P OSTWAR A MERICA

GI B ILL OF R IGHTS 1944  Provided financial and educational benefits for WWII veterans  Encouraged veterans to get an education instead of coming home and flooding the workforce  Guaranteed them a year of unemployment benefits  Offered low-interest home loans

H OUSING C RISIS  Housing shortage for returning veterans and their families  William Levitt used the assembly line to mass produce houses  His homes cost $8,000 in the suburbs  Levittown (Long Island), NY  Many veterans could afford these new homes due to the GI Bill

R EDEFINING THE F AMILY  Change of gender roles during WWII  6 million women had a war job; 75% of married women worked in WWII  Refusal to give up independence post WWII  1950: more than a million “war marriages” ended in divorce

E CONOMIC P ROBLEMS  $35 billion in war contracts cancelled = 1 million defense workers unemployed  OPA price controls end = massive inflation  Ex.: pork chops rose from.48c per lb to.72c per lb  Product shortages = long lines at grocery stores  Post war wages cut

E CONOMIC S OLUTIONS  The Depression and wartime shortages taught Americans to save their war wages  Americans had money to spend on new cars, appliances, homes  Booming economy created consumer jobs “the affluent society”  Marshall Plan created foreign markets for American products

T RUMAN AND C IVIL R IGHTS  Federal anti-lynching law; abolition of poll tax; committee to prevent racial discrimination in hiring  Congress would not pass these measures  1948: Truman issued an Executive Order de-segregating the military  He also ordered an end to discrimination in hiring government employees

1948 P RESIDENTIAL E LECTION  Dixiecrats opposed civil rights and formed the States’ Rights Democratic Party  Truman led a “whistlestop campaign” traveling across the country criticizing Congress  “Give ‘em hell, Harry” campaign  Truman defeat Thomas Dewey in a close popular vote election

F AIR D EAL  increased the minimum wage  From.40c to.75c  extended social security coverage  provide housing for low income families  Slums were cleared to build 810,000 housing units in major cities

I LIKE I KE !  Why Truman didn’t run in 1952: stalemate in Korea, McCarthyism  Ike’s campaign: fear of communism and the growing power of the federal gov.  VP candidate Nixon was accused of profiting from a secret fund: the “Checkers Speech” helped Ike to win the election