A Time of Prosperity

Hello readers, and welcome back to another blog post! Look at me being productive! We're still in the Cold War era, and will be for quite some time. This post is going to get away from war a little bit and instead focus on the post-WWII era prosperity that was felt by many, but certainly not all, Americans in the mid-1940s and beyond.


As America’s leaders waged the Cold War all around the world, important economic, social, and political changes were occurring at home. Many Americans enjoyed a new burst of prosperity. However, not everyone was able to share in this economic boom.

On the homefront, Americans faced important economic challenges after the war. Defense industries had closed or had scaled back employment; millions of soldiers would have to be absorbed into the postwar economy…the nation faced a serious problem–how to change back to a peacetime economy. To help these needs, Congress had passed an act in 1944 that became known as the GI Bill of Rights. (GI, which stands for “government issue”, was the name given to any member of the US Armed Forces). The bill gave veterans money to spend on businesses, homes, and schooling; the GI Bill helped more than two million former soldiers attend college to prepare for new careers.

During WWII, consumer goods had been in short supply. With the war’s end, Americans were ready and eager to buy. Because demand far exceeded the supply of goods, the result was soaring inflation. As prices rose, workers demanded large pay increases. When employment refused, a wave of strikes swept the nation.

Although President Truman supported labor, he feared that wage increases would lead to even higher prices. In May 1946, he ended the Union Mine Workers strike by taking over the mines. When railroad workers went on strike a month later, Truman threatened to order them back to work, which angered the union members. When the President encouraged industries to raise salaries, inflation resulted. That made consumers angry.

During the 1946 elections, Republicans asked voters, “Had enough?” Voters seemed to agree. The election gave Republicans a majority in both the House and Senate. Armed with the power to cancel many New Deal programs, Congress passed the Taft-Hartley Act. The act let the government get a court order to delay a strike for 80 days if the strike threatened public safety. The act also forbade unions to contribute to political campaigns. Finally, the act banned the closed shop, which is a workplace in which only union members can be hired. Truman vetoed the Taft-Hartley Act, but Congress passed the act over Truman’s veto. Eventually, Truman would try to expand the goal of the New Deal with his Fair Deal reforms.


The Election of 1948

In early 1948, President Truman’s chances for reelection looked slim. Two out of three voters disapproved of the way he was leading the country. Even Truman’s own Democrats were split. Angered by Truman’s support of civil rights for African Americans, white Democrats nominated their own candidate, South Carolina Governor Strom Thurmond. Liberal Democrats, unhappy with Truman’s policy of challenging Soviet expansion, formed the Progressive Party, and they nominated former Vice President Henry Wallace to run for President.

Confident of victory, the Republicans nominated New York’s governor Thomas Dewey. Dewey didn’t campaign hard; Truman, on the other hand, campaigned tirelessly. He traveled more than 30,000 miles and made hundreds of speeches. Everywhere Truman went, he attacked what he called the “do-nothing” Republican Congress. On election night, people still expected a Dewey victory. In fact, the Chicago Tribune printed its first edition with the headline “Dewey Defeats Truman”.

The election was one of the biggest upsets in American history. Truman squeaked past Dewey to victory. The Democrats also gained control of both the House and the Senate. President Truman saw his narrow victory as a chance to act on his Fair Deal Program, which he had proposed during the campaign. Congress approved a few of the President’s Fair Deal Program proposals; for example, lawmakers increased the minimum wage and provided funds for flood control and low-income housing. However, Congress refused to fund education and national health insurance. It also voted down Truman’s proposals to reduce racial discrimination.


Eisenhower's Middle Way

In 1952, Truman decided not to run again. I the election of 1952, the Democrats nominated Adlai Stevenson, governor of Illinois. The Republicans chose General Dwight D. Eisenhower, nicknamed Ike. A war hero, Eisenhower won a landslide victory.

In contrast to Roosevelt and Truman, Eisenhower believed that the federal government should play a smaller role in the economy. He called for cutting spending, though not for ending programs that helped people. In fact, he increased the number of people who could receive Social Security benefits. Generally, Eisenhower followed a middle-of-the-road policy in his two terms as President. Running on a record of “peace, progress, and prosperity” won him another huge victory in 1956.

Perhaps Eisenhower’s greatest achievement was the Interstate Highway Act of 1956. It provided funds for a vast system of freeways to link all parts of the US. Increasingly, Americans used highways instead of railroads for traveling and for transporting goods.

The Eisenhower years were prosperous ones for many Americans. Inflation slowed and employment soared. New technologies such as the use of computers helped increase American productivity. New jobs put money in consumers’ pockets. Americans responded by spending money on homes, furniture, and cars. Shoppers also bought new products like televisions and air conditioners. Throughout the 1950s, the American standard of living, which is a measure of how comfortable life is for a person, group, or country, rose steadily. By the end of the decade, 6 out of 10 American families owned homes, and 3 out of 4 had cars. Americans manufactured and bought nearly 1 out of every 2 products produced anywhere in the entire world. The US was in the midst of change. After the dangers of war, Americans were looking for security, and many found it in their homes and families.

In the postwar years, Americans married earlier than their parents had. They also raised larger families. The increased birthrate became known as the baby boom. The baby boom increased demand for food, housing, and manufactured goods. Along with the baby boom, people were living longer thanks to new medicines that became popular in the 1950s. For example, antibiotics could now cure many serious infectious diseases; and a new vaccine for polio kept children and adults safe from the disease.

Americans bought automobiles as fast as auto plants could make them. Nowhere were these cars more appreciated than in the growing suburbs. During the 1950s, the number of Americans living in the suburbs grew by 50%. Suburbs grew around cities throughout the US. The growth was most pronounced in the West. As a result, states such as California, Arizona, and Texas gained both people and political power.

Of all the new products of the 1950s, the one that has the greatest impact on American life was television. In 1946, only 8,000 homes had a television set, but by the mid-1950s, 3 out of 4 American homes had one. By the early 1960s, almost every house had one television set, and many homes had more than one.

Television brought news and entertainment into people’s homes. Early programs included original dramas from top writers and situation comedies, more commonly called sitcoms, about the ideal middle-class family. There was, however, some negative effects from television. During the 1950s, watching television became the most important activity of family life. In fact, by 1956, Americans were spending almost as much time watching television every week as they spent at work. The first frozen dinners, introduced in the 1950s, were designed for families who wanted to combine mealtime and television viewing.

Television also helped to make popular a new kind of music…rock-and-roll. Rock-and-Roll was a blend of Black rhythm-and-blues and country music. By far the most popular singer of rock-and-rolle in the postwar era was Elvis Presley, who became known as “the King of Rock-and-Roll”. With hips shaking and knees bending, Presley soon became a teen idol and national star. Adults, on the other hand, were shocked at his music and his provocative dance moves. When he appeared on national television, the camera showed only his upper body.

Although Elvis was “The King”, Chuck Berry is often called the Father of Rock-and-Roll. He invented driving guitar riffs that are still being imitated by today’s bands, and is most well-known for his song “Johnny B. Goode”. If you’ve seen the movie “Back to the Future”, you know this song.The baby boomers were the first generation to grow up with rock-and-roll. The concerts by artists such as Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, and Little Richard brought white and black teenagers together, enjoying the same beat.

The song “Rock Around the Clock”, written by James Myers and Max Freedman, has often been credited as the first song to popularize rock-and-roll music. First recorded in 1953 by Sonny Dae and his Knights, “Rock Around the Clock” received little attention at first. The following year it was recorded by Bill Haley and the Comets as a “B-side” on a 45 single, and still received little attention. In 1955, it was used in the soundtrack for a popular film called Blackboard Jungle, a gritty drama about teenage alienation and violence. Almost immediately, Haley’s version of “Rock Around the Clock” became a hit, and it popularized the rockabilly subculture and led to the domination of popular music charts by rock-and-roll music.

As the US was poised to enjoy a new burst of prosperity, a conflict was brewing in a faraway corner of the world, the Korean Peninsula. It would draw the US into a very “hot” and bloody war, and set off a period of self-doubt among Americans.



This is where we're going to leave off for this post. Next time, we're going to examine the Korean War.