14.+Happy+Days



That's a great question, don't you think? We will answer it in class on Thursday in a (hopefully) fun activity, but to prepare, we should do a little background reading and watching. R**ead "The Fifties" in __Creating America__ (28-3, pp. 800-803), read over the ABC-CLIO links posted below, and w****atch the videos below.** 
 * FOR HOMEWORK, CREATE A LIST (IN YOUR ONLINE NOTEBOOK) OF POSITIVES AND NEGATIVES CONCERNING LIFE IN THE FIFTIES FOR CLASS ON THURSDAY. WE WILL USE IT TO WRITE SOME DIALOGUE ...

POSITIVES: **
 * economy prosperity after WWII
 * after WWII americans were extremely optimistic and had a "can do" attitude!
 * industry BOOM- super fast!
 * american sciences of many kinds were created because of the econ prosperity- space and medical research
 * new technology (plastics, frozen foods, and jet engines)
 * Americans gained confidence in their democratic leaders when the accused ones were found guilty
 * low housing costs
 * education loans to returning soldiers
 * McCarthy was officially censured- which caused him to stop putting false information out that would cause americans to freak out
 * more immigration from Mexico- illegally and legally. they found jobs on farms and were a big help
 * Eisenhower kept most New Deal programs, expanded some, and adding some! (Expanded Social Security, increased the minimum wages for workers, and more.)
 * with the Highway Act of 1956 passed, 41,000 miles of highway was built
 * because of the economy boom, people were getting married and having kids- which caused the US to grow 30 mil people (mainly because of the baby boom)
 * the baby boom also led to the growth of suburbs
 * Since the suburbs grew, car sales greatly increased because it was a necessity to own a car in the suburbs- few buses existed
 * people moved from the north and east to the south and west- california became the most populated state
 * suburbs- mainly white americans loved because it provided them with affordable single family houses, good schools for the kids, there were shopping malls with free and easy to find parking, and it was safe.
 * mags, films, and tv praised women for their roles as homemakers
 * new goods such as washing machines, vacuums, record player, lawn mower, barbecue equipment, and patio furniture caused a SPENDING SPREE
 * new popular TV shows- //I Love Lucy, Father Knows Best,// (adults and teens), //Lassie,// and //Mickey Mouse Club House// (kids)
 * teens fell in love with ROCK 'N' ROLL - like with Elvis Presley, who became the king of rock 'n' roll
 * JFK wins election against Richard M Nixon- very close- JFK wants to energize america!
 * TV ads filled the people in on the "must have" new items
 * more people moved to the middle class- they then had more money to spend- americans began to buy- led to Americans biggest retail spending yet!
 * doctors began to use more antibiotics over treatments for diseases- making life threatening diseases easy to treat
 * vaccine was produced- stopping viral illnesses
 * people felt like science improved their lives and could solve almost any problem
 * research and production of new military missiles
 * satellites were wanted and were starting to be produced
 * US finally got into space with Von Braun's Explorer 1
 * US made all space research united and spent a ton of money on research
 * 12 million men came home, getting married, then having tons of kids- BABY BOOM
 * housing BOOM from all of the soldiers coming
 * houses made in the suburbs- caused their to be more suburbs which had a nice house, a green yard, and a nice street: the American dream
 * William Levitt created 17,447 homes on a former potato field in Long Island- gave thousands of struggling families their own homes


 * NEGATIVES:**
 * hysteria from the cold war
 * fear of the spread of communism
 * undeclared war with Korea
 * Blacklists- a list of names of suspected communists- ruined peoples lives and got them fired/not hired
 * the hollywood stars that were in the media were monitored because they could easily put a message in the media
 * many people were still in poverty- one out of every 5 americans lived in poverty
 * the poor were forgotten in the cities while the wealthy moved out into suburbs
 * when many people moved to suburbs, there were less people paying taxes in the cities for services like garbage pickup, firefighting, and road repair.
 * many AAs and Latinos could not afford homes in the suburbs
 * the mexicans were taken advantage of and since they feared being sent back to Mexico, they worked longer hours with lower pay
 * some thought that americans were being forced to fit into suburban life- people felted pressured to agree with the beliefs and ideas of everyone else
 * women working outside the home had limited job choices- mainly had jobs to be a nurse, teacher, and office worker
 * movie attendances fell because more people were staying home to watch TV
 * groups of writers and poets protested on what they saw as the dullness and shallowness of the american society- JFK also wanted to shake up the dullness of Eisenhower's years
 * Soviets made and launched the first satellite- Sputnik 1- crushing American's optimism
 * US's first try of a satellite into space failed publicly
 * mainly White Americans got to live the dream of the suburbs because the minorities were unwelcome in the suburbs
 * baby boom: hard on public schools when they attended, hard to find jobs when they needed, and now they are retiring so it will change america because of health care and they are beginning to draw social security

[|The Cold War at Home] / [|The Economy Booms] / [|The Sky is the Limit] / [|Boom-Time for Babies and Houses]