fill in the blank United states history test on chap 25 and 26 USH

FDR’s philosophy

• “Take a method and try it,” he said, “if it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something.”

  • FDR inherits a disastrous, novel situation

  • Enormous economic consequences

  • Old remedies wouldn’t work

  • FDR has a cane

    • He had Polio in his 20s 

      • Painful

      • He will never again use his legs, and he has to wear metal braces or wheelchair

      • He was disabled but robust, and he could swim

      • He got his own handicapped car

      • He believed anyone could overcome obstacles like he had 

  • He was a governor of New York state 

  • Delanos and Roosevelts were aristocrats of America and NY

    • Teddy Roosevelt was FDR's cousin

      • Both progressives

The New Dealers

• New Dealers were strongly influenced by the progressive reformers of the early 20th century

  • Progressives look at things scientifically

    • Psychology sociology 

    • FDR Brought other progressives into his cabinet and side in the white house

The new deal’s 3 R’s (all addressing economy; invents social security)

1. Relief (band-aid)

• Immediate (not really permanent) action to halt the economy’s deterioration

2. Recovery 

• “Pump-priming”

  • Temporary programs to restart the flow of consumer demand

3. Reform (prevents getting sick again)

• Perm programs to avoid situations causing contractions and insurance for citizens agaisnt economic diasasters

• President and advisors suggest (write) legislation

• 2 philosophies of government stimulation

  • Republicans

    • Hoover’s trickle down

      • Creating things that are good (like loans) for business

  • FDR

    • Pump priming

      • Direct relief payments (putting money into people’s pockets) and temporary jobs on government projects create new money in circulation

The US economy depends on consumers spending money

First hundred days

• Coined by FDR

  • Elected in 1932

  • Gets sworn in in March 1933

  • In 1934, congressional election (off-year election) 

    • Critical to control Congress party-wise

• When you should get most stuff done

• 15 major bills through Congress

• He attacked the bank crisis first by declaring a national bank holiday (even applies to private banks), which closed all banks.

  • FDR greatly expands executive power

  • He’s playing a mind game so that people would want to put their money back into the banks 

  • https://ny.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/the-great-depression-fdr-first-fireside-chat-video/ken-burns-the-roosevelts/us-history-collection/

    • Homeless men riding atop the train cars

    • Fireside chat

      • Intimate relationship, no yelling

      • Spoke to Americans like an equal and uncle

      • Caused people to redeposit their taken our money

      • The leader leads, and the nation heeds

  • Roosevelt appealed directly to the American people. He conducted the first of many radio “fireside chats”

First hundred days- relief 

• Secretary of labor

  • Perkins

• FDR believed in effective communication with americans

  • Welcomed reporters

• Glass-Stegall act

• TVA

  • Dam control

• AAA

• PWA

• CCC

  • Civilian conservation corp

    • Giving jobs to men

    • Planting trees

• NRA

  • National recovnery administration

  • Fed agency that asked businesses to keep prices down and increase wages

    • Sounds like central planning but

      • musslini

    • There’s a parade

  • There were stickers for people a part of this

  • Partisan?

  • Big infrastructure projects

First hundred days - Relief 

• Emergency banking act

  • Inspect all banks before re-opening

  • Allowed the president to shut down banks, this was unprecedented

  • Take money from mattresses back into banks

• glass Steagall Act

  • Established the FDIC insuring the nations banks

  • Insuring a quarter of a million dollars if your bank failed 

• Truth in Securities Act

  • Companies (when ppl were buying stocks) must make full and accurate disclosures to buyers

    • Helps with transparency

• Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)

  • To police the stock market

  • Still around

  • Wallstreet police

Relief

• Federal Emergency Relief Administration (precursor to FEManagementA)

  • Provided cash grants to states 

• CWA (Civil Works Administration)

  • Made work relief, roads, schools, parks

  • Generally young men

  • Built bear mountain

• Civilian conservation corps

  • Planting trees, building reservoirs, agricultural irrigation

Shelterbelt

• Planted trees from the Canadian border in North Dakota to the Mexican border near Texas

• They plant these trees to prevent future dustbowls (natural disaster)

  • Supposed to slow down wind and prevent dust pickup

Recovery

• Agricultural adjustment Act

  • Subsidized (paying/giving money) and regulated some farm crops (favored large farms in the Dustbowl)

    • Paying them to not plant into the dirt so that it could reconstitute itself

    • Supreme court rules this unconstitutional 

• Farm security administration

  • Loans to small farmers 

• Rural electrification administration

  • Bring electricity to rural areas

    • Big cities got electricity first because many people would pay for it in one apartment building 

Recovery

• NRA (National Recovery Administration)  

  • They sought to revive industry through voluntary (central) planning

    • You get stickers for participation 

  • Minimum wage 

  • Maximum work week

  • Abolition of child labor 

    • So they could go to school

  • Wage limits from major industries

    • Pay at least some amount

    • The govt getting involved at all was huge

• Collective bargaining 

  • Unions will collectively bargain with owners of the industry

  • Fed govt encouraging unionization 

Problems with NRA

• Weak enforcement measures

• Industrial production declines

  • In some sectors bc, govt can't mandate everything

• Supreme Court rules NRA as unconstitutional 

Tennessee Valley Authority

• Large portions of the country didn’t have electricity

• Finish the dam at Muscle Shoals (in Alabama) and build more dams that would create electricity, which would re-develop the entire region with the bringing of electricity

• Improve water transportation (Quincy Adams wanted to do this)

• Eliminating flooding in the region

• Provided electricity

WPA

Second New Deal (1935)

• Supreme Court invalidated the NRA (National Recovery Administration) and AAA (agricultural _ Act)

• Wagner Act created the NLRB (National Labor Relations Board)

  • When the fed govt steps into the relationship between workers and employers, helping to settle disputes

  • Strengthened collective bargaining

  • Helped enforce the guarantees promised to workers

Works progress administration

New Deal Legacy (stays around for generations)

• Did not end the depression 

  • Even with all the pump priming and giving of jobs to men

• Did not transform American capitalism in any radical way (this was a chief criticism) 

  • People said FDR was a commie without any basis for the truth 

• Corporate power remained nearly free of govt. Regulation (labor relations was the exception)

  • National Labor Relations Board (created under the Wagner Act)

    • Exists to manage relations between employers and workers 

    • Reduced strikes

• Didn't end poverty

  • Stil disparity between rich and poor

• It did not solve domestic problems such as racial and gender inequality 

• New Deal greatly expanded the role of the federal govt ()

  • In 2025, it is shrinking

  • Protect the rights of unions 

  • Stabilize the banking system

  • Build low-income housing 

  • Regulate the financial markets 

  • Reform measures have worked

  • Subsidize (fed govt help pay for it) agricultural production (for farmers)

  • Use fiscal (monetary) policy to stimulate economic growth (with fed govt money?) 

    • Creating jobs that the fed govt pays people to do

      • Moving away from lasseiz faire 

  •  

World War II

• America’s involvement slowly shifted from isolationism to full involvement after Pearl Harbor (and during WW2) 

  • Pearl harbor brings US into ww2?

Rise of Fascism/Militarism (makes US leaders nervous)

• 1922; Mussolini takes over Italy 

• 1926; stalin is Soviet (russian) dictator

• 1931; japan invades China (Manchuria) Japan now controlled by military (militarism took over even tho emperor is still around?) 

• 1936; Spanish civil war (Franco is dictator?)

  • Private US citizens tried to get involved to protect democracy

American Neutrality (tells us that geopolitically, US politicians are very worried)

• Neutrality Acts of 1935, 1936, 1937

  • When Germany starts to gobble up land

• The US will not sell weapons to nations at war

• Nations may buy non-military items from the US on a “cash and carry” basis ( pay cash and pick up goods on your own ships; only kinda supplying British military)

Nuremberg (city) Laws

• Sept 1935: German citizens who are Jews are denied their rights

  • During FDR’s first term 

• Nov 1938; Kristallnacht (night of broken glass; jew stores and homes are vandalized and looted) - state sponsered violence agaisnt jews in germany and austria (it was annexed)

Hitler 

• Feb 1938; anschluss - invasion of austria 

• Sept 1938; Munich Conference - appeasement (give into demands)- England and France (leaders) made concessions in exchange for peace (so hitler will stop taking more land)

• Oct 1938; Hitler demands Danzig in Poland (key to poland?) 

• Britian says they will help defend poland

Nazi - soviet pact

• Aug 1939; germany signs non-agression pact with USSR (included secret deal to divide poland) 

• Sept 1, 1939; germany invades poland

  • Start of organized conflict

• Britain and france declare war on germany

• June 22, 1941; hitler double crosses russia and invades soviet union

  • In dec 7th, 1941; pearl harbor

Lend lease (act?)

• March 11th, 1941; permitted president to: like give military supplies to britian 

  • “ sell, transfer title to, exchange, lease, end, or otherwise dispose of, to any such government (whose defense the president deems vital to the defense of the United states) any defense article”.

  •                       

3/26/25

Hitler

The voyage of the St. louis (May-June 1939)

• Hamburg-amerika linie 

•  

• Refugee vs. immigrant 

• June 1939; st louis boat contained (european?) jews going to cuba to leave nazis 

  • But Cuba says they don't want them (jews?)

    • So the ship goes to new york, but the US turned them away (so they had to go back to europe?)

      • Because many powerful americans were anti semitic 

August 1941; atlantic center 

• FDR and churchill come together and sign the atlantic charter

  • The US will support the british 

  • Lasted until 2025 and trump 

  • Churchill is wearing a uniform because they were at war

    • FDR doesn’t wear uniform even tho he is commander in chief of US military?

November 1, 1941

• USN reuben james sunk by the germans 

  • USS Ruben James DD-245

    • Sent US supplies to britain 

Britain attacked 

• Continuously for the next 4 years, germany does bombing raids 

• Turning point for US in ww2 is pearl harbor

  • Pearl harbor had 130 vessels of the US pacific fleet

    • Hawaii wasn’t given, but acquired by the US

      • Used for fueling ships in the pacific?

    • Pearl harbor was a naval base

  • After japanese bomb pearl harbor, they also attack manilla

    • Japanese wanted to knock out US navy and airstrips?

      • As revenge for the US putting embargos on japan to make it harder for them to trade with china?

November 1, 1941 USN Ruben James sunk

• Germany sinks U.S ships on their way to Britain

• The USS Reuben James being one of them.

Pearl Harbor

• Pearl Harbor had 130 vessels of the U.S Pacific fleet

• The U.S put embargoes on Japan, for what they did to countries like China.

• Japan thought they should attack the U.S before they attacked them.

• Thought the U.S would give up after this attack

On December 11 (1941?); Germany and Italy declared war on the US.

The Homefront (the US)

• US changed after Pearl Harbor

• US goes to war with some of Europe and the Far East (japan)

  • Kinda 2 separate wars, happening at the same time

READ CHAP 24, WW2 THIS WEEK

• Women would help the homefront war effort 

• PBS wartown vid (12:45)

  • Jeep was og an army car

  • They build the bomber planes faster than germanny can shoot them down

  • Rosie the riverter; we can do it poster girl 

Pearl Harbor

• Pearl Harbor had 130 vessels of the U.S Pacific fleet

• Pearl Harbor was a navy base

• The U.S put embargoes on Japan, for what they did to countries like China.

• Japan thought they should attack the U.S. before they attacked them.

• Thought the U.S would give up after this attack

• After the attacks the United states declared War on Germany

• Then Germany and Italy declare war on the U.S

Britain Attacked

• Germany bombed Britain repeatedly

The Homefront

• Women would help the red cross and hospitals during the war(Homefront War effort).

• Men enlisted in the army to fight in the war.

PBS video (9:56)

• What are the consequences of __?

• Titled mobile shipyards

  • war time increased some wages

  • Things were changing in the US

    • The US was fighting against Nazis (they wanted only pure-blooded Germans to exsist)

    • But at the same time, The US had institutional/legalized segregation; and so NCAAP membership increased 9 fold

PBS video 12:43

• Women have to pass aptitude tests to be able to work

• Army created aptitude tests 

Treatment of the japanese PBS video (7:14   Made into an enemy)

• Some japanese americans on the west coast of the US were sent to internment (kinda concentration) camps for the duration of WW2

• FDR signed executive order 9066

The War in Europe

• 1942; German submarines sank 500 American merchant ships (carrying items to help B survive and not get conquered); difficult to provide goods to England 

  •  

• It took time for the US to turn its citizens into soldiers

• Spring 1942; german army plunges into Soviet territory, close to Moscow, threatening russian oil fields (a modern army runs on oil)

  • Whichever side had more oil was better off

• Germany had to defend 2 fronts

• US goes to war in northern africa for oil (middle eastern oil fields?)

  • The Allied Counteroffensive 1942-1943: WW2 in north africa and italy

    • retaking north Africa for oil fields

    • Pushing the axis powers to containment 

Holding off the germans

• Dwight eisenhower

• Battle of stalingrad

• Italy invaded

The War in Europe

• September 1942: The soviet army stops the Germans at Stalingrad. Stalingrad was the worst battle of the war. Lasted over 4 months, over 1 million soldiers were killed. (20 million Soviets died in the war). Soviets never gave up fighting against Germany

  • Nazism threatened 

• Battle/Siege of Stalin grad

  • Over 1 million soldiers were killed in 4 months. 

• British and Americans attacked the Germans and Italians in North Africa. This opened up shipping across the Mediterranean Sea (important for the war since we controlled the oil fields)

• The Allies invaded Italy. Mussolini was overthrown 

• The Italian campaign

• Operation Overlord was the Allied invasion of Europe (D-Day) 

  • Dwight Eisenhower (who would become president) was the commander. 

  • D-Day started on June 6th, 1944 (the beginning of the end of ww2)

    • It took 6 weeks to secure the beaches. 

    • Pbs video, june 6 1944: d day (2:13)

      • Pillboxes (bunkers?)

• Paris was liberated in August, by mid september, the allies had crossed the german border

• December 1944- German counterattack along the border of Belgium and luxemburg. (the battle of the bulge (because of the shape of Germany army/territory on military maps). Slowed the allied invasion by 6 months)

• Saturation bombing of german territory 

• By febuary 1945; the soviet army was within 45 miles of berlin

• April 30 1945; hitler commits suicide (kills his family), germany surrenders one week later 

• May 8th, 1945; V-E (Victory in Europe) Day; churchill was there

• The US found out about the…

  • Holocaust (germans rounded up the “undesirable”)

    • Pbs video (7:45)

  • The Nuremberg trials (witness to history)

    • Pbs vid (10:00)

    • Holding people accountable for their actions

      • International tribunal

MAD (mutually assured destruction)

• Proliferation = spreading/growing

• Détente: calming/ easing of tensions (Cold War) 

• SALT (strategic arms limitation talks/treaties) 

The War in the Pacific 

• Japan invaded China in 1937

  • Japan is aggressive and militaristic

• In 1940, japan occupied northern Indochina (Dutch Indochina)

  • To stop Japanese aggression, the US placed an embargo (halt the sale of things; trying to limit them) on the export of scrap metal, oil, and aviation fuel to Japan 

    • In hopes of slowing down the Japanese military 

  • Froze Japanese bank accounts in the US 

• Harmed by these sanctions, Japan negotiated with the US throughout 1941

• The US demanded that Japan withdraw immediately from Indochina and China

  • It doesn’t happen though

• Japan promised not to march further south, not to attack the Soviet Union, and not to declare war against the US if Germany and America went to war

  • Japan and Germany had an informal agreement; they would slice the world in half around the Iranian border

• In return, japan asked the US to abandon China. Roosevelt refused bc of economic and political reasons (so China kinda owes US for protection from Japan)

• Japan wanted to destroy American striking power in the pacific

  • Wanted to destroy 

    • The US Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor

    • US Far East Air Force in the Philippines-- before moving southward 

• Japan entered WWII with the intention of fighting a short and limited war 

  • Thought they could knock out the US easily

  • Secure the resources of Southeast Asia and much of China

  • They wanted to establish a “greater East Asia co-prosperity sphere”  under Japanese hegemony (japan in charge of it)

    • Not really about getting along

• Japan thought that the Allies would wear themselves out and that we were weak and isolationist

• Japan miscalculated the effect of their surprise attack at Pearl Harbor -unified a divided people and aroused the US to wage a total, not a limited war.

• Island hopping to Japan to get US planes over Japan’s main islands

Truman was FDR’s vice president and became president during the atomic bombs

PBS video - 3:06

After WWII

Bretton Woods Conference - July 1944

• They don’t want another economic crash; they want to avoid it in the future

• Representatives of the allies and their allies

IMF (International Monetary Fund)

• what would become the World Bank?

The Cold War:

• A period of time of increased tension between democratic (USA) and communist (USSR) governments after WWII

• Why did it start?

  • As the US army advanced on Berlin from the west it occupied all of western Europe. As the Red Army advanced on Berlin, it occupied all of Eastern Europe. Stalin promised at the april 1945 Yalta Conference (stalin, roosevelt, churchill). 

Potsdam Conference - July 1945

• In Germany 

• Stalin went back on the deal to let his people vote for their govt; and so he refused to hold elections in occupied east europe 

  • Instead of voting, Stalin installed communist governments in the areas that his armies controlled. 

• After WWI, Stalin argues that, “Whoever occupies a territory also imposes his own social system.” After all, the US didn’t consult USSR on its occupation of italy and Japan 

Stalin Lied to the US, he went back on his voting deal to let his people vote for their social system

Winston Churchill’s “Iron curtain speech” March 5th, 1946

• “From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an IRON CURTAIN has descended on the continent”

• West germany is democratic

• East germany is commie

• Berlin (german capital) is split into 2; demo and commie

Marshall Plan

• After the war, Europe was in shambles: Drought, poverty, and a cold winter in 1947 struck, and western Europe was ripe for a communist insurgence (France and Italy had strong commie parties), so the US gave $13 billion to support capitalism and democracy and to re-build western europe.

Truman Doctrine 

• Later in 1947, Truman pledges to “support free people who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or outside pressures.” Greece and turkey need help fighting communism (because they are behind the Iron Curtain, to the right of in, and the US wants to stop spread of commieism) and get it… 

• Containing and stopping spread of communism

In june 1948, the soviet union attempted to control all of berlin by cutting surface traffic to and from the city of west berlin

193 UN members 

Berlin Airlift

• “The berlin blockade (10 minutes)” youtube video

  • Soviets test their atomic bomb in 1949

  • North atlantic treaty organization

    • Started out as 12 countires 

    • In response to soviets nuclear weapons

      • USSR make warsaw pact to?

In 1949 NATO (north atlantic treaty organization) is formed

• Involved 26 countries from North America and europe

• The role of NATO is to safeguard the freedom and security of its member countries by political and military means

• NATO vs. the Warsaw Pact (created by the USSR)

The Cold War enters into the nuclear age

Korea

• Occupied by Japan 1910-1945

• China 

  • commies (Mao) versus nationalists (Chiang Kai Shek) 1945-1949

    • Mao wins, and nationalists are chased out or killed 

      • Taiwan considers itself as a private nation, but china thinks it is still a part of China

• Korea was split in 2 after WWII

  • After commies take over china, it spreads to north korea over the river separating china and the korean peninsula…

Korean War

• 1950; north korea sent an invasion force across the 38th parallel into South Korea to try to takeover all of korea

  • Proxy war with US, china, and USSR

    • US supplies South Korea (because the US fears commie is a disease that must be contained), and USSR helps North Korea

      • All the while, the US and China (and USSR)  are fighting each other?

Korea Youtube Vid

• Sigmund reid 

• “Cold war Korea 1949 1953”

• Stalin thought the US lacked the confidence to get invovled in asia 

• The UN, US lead, helps fight in korean war?

• Security counsel of the UN

“China is going to centuries about half a million at once and the long and short of it is that's going to be more than our ground forces the unground forces please can handle the questioThere were those in then arises during this conflict something that we thought would be sort of unthinkable  were those in the American why don't we just use nuclear weapons and end it and this does come up in the context of the White House Truman will end up relieving General MacArthur of his duty because he he believes that we should we should be more aggressive towards the Chinese so the Korean war is a really good example of of you know life in the new Cold War era so we have these nuclear weapons Chinese don't the Russians do Russia and China allies with each other do we do we do we use nuclear weapons against the Chinese do we use nuclear weapons in North Korea Truman says that's a bridge too far we're not we're not doing that” - schuchat

Election of 1948

• Dewey (republican) lost to Truman 

  • Ppl thought a vote for truman was a vote for FDR

House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC)

• “AMERICANS….. DON’T PATRONIZE REDS!!!!”

• Jospeh mccarthy 

  • Mccarthism 

    • Aggressive fear of communism

    • Hollywood 10

      • Spread communism through film 

    • Blacklists?

    • What is mccarthisym - ted talk video

Test (next week chap 25,26)

4/21

• Domino theory

  • When one country becomes communist, and others follow

  • 1954 - Communist Vietnamese (was a french colony for 100 years) revolt against french bc they want to be independent

    • Self-determination/sovereignty?

  • America does not send aid to?

  • Vietnam is divided at the 17th parallel into north (next to china so communist) and south vietnam (democratic)

  • Ho Chi Minh in North vietnam is the leader, educated in paris?

  • Diem is the American appointed official in South Vietnam 

Cold war culture

• Antibotics

• Polio vaccine

• DDT

  • Insectide to kill crop eating inscests; helps with crops, but causes cancer

• Integrated circuits 

  • For computers?

• Televison 

• ICBM’s (intercontental ballistic missiles) kinda like rockets

  • MAD

  • You can send a rocket with a war head attached to another country

• NASA ( stood for the national…) and Sputnik (Russia lauched the first satellite; unmanned space vessel that can stay in space, it can signals back to the land)

  • Jet airplanes are developed 

    • Engines developed to beat germans are used then commercially

Consumer culture

• Teens and children become a target market for advertising; marketers want to entice teens to buy their products

• Growth of suburbs in large numbers - Levittown, Long Island

  • Baby booms emerge

• Television creates a national audience with national markets -- accentuates social conflict, as not everyone shares in the prosperity 

  • Based on ads (model changed now)

  • The ads paid for the TV shows 

    • Soap opera

      • They were created and sponsored by soap companies

  • ABC, CBS, … 

Growth of the West

• Growth leads to threats on the parks and un-developed areas as more ppl leads to need for energy (dams) and housing 

• AC makes it possible to live in the west

  • Movie theaters were the first place to have them

• NGO (nongovernmental organization) like Sierra club helps lead environmental movement; progresssivism

Organized society

• White collar workers (office jobs) outnumber blue-collar workers (overalls/denim workshirt)

• Most are working in corporate settings

• Bureaucracy of these corporations become more rigid - many are disgruntled by this

  • Punching in the clock when you come in

• Self-reliance de-emphasized as teamwork is emphasized - this results in…

Youth Culture

• James Dean - played a moody, alienated young man in 3 Hollywood films 

  • Countercultural punk

•  Beat Poets and writers

  • Sames Ginsberg, Kerouac

• And of course…

  • Early rock and roll (1954-1959) was a good example of youth culture

Early rock and roll (1954-1959)

• Automobiles have radios in them

  • Cars have an antenna that can receive a radio signal from radio towers

• Blend of (mostly southern) american music (music that already existed put together)

  • Country

  • Blues

  • Gospel

  • Jump blues/swing

• Carl perkins

• Elvis presley

• Fats domino 

• Buddy holly

  • Ed sullivan show

• Little richard

• Bill haley and the comets

• Chuck berry

Truman doctrine is…

4/22/25

• The Eisenhower Doctrine 

  • President from 1952-1960

  • He makes a speech in 1957 to congress in response to egypt wanting to take back the suez canal

    • Byway that allows ships in the mediterranean to go through egypt to like india

    • “To secure and protect the territorial integrity and political indepence of such nations, requesting such aid against overt armed aggression from any nationi controlled by international communism”

    • … focused on the middle east after the suez crisis 

• U-2 (american spy plane)  incident; 1960

  • Soviets shoot down a plane because they thought it was spying (it was) gary powers the pilot survives

  • US claimed it was a weather research plane (it wasnt)

  • Russians hold him in place after he parachutes

• Eisenhower’s farewell address

  • He warns about the influence of the “military-industrial complex” (negative; as the military of the US was growing, a lot of the technology was nuclear, )

    • “We must guards against the acquisition of unwarranted inifluence… The potential for the disaerous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist”

    • he made the interstate highway

      • So the military could move missiles and tanks could move accross the country (new jersey to Washington State) 

Ike’s (eisenhower) goal for the future 

• “Disarmanent, with mutual honor and confidence, is a continuing imperative. Together we must learn how to compose diffs, not with arms, but with intellect and decent purpose”

Women in the 1950s

• WWII employment for women

  • Women’s Auxiliary Corps (WAC)

  • Aircraft engine technician and senior supervisors

  • Abt 300K women served in the war?

• Post WWII employment

  • Women had to give jobs back to the men

  • Womans jobs (support staff, not managment)

    • Schoolteachers

    • Clerical work

    • Retail

    • Secretary

  • Women couldnt go to medical school or be a docotor or lawyer

Social pressures/expectations

• Early marriage 

• Childbearing (more children the better)

• Stay at home motherhood

• Nuclear family?

  • 2 parents, many children, dad works, mom stay at home

1947-1963 (ppl are called baby boomers) 

Media portayls of gender

• Leave it to beaver 

Suburbia, home of the “happy housewife”

• GI (government issue) bill

• Mass produced, affordable homes

• Great migration (aka white flight because they wanted to move to all white suburbs without black people; black people weren't allowed to buy homes in places like levittown) from cities to suburbs 

  • Racial Covenants; rules by real estate people that denied other ethnic groups from buying houses  there 

• Levitown had track homes in the 1950s

Products marketed for women

• Electric iron 

• Cleaning products

  • Soil-off

• Madison avenue 

  • Where ads came from?

  • Madison avenue flu

Is the image of the happy 1950s housewife accurate?