RAH Day 9 Agenda Goal – to understand the political, economic and social situation in the US following the end of WWII and during the early Cold War Get Unit 2 packet Review post-WWII domestic problems and timeline of early Cold WarWWII domestic problems timeline Liberals v conservatives Questions from homework packet p 1Complete packet p 1 – how did Truman respond to various domestic problems? packet p 2Complete packet p 2 – How does this cartoon depict life in the fifties? Begin video about life in the fifties. Answer questions 1-9 pp 10

Liberals vs. Conservatives Want generous government support of social programs Support government activism to solve social and economic problems but oppose government regulation of of people’s personal behaviors Are more tolerant of alternative lifestyles and would use coercive power of government to support equality Want smaller government budgets and fewer government programs Oppose government activism but support government control of moral values issues Want government coercive power to maintain social order – law and order

Ideologies: A Two-Dimensional Framework

RAH Day 10 Agenda 1. Problem:Millions of veterans thrown out of work as the return to civilian life Solution offered by Truman Administration and Congress FDR’s GI Bill (Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944) put into effect by HST – free education, low interest loans for homes and businesses & unemployment benefitsGI Bill Results – many young families buy homes, millions of small businesses created, whole generation of men educated leading to higher skill levels and higher wages 2. Severe housing shortage Solution offered by Truman Administration and Congress Federal Housing Authority, slum-clearing and gov’t money to help pay for low-income housing construction Results – 800,000 new housing units built under HST Solution offered by private construction businesses like William Levitt Mass produced houses, built in a week made single- family homes in suburbs affordable Results – 85% of new homes were built in the suburbs and a mass migration of people from cities occurredsuburbs

RAH Day 10 Agenda 3. Problem: runaway inflation in Solution offered by Truman Administration and Congress Reinstituted price controls in 1946 that had been lifted by Congress in June 1945 Results – inflation dropped by 1948 as supply caught up with demand 4. Problem: labor strikes threaten to cripple the nation Solution offered by Truman Administration and Congress Tried to negotiate wage increases for striking workers. Threatened striking steel, coal and railroad workers with being drafted into Army and threatened businesses with being taken over by federal gov’t (nationalized) Results – most strikes were settled and the country went back to work.

5. Problem: Discrimnation and racial violence Solution offered by Eisenhower Administration and Congress 1957 Civil Rights Act Enforced the Supreme Court Brown desegregation decision by sending into Little Rock, AR 101 st Ariborne Results – beginning of federal enforcement of desegregation and the integration of blacks into white society Solution offered during Truman’s Administration Integrate the military 1948 by executive order Create Committee on Civil RightsCivil Rights Executive order ending discrimination in federal employment Proposed the following, which Congress failed to enact: Civil rights act Anti-lynching law Equal employment commission End to poll tax A voting rights act