive fallout from nuclear tests) forced this measure.
The spirit of cooperation ended abruptly in 1960, when the Soviets shot down an American U-2 spy plane over their territory.
Eisenhower initially denied that the plane had been involved in espionage even after the Russians pressed them on it.
The Emergence of the Third World
The Third World - describes developing countries aligned with neither of the two Cold War powers and wanting to find their own model of development between Soviet centralized market planning and free market capitalism.
Bandung Conference brought leaders of 29 Asian and African nations together, announcing the emergence of a new force in global affairs, representing a majority of the world’s population
The US did not send a representative due to fears over the leftist ideologies of many of the participants
However, many prominent African-Americans connected the fight against imperialism abroad (present at the conference) with the battle of civil rights at home
Post WWII era saw the collapse of European Empires
decolonization began in India and Pakistan and moved to Asian and African colonies
Decolonization created power vacuums in the former colonies, which Americans feared that communists would take advantage of.
The USSR strongly supported the dissolution of Europe’s overseas empires, and many communists participated in movements for colonial independence.
Noncommunist leader such as Nehru and Nkrumah saw socialism as one of the best routes to achieving economic independence and narrowing the social inequalities created by imperialism
Most Third World countries hoped to remain neutral in the Cold War.
On the other hand, many nationalists deeply admired the US and saw the American struggle for independence as a predecessor to their own.
The Cold War in the Third World
With the political split + ideology of European nations set in stone, the Cold War’s focus shifted to the Third World
containment became applicable to any government, whether communist or not, that threatened American strategic or economic interests.
For example, Arbenz in Guatemala and Mossadegh in Iran were elected organically without Soviet influence
However, their desires to reduce foreign corporations’ control over their economies, quickly being branded as communists
The CIA organized coups against both of the governments, violating the UN charter (no military action unless self-defense)
Suez Crisis: Britain, Israel, and France invaded Egypt after it nationalized the Suez canal
Eisenhower was pissed, and forced them to abandon the invasion.
After the Suez Crisis, the US moved to replace Britain as the major Western Power in the Middle East and American companies dominated the region’s oil reserves
Eisenhower extended containment to the region, and issued the Eisenhower Doctrine, which pledged the US to defend Middle Eastern governments threatened by communism and Arab nationalism
Origins of the Vietnam War
In Vietnam, the expulsion of the Japanese didn’t lead to independence, rather to the French trying to preserve their Asian empire against nationalist forces of Ho Chi Minh.
Anticommunism led the US into deeper and deeper involvement.
Eisenhower funneled billions of dollars to bolster French defense efforts.
Wary due to the Korean War, Eisenhower refused to send in troops when France requested them in 1954.
Ike also declined to use nuclear weapons, leading France no alternative but to recognize Vietnamese independence.
The Geneva Accords divided Vietnam temporarily into northern and southern districts, with elections scheduled for 2 years later to unify the country.
Anticommunist southern leader Ngo Dinh Diem, with US support, refused to hold elections, which would have led to a communist victory
Ngo Dinh Diem’s ties to rich Catholic families and landlords in a society dominated by small farmers who had been promised land to them by the communists, caused dissent to boil
full scale guerilla revolt by the time Eisenhower left office.
American foreign policy in Guatemala, Iran, and Vietnam were considered a success by American policymakers
However, it showed the ugly side of American foreign relations (invasive)
Despite the Cold War rhetoric of freedom, American leaders were favoring military regimes over democratic governments
American foreign action laid the groundwork for political tensions that persist into the modern era.
Mass Society and Its Critics
Eisenhower was president during an era of consensus where both parties embraced the Cold War → American freedom might be in greater danger from the lack of political variety than from communist subversion
However, despite the limited scope of political discussion, some intellectuals wondered whether the celebration of affluence and the antagonistic depiction of the USSR hid the extent of the US’s shortcomings in the name of freedom
corporate leaders, politicians, and celebrated military officials dominated government and society making political democracy obsolete
Americans should have not just the freedom to make choices, but to choose what choices there are
Despite the rhetoric of painting America as a beacon of liberty, critics contended that AMericans did not enjoy genuine freedom
due to the modern age itself over socioeconomic divides - modern mass society produced loneliness and anxiety, causing mankind to yearn for stability and authority, not freedom.
Some critics feared that the Soviets demonstrated a greater ability to sacrifice for common public goals than Americans (Americans seemed to prioritize consumerism over public works projects that genuinely benefitted society)
This ideology failed to make a dent in widespread complacency about the American way
Rebels without a Cause
Social critics didn’t offer political alternatives or have any real impact on politics.
With teenagers a growing part of the population due to the baby boom, the emergence of a popular culture geared to the growing youth market suggested that significant generational tensions existed.
Works such as Catcher in the Rye and Rebel without a Cause spurred panic about “juvenile delinquency” → publishers adopt a code of conduct for their industry that strictly limited portrayal of crime and violence
Many adults found the mass-marketed teenage culture that rejected middle-class norms extremely alarming
leather jackets, rock and roll, and the sexually provocative movements of black musicians and dancers to young white audiences highlighted the generational divide between pop culture
The Beats
the Beats, a small group of poets and writers, railed against mainstream culture.
epitomized the generation of young people who rejected the era’s middle-class culture but had little to put in its place.
the Beats rejected the “desperate materialism” of the suburban middle class, and the militarization of life by the Cold War
the Beats celebrated impulsive action, immediate pleasure (including drugs) and sexual experimentation
despite the Cold War rhetoric, they insisted that personal and political repression, not freedom, were the hallmarks of American society
The Freedom Movement
Origins of the Movement
The destabilization of the racial system during WWII, the mass migration out of the segregated South that made black voters an increasingly important part of the Democratic coalition, and the Cold War + rise of independent states in the Third World highlighted the gap between America’s rhetoric and racial reality
Despite these circumstances + international embarrassment for Americans, barely anyone predicted the rapid rise of the civil rights movement
The traditional allies of blacks were left decimated by McCarthyism; most union leaders were left unwilling to challenge racial inequalities within their own ranks
the Civil Rights movement become focused in the souther black church, organizing power for a militant, nonviolent assault on segregation
1950s America was still a deeply segregated, unequal society.
due to labor contracts that linked promotions and firings to seniority → non-white workers, who had joined the industrial labor force later than whites, lost their jobs first in times of economic downturn.
In the South, "separate public institution segregated nearly everything (buildings, train carriages, fountains, bathrooms, etc)
In the North, while the law didn’t require segregation, cultural custom barred blacks from many colleges, hotels, and restaurants + suburban housing
Few white Americans felt any urgency about confronting racial inequality
The Legal Assault on Segregation
With Truman’s civil rights initative having faded, and the Eisenhower administration reluctant to address the issue, it fell to the courts to confront the problem of racial segregation.
In the South west, the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), challenged restrictive housing, employment discrimination, and the segregation of Latino students.
Mendez v. Westminster → schools of Orange County segregated → repealing of all laws requiring racial segregation in schools
NAACP had been pressing legal challenges to “separate but equal” doctrine first seen in Plessy v. Ferguson
at first, the NAACP sought to gain admission to white institutions for which no black equivalent existed.
NAACP’s work eventually led to the crumbling of the “separate but equal” doctrine (they were inherently unequal)
The Brown Case
Black parents who challenged unfair school policies exuded remarkable courage
Levi Pearson, a black farmer who sued on behalf of his children, saw his house burnt to the ground.
The Clarendon case attacked not segregation itself, but the unequal funding of schools.
Brown v Board
Thurgood Marshall decides that the time had come to attack not the unfair applications of the “separate but equal” principle, but the doctrine itself
even with the same funding and facilities, segregation was inherently unequal since it stigmatized one group of citizens as unfit to associate with others.
Marshall argued that segregation did lifelong damage to black children, undermining their self-esteem
The Eisenhower administration did not directly support Marshall’s stance, but it urged justices to consider the issue
Case ended in the Supreme Court deciding that segregation in public education violated the equal protection laws guaranteed by the 14th Amendment (separate is inherently unequal)
The Brown v Board decisions was hailed as a “second Emancipation Proclamation”, but like its predecessor, it was a limited document
the decisions didn’t address segregation in institutions outside of public schools or ban all racial classifications in the law (such as interracial marriage)
didn’t address defacto segregation of the North
didn’t order immediate implementation, but rather hearings to discuss how segregated schooling should be dismantled
did mark the “(Earl) Warren Court” as an active agent for social change → inspired a wave of optimism that racial discrimination was coming to an end
The Montgomery Bus Boycott
Rosa Parks refuses to surrender her seat on a city bus to a white rider which was required by local law → she gets arrested and it sparked a yearlong Montgomery bus boycott (sparked the movement for Civil Rights in the South)
within a decade the civil rights revolution overturned the structure of legal segregation in South and allowed black southerners to regain the right to vote
Rosa Parks was an advocate who worked towards elevating civil rights.
Rosa Parks became the figurehead of the Civil Rights movements due to her accomplishments and well-educated nature.
The Montgomery Bus Boycott featured black workers and students who all walked towards their destinations or rode an informal network of taxis rather than using the public bus system
the boycott led to a Supreme Court ruling that ruled segregation in public transportation as illegal.
The Daybreak of Freedom
The Montgomery bus boycott marked a turning point in American history, it gained the support of northern liberals and focused unprecedented amounts of attention on the country’s racial policies.
Also led to the emergence of Martin Luther King whose fiery speeches electrified and united his audience in the journey towards equality
Freedom to African-Americans meant enjoying political and economic opportunities and rights taken for granted by whites, and required eradicating historical wrongs such as segregation, disenfranchisement, and other sociopolitical issues.
The Leadership of King
MLK was a master of appealing to the deep sense of injustice among blacks and to the conscience of white America, King’s vocabulary integrated the black experience with that of the rest of the nations
MLK drew upon the writings of peaceful civil disobedience of Thoreau and Gandhi
MLK outlined a philosophy in which evil must be met with good, hate with Christian love, and violence with peaceful demands for change.
King’s speeches resonated deeply in both black communities and the broader culture thanks to his repeated invocations of the Bible to preach justice and forgiveness
King also appealed to whites by stressing the protestors’ love for America and their devotion to national values
King linked the domestic struggle for black rights to the growing independence movements for Africans abroad
Massive Resistance
MLK formed the SCLC, a coalition of black ministers and civil rights activists to press for desegregation.
However, despite the civil rights' movement’s success in popular mobilization, the fact that Montgomery officials only agreed to the boycotts’ demands after a Supreme Court ruling indicated that local action alone was not powerful enough to overturn Jim Crow
The white South’s refusal to accept the Brown decision reinforced the conviction that black citizens could not gain their constitutional rights without federal intervention.
The vague wording of the Supreme Court’s ruling that desegregation should proceed “with all deliberate speed” unintentionally encouraged massive resistance from the South that paralyzed civil rights progress in the South
Southern Manifesto (96 out of 106) southern congressmen signed this document that denounced the Brown v Board decision as a “clear abuse of judicial power” and called for resistance to “forced integration” by “any lawful means”
various Southern states passed laws to block segregation, some made it illegal for the NAACP to operate within their borders, and Virginia even pioneered closing public schools ordered to segregate and offered funds to white pupils to attend private institutions
Georgia incorporated the Confederate flag into their state flag, and Alabama and South Carolina flew the Confederate flag over their state capitol buildings as a symbol of defiance
Eisenhower and Civil Rights
The federal government tried to remain away from the black struggle
However, thanks to Senate majority leader Lyndon B. Johnson, Congress passed the first national civil rights law since Reconstruction in 1957
targeted the denial of black voting rights in the South, but with weak enforcement provisions it added few voters to the polls.
Eisenhower failed to provide moral leadership, calling for Americans to abide by the law, but he made it clear that he found the civil rights issue distasteful
privately told his aides he disagreed with the Supreme Court rulings regarding Civil Rights
Governor Orval Faubus of Arkansas used the National Guard to prevent the court-ordered integration of Little Rock’s Central High School
Eisenhower deploys federal troops to the city, and in the face of a howling mob, soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division escorted nine black children into the school.
finally showed that the fed gov would not allow flagrant violations of court orders
Due to massive resistance, the pace of civil rights integration slowed in the 1950s, when Eisenhower left office, only 2 percent of black students attended desegregated schools in the states of the old Confederacy
The World Views of the United States
American leaders had long worried about the impact of segregation on the country’s international reputation
Truman promoted civil rights to remind Americans that they would not afford to “ignore what the world thinks of our record”
The State Department filed a brief in the Brown case noting the damage that segregation was doing to America’s overseas reputation
Foreign nations and colonies paid close attention to the unfolding of the American civil rights movement.
Global reaction to the Brown decision was overwhelmingly positive
slow progression towards change ended up embarassing American diplomats seeking to win loyalty of people in the non-white world
The Election of 1960
Kennedy and Nixon
Presidential election of 1960 was one of the closest in American history.
Kennedy was Catholic but the atmosphere of tolerance promoted by WWII had weakened traditional anti-Catholicism
however, many Protestants remained reluctant to vote for a Catholic, fearing that Kennedy would be required to support church doctrine on public issues or even take orders from the Pope
Kennedy however assured that his religion would not affect his ability to lead the country
Both Kennedy and Nixon were ardent Cold Warriors
Kennedy pointed to Soviet success in launching Sputnik into orbit and testing the first ICBM as evidence that the US had lost its sense of national purpose to fight the Cold War
Kennedy warned that Republican leadership had allowed a missile gap to develop in which the Soviets now had technological and military superiority → persuaded many Americans that new leadersihp was required
Kennedy and his wife reinforced the impression that Kennedy would conduct a more youthful, vigorous presidency
The End of the 1950s
Eisenhower’s Farewell Address
modeled after Washington’s farewell in 1796
knowing that the missile gap was a myth, Eisenhower warned against calls for a new military buildup
he urged Americans to think about the dangerous power of the military-industrial complex and to not let it endanger American liberties or democratic processes
few Americans agreed with Eisenhower’s concern, far more saw the alliance of the Defense Department and private industry as a source of jobs and national security rather than a threat to democracy
While consumerism was booming, the environment was suffering greatly
tens of millions of cars that made suburban life possible were spewing toxic lead into the atmosphere.
cities were being polluted, and CFCs used in ACs, deodorants, and fridges were releasing chemicals into the atmosphere and destroying the ozone layor → global warming + increases in skin cancer
Chemical insectides that enabled the agricultural revolution were poisoning the environment
Blacks were increasingly impatient with slow civil rights progress and housewives were rebelling against life centered in suburbdia.