The War at Home: Post-WWII America

Unions After the War Labor unrest and strikes became common immediately following the war, disrupting the post-war economy Another coal strike was so serious that President Truman ordered the mines seized by the government

Taft-Hartley Act In 1947, Congress passed sweeping labor reform which banned “closed shops” (where all employees had to be union members) and allowed employers to sue unions for damages in some cases

Automation Threatens Jobs As American factories increasingly modernized after the war, machines began to take the place of unskilled labor, costing jobs and hurting union membership

AFL-CIO Eventually, powerful new “super-unions” arose, such as the AFL-CIO, a merger between the American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations in 1955, which represented over 15 million workers

Election of 1948 Democrats ran President Harry Truman while Republicans ran NY Governor Thomas Dewey Nearly everyone expected Dewey to win easily, but were surprised when Truman pulled off a narrow victory, becoming President in his own right rather than by default (death of FDR)

The GI Bill Passed in 1944 Designed to help GIs transition back to civilian life Helped veterans by paying for college tuition, providing one year’s unemployment pay, and providing easy to get loans for purchasing housing or starting businesses

Growth of Middle Class As hundreds of thousands of GIs became better educated and able to acquire better jobs, the middle-class in America grew significantly during the 1950s This expanded middle-class increased the demand for consumer goods and single-family housing

“Baby Boom” Returning GIs were also anxious to marry and start families, leading to a dramatic surge in the birth rate from 1946 to 1964 This generation of children, the largest in US history, came to be known as the “baby boomers”