America at Midcentury Ch 27
EQ s How did the Eisenhower administration s foreign policy respond to Cold War challenges? On what foundations did the nation s post-world War II prosperity rest? What ideals did America s suburban life evoke, and how did these ideals correspond to suburban realities? What explains the emergence of a distinct youth culture in 1950s America? What criticisms did television and the 1950s mass culture evoke? Who was John F. Kennedy, and why did his New Frontier seem so promising to many Americans?
What contributed to this prosperity?
List as many words to describe the 1950 s as possible. 1 min
Other Economic Drivers FHA backed loans GI Bill Nation Defense Education Act (NDEA) of 1958 Federal Highway Act of 1956
Medical Advances
1950 s Culture
Women in the 1950s
WWII employment for women Women s Auxiliary Corps laboratory technician conducts an experiment, Fort Jackson State Hospital, 1944 Aircraft engine technician and senior supervisor, Naval Air Base, 1942
Post-WWII employment A secretary and her boss, an industrial designer, New York City, 1950
Social pressures Early marriage Childbearing Stay-at-home motherhood Nuclear family Kennedy wedding, Jacqueline throwing the bouquet, 1953
Births The Baby Boom Year
Media portrayals of gender A photo of the Cleaver family from Leave it to Beaver, a popular TV show in the 1950s-60s
Suburbia, home of the happy housewife Levittown track homes of the 1950s G.I. Bill Mass-produced, affordable homes Great Migration and white flight
Household products marketed to women A 1950s ad for an electric iron A 1950s ad for a cleaning product
Central Historical Question Is the image of the happy 1950s housewife accurate?
Friedan and the Feminine Mystique
1950 s Youth The teenager
Rock n Roll
Early Television Why Important?
How does TV work?
Culture Critics The best teacher is experience and not through someone's distorted point of view Jack Kerouac On the Road
R O C K N R O L L
Brinksmanship Dulles Diplomacy
Roll back Hungary (1956) Korea (1950) Cuba (1961)
Massive Retaliation
Soviet H Bomb
Sputnik (1957)
NASA (1958)
ICBM s
Khrushchev Visit
Gary Power and U2 Plane
CIA Intervention
Iran (1953)
Review Truman and Cold War Eisenhower and Cold War
Guatemala (1954)
Fall of Indochina Dien Bien Phu (1954)
Domino Theory
SEATO
Suez Crisis (1956)
Eisenhower Doctrine
Cuba (1959)
Cuban Crisis Fidel Castro Cuban Dictator seizes power Communist government 90 miles away Supported by U.S.S.R. 10% of Cuban population goes into exile Many to U.S.
Military Industrial Complex
The Eisenhower presidency was extremely successful. Evaluate the accuracy of this statement.
Review 1. What two nations emerged from WWII as the strongest in the world? 2. What is the name of the peace-keeping force established in 1945 and still around today? 3. What were the nations where the U.S.S.R. established communist governments? 4. What was the name of the U.S. policy to limit the spread of communism? 5. What was the name of the plan to rebuild war-devastated Europe? 6. Name of the effort to fly in supplies to an isolated West Berlin? 7. Who became the communist leader of China? 8. What line separated North and South Korea? 9. Who was the Senator that used witch hunting techniques to expose communists in U.S.? 10. What was the name of the first satellite launched into space?
Election of 1960
POTUS 35 - JFK Dem senator from Mass Youngest POTUS elected New Frontier Camelot Assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald on Nov 22, 1963 in Dallas 1036
Camelot
New Frontier Education Health care Urban Renewal Civil Rights Stimulative economic policy
Kennedy Inspires
Kennedy and Cold War
Berlin Wall
Berlin Wall Speech
JFK Assassination Dallas, TX Nov 22, 1963 Shot by Lee Harvey Oswald (Oswald shot by Jack Ruby) Warren Commission concluded Oswald acted alone Many conspiracy theories exist: More than one gunman Soviet involvement CIA Involvement VP Lyndon Baines Johnson sworn in
Conspiracy?