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Postwar America at Home, 1945 –...
Summary
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The postwar era of the 1950s was one of the most prosperous in American history; it was fueled by wartime savings, favorable business conditions fostered by governments at all levels, and federal dollars in the form of the GI Bill, defense spending, and highway construction. While heavy industry still dominated, the United States began a shift toward a service-based economy. Traditional labor made some significant gains, but general prosperity and apparent security eroded unions' numbers and influence. A "baby boom" swelled the population in general, suburbs sprang up, and large numbers of people moving to the West and Sun Belt swelled the populations of those areas. Consumer culture, fed by the economy, television, and declining immigration flourished and contributed to a widespread conformity in American life evidenced in schools, religion, and general roles. Some Americans did rebel against this, finding expression in the "beat" literary movement and in rock and roll music. Prosperity, though, did not come to all corners of America, as the desperately poor and minorities including blacks, Hispanics, and Native Americans still faced limited opportunity and discrimination.
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