The Cold War - Domestic Policy

Postwar Issues

• Demobilization and reconversion
• Housing shortage
• Increased divorce rate
• GI Bill: Serviceman’s Readjustment Act (veteran's hospitals, loans, college funding)

Economic Conditions

• Economic boom begins in late 1940s
• American exports rise to record levels
• Wartime advances in science and technology
• Dismantling wartime controls leads to strikes and unemployment

Truman Administration Politics

• Rise of conservatism, restricting government power
• Anti-Communism effects; Taft-Hartley Act reduces labor union power
• 1946 Elections: Republican congress attacks New Deal

Civil Rights Movement

• Committee on Civil Rights established (1947)
• Military integration in 1948
• Resistance from Southern Democrats (Dixiecrat Party)

The Fair Deal

• Truman's second administration initiatives: civil rights, national health care, education aid
• Increased minimum wage, social security benefits, low-income housing
• Many proposals rejected by Congress

Anti-Communist Measures

• Red Scare—concerns about communism in the U.S.
• Executive Order 9835: Federal Employee Loyalty Program
• Anti-communist campaigns influence media and politics
• McCarthyism emerges with focus on supposed communists in the government

1952 Election

• Dwight Eisenhower (Republican) vs. Adlai Stevenson (Democrat)
• Significant role of television in campaigning

Eisenhower Presidency

• Policies of modern republicanism, economic expansion, and technological development
• Conformity and a growing middle class

The Affluent Society

• Increased government spending and consumer demand
• Highest standard of living recorded

Social Changes in the 1950s

• Baby Boom: earlier marriages, importance of childhood
• Promoted male breadwinner family structure, glorified domestic life for women
• Increase in suburban living, consumerism marked by widespread car ownership

Education and Culture

• Growth in K-12 and higher education
• Federal funding for STEM programs in response to the Cold War
• Television emerges as a central cultural force

Conformity and Discontent

• Generic corporate culture leads to lack of creativity
• Political apathy; consumerism overshadowed civic engagement
• Seeds of 1960s youth movement stemming from dissatisfaction with societal norms

The Other America

• Middle-class ignorance of social injustice and economic inequality
• Rise of the Beat Movement as a reaction against mainstream culture