1. American Society Chapter 23 Sections 2 & 3

2. Affluent Society The Growth of Suburbia – As the Peacetime Economy kept growing and wages increased, people had more disposable income. One of the things high on the list of citizens was the ability to purchase a home. - This leads to the creation of suburbs, or areas located outside of a cities urban core. - 85% of Homes purchased in the 1950’s were in suburban areas. - G.I. Bill also gave returning soldiers money to help buy homes.

3. Levittown, NY

4. Baby boom After the end of the second world war America’s birth rate exploded. Between 1945-1961, 65 million children were born. -At its height, a child was born every 7 seconds * Reasons for this increase include a large number of soldiers returning home to their wives from the War. Returning soldiers would receive benefits from the G.I. Bill that allowed them to buy a house to eventually raise a family in.

5. Changing Work Place White collar refers to someone who is a professional. (more than likely would have to wear a white collar shirt and tie to work). Blue collar refers to the blue collar of work shirts. (denim shirts, Dickies work shirts). For the first time in America in 1956 white collar workers outnumbered blue collar workers.

6. Scientific Advances A lot of technology created during WW2 was no being repurposed to sell to consumers. One example being the transistor radio. Up until this point in time radios were very large, this allowed for radios to become smaller and portable. First computers start being constructed in mid 1940’s.

7. Medical Advances Medicine began to modernize itself during this period. A number of illness’ now had cures, and other illness that were considered untreatable were approached differently with great success. - Polio and Tuberculosis (TB) were now curable. -1 st Cancer treatments developed. -Better understanding of Heart disease, heart valve replacement, and pacemaker surgeries were preformed for the 1 st time.

8. Media Televisions are now accessible to the majority of the country due to the strong economy. Audience numbers grew massively. The Lucile Ball show averaged 44 million viewers. Hollywood is born, making TV shows and Movies are major money makers. Rock n’ Roll is born which incorporated some African American rhythms and sounds. African American Entertainers were no also going mainstream, listened to by people other than African Americans. Nat King Cole was very influential.

9. Lucille Ball & Elvis Pressly

10. Nat King Cole

11. The Other Side of American Life Even though there was this increase in the economy 1 in 5 Americans still lived below the poverty line. Poverty line refers to minimum income required to support a family. *As middle class families left cities for suburbs, many cities stayed with a poorer less educated class of people. This would lead to a decline of the inner cities. Urban renewal was put into place, they tore down slums and built large building for low income housing. These areas were very dangerous due to high crime rates, gang activity and drugs.

12. The Other Side of American Life African Americans – many blacks moved North looking to escape persecution in the South and look for jobs. They were met with racial discrimination and could only get the lowest paying jobs. Hispanics – many Hispanic workers in the U.S. received some of the same racial discrimination as blacks. The Bracero program brought in 5 million Mexican to work on U.S. farms. Many were very low wages and worked many long hours. Native Americans – poorest ethnic group in the nation. the termination policy was enacted which removed some rights that native American had been given.

13. Appalachia Mining provided the most jobs within Appalachia, the land surrounding the Appalachian Mountains. With mining equipment being developed, a large number of people were laid off. 1.5 million people left the region after the decline of mining jobs, looking for work instead in cities. Those who stayed behind were very poor and there was not really and industry to provide jobs. Juvenile delinquency is also on the rise. Juvenile crimes rose by as much as 45% between 1948-1953