Posted: Thu Nov 19, 2009 7:31 pm Post subject: Due 11/20
Actively Read pp. 27-33 and pp. 43-57 in your "Who Built America?" packet
Respond to the one or more of the following questions or the responses of your peers. Please write a minimum of 100-200 words and include a new question in your response.
How does the "economic boom" affect the common American and American politics? According to this author, what changes does the American family experience during the Cold War era? How do you think that is linked to politics or foreign policy?
So tonight's reading felt like a rerun of my U.S. Women's Movement class last mod (cough cough martha). Anywho back on topic... The way the economic boom affected the common American is that it made working class Americans become middle class because now everyone could afford fancy things like homes and cars. After the cold war the United States government passed the Employment Act which then lead to taxes being spent on the army. After the cold war the American family has a thing that I'm pretty sure is called the baby boom. This is the time when everyone had money and so they just kinda started making babies! Another thing that happened after the cold war with American families is women started working less and less because the employers were hiring the men who came home from war.
I really suck at the whole "thinking of a question" part of the forum... I don't have a question at the moment. I might by the time class comes around tomorrow though.
the main change in the average household seemed to be having more money. this change allowed families to have more things: a car, a baby, a bigger house, and better health care. The government thought that they had found the key to a good economy, "governments could combat business slumps by using its power to tax and spend in order to regulate consumer demands" (p 573). This "key" did work for the time being and the economy did well. The suburbs took over too with the new idea of the perfect american-suburban life. This in turn made people want to keep what they had, giving America the sense of being the best. With that, the U.S. wanted to keep their newfound power and tried to do what it could to keep it.
on p 55 Mailer wrote "A stench of fear has come out of every pore of American life, and we suffer from a collective failure of nerve". i guess my question is what did he mean from this?
During this time period, spending money became seen as a positive force, both on a personal and on a governmental level. On the personal level people began spending large amounts of money on cars, and families felt it necessary to buy their own houses. On the governmental level we introduced measures outlined in the Truman and Marshall doctrines.
This attitude stemmed from our economic success in WWII. Americans felt that not only were they invincible, but that intense spending, buying, and trade had brought about their economic robustness (which it did). In addition the new deal was seen to have had a measure of success, which also caused Americans to believe in the power of spending.
During the cold war era the biggest change that the concept of family underwent is that a very specific role for each member of the family unit was created. The father was expected to be the breadwinner for the family, working nine hours a day in an office before returning home to suburbia. The mother stayed at home and looked after the house and children. The children were expected to grow up to be carbon copies of their parents. The only time that a deviation from these paths was accepted, was when the children were teenagers and went through a brief phase of rebellion. They listened to rock and roll, learned some black slang, and then realized that what they really should be doing was aspiring to be hardworking husbands and dutiful wives.
This system of running a family that the cold war era established was very much tied into the ardently capitalist country the US had become. The husband was the family representative in the world, and it was his job to earn as much money as he could, so that his family could buy the newest and best lawnmowers, refrigerators, cars, etc. This mentality fueled the economy and kept it booming.
The capitalist family became another American method that communism directly threatened. Because so many families were these perfect capitalist models, it was very easy to influence the public and create a hysterical fear of communism. Communism was a danger to the very building block of the American dream- the family.
But this is all just my oppinion... What do you think? Was the threat of communism heightened because it endangered the American family?
I don't want to repeat what Emily and Sophie said but I didn't feel like the reading really covered how the "economic boom" affected politics (I guess that will be my question). The common Americans had extra money. The money was coming from jobs created from the production of weapons, making cars, and building houses. So the common American, for the first time in a while, had a stable income, so they were help to splurge and buy things like cars and houses. This then made more jobs feeding the circle. "The whole system seemed a never-ending spiral of growth and abundance..." I feel this quote was the thought process of every American during this time.
My question (again), Did the reading cover how the economic boom affect politics?
so i already knew most of this stuff from my cars and cities class last year but it was nice having this as a little refresher. in the fifties, the average american had a lot more spending power. we got used to being able to buy things and get instant gratification. i think this might somehow relate to the foreign policy at the time, but i'm not sure how confident i am in this theory.... in the truman doctrine, we basically said "ok, we're going to give turkey and greece economic aid and then this situation will sort itself out." we expected to have communists ousted easily and we grew impatient when we realized money would not necessarily resolve the conflict any more quickly.
the passages talked about the disappearances of ethnicity and class really frustrated me. these things never disappeared... i think these are issues that apparent all the time. according to the reading, we were just too wrapped up in our own little suburban heaven to notice race and class. i call bs. yeah, things must have been great for all those middle class people living in suburbs, but it wasn't necessarily great for everyone else. what about minorities, immigrants or people living in rural areas, away from suburbs and cities? they obviously did not have the same job opportunities that white suburbanites/ city-dwellers did. while african americans and latinos worked as operators, etc, "the turnover was high and the pay was low" (p45). whites, in contrast, got to keep their jobs and were paid more money, which then could then spend on homes, cars,etc.
if whites and minorities were working together in such jobs, i find it hard to believe the whites could disregard these differences and say everything was peachy. but then i guess after winning the war, we wanted to keep that optimistic spirit up and have it seem like we were actually making progress.
my question:
were suburbanites parts of unions? or was that more cityfolk
I don’t think the threat of communism threatened the American family nearly as much as the fear of communism. I think the fear of communism in general was fueled by the rapid advancement of the Soviet Union in eastern Europe. At the time, the Soviet Union was by far the greatest fear in the minds of Americans, especially Americans living in suburbia. In the mind of the 1950s suburban American, the Soviet Union was a synonym for communism, and communism was a synonym for the Soviet Union. Likewise, the belief “every Soviet is a communist” could easily be inverted to “every communist is a Soviet.” Again, Americans at this time were utterly consumed by the fear of a Soviet takeover of the world. If you were a middle class suburban American in the 1950s, and your neighbor down the street secretly went to labor unions, voted Democratic even in times of economic boom, and did not seem totally in love with the newfound capitalism-fueled middle-class American lifestyle, would you question their loyalty to American capitalism? If it seemed possible that your neighbor, living on your street, whose children play with your children, could, even in the slightest chance, be a Soviet spy, would you let that thought go quietly? Bearing in mind that your silence could potentially lead to a uniformed Soviet military officer knocking on your door and informing you in a thick Russian accent that your capitalist American government had just been bombed to smithereens and taken over by the Soviets, would you not question that person as to where his or her loyalties lay?
I totally agree with Macon. Because of the hype of soviet spys everyone one was on edge. With the information people were receiving from the media and the government, whether it was true or not, caused legitimate amount of fear. But to what extent, should suspects, with very little evidence and a lot of hear say, be imprisoned or even killed?
It was pretty amazing how much the economy and the job market thrived right after wwII. A lot of the statistics about consumers, population growth, and employment were really amazing. And I liked how the author reminded everyone that just because there was substantial economic growth didn't mean America didn't have other problems.
I'd like to pass on Macon's question, to see what others would say... But I'll add do you believe the extent of people's fears were accurate?
This reading was so much better than other parts of this packet because it reminded me of U.S. Cars and Cities class from last mod and some different history classes. After the Cold War, lots changes are brought to U.S. such as an enormous growth of economy. The unemployment and inflation rate was below 5% for most of the time. U.S. was developed with cars and suburbs where people chose to live in for security and private spaces. The fact that car became such a neccessity in American back then meant that U.S. was really well-off. Because people had almost no economical pressure, they went ahead with marriage and pregnancy. It said "that every other young housewife I see is pregnant" page 29. The wage kept on increasing independently from market pressure, workers could keep on buying stuff without pressure and this sustained the wealthy economy. The divisions between sexes, and races were created. Most of the women were involved with Service Jobs such as hospital, social, and child care and clarical work. More womens got to work but with a low payment. When the suburbs were created, the houses became segregated depending on the classes and race.
Because U.S. was economically well, they were confident with both of the foreign policy, Truman Doctrine and Marshall Plan.
Question: When it was marriage boom era, why were single men considered suspicious by others?
I agree with what Macon said.
To touch Anna's question I'd like to say that the fear can be stretched to whatever extent society wants to bring it to. I personally think as a person living in this era, the fear was taken a little bit to far. Although I know somebody my age in 50 years will look back at something like swine flu and think we were all idiots for making such a huge deal about it. I find this question impossible to answer for somebody who didn't live through the experience, it's a really good question though.
On another note, I think that once people got this extra money, they felt that they could use that extra money to buy materialistic things to cover up their fears and giving them something else to focus on. Just a thought.
I'm still curious on how other people would answer Anna's question, so I'm going to leave it at that:
Do you believe the extent of people's fears were accurate?
All i can say at this point is what has already been said. American families experienced many changes in their lifestyles after World War II. Definitely the biggest change was the economy. It flourished during this time allowing families of the the middle and even the lower class to afford cars, healthcare and houses in suburban communities.
Perviously car production had been halted so that production could be based around making supplies for the soldiers fighting, but now that the war was over car production increased and allowed people to buy nicer cars. Also because of the good economy more people were able to buy nice houses with yards. This caused the formation of many more suburban communities. Most families liked this because of the fairly close proximity to everything they needed and the felling of safety. Because of the larger houses, in general, the health of the communities became much better.
Most people at the time were feeling safe with the amount of money they had making them consider the option of having kids. Because of this there was a drastic increase in the number of babies born during this time period.
Mainly because of the Employment Act of 1946, job opportunities increased. Men were finding any job that they could perform at open to them. Also, women were getting jobs. They had few options for the type of jobs that they could get and they were all hectic but it was a step forward from the house wife image of women.
At the beginning working class citizens were getting exactly what they wanted. They had nice houses, healthcare and close proximity to their work. Later thought the suburbs that previously used to be nice caused a lot of racial devisions turning the poorer communities into ghettos. The working class was also having to bargain for healthcare now making their live much more stressful.
Posted: Fri Nov 20, 2009 11:21 am Post subject: Household Change
The change that took place in the household were similar to the ones that happened after every war (for example the civil war). Women were given more opportunities to be active and they gained a more respectable position in society. After the war, however, these positions that women were able to take due to the men going out to war, were so to say taken back. Although many middle class jobs were created during postwar, these desk jobs and management weren't considered a job fit for women. This idea of gender role pops out in many of the history classes, and it was interesting to see how deep this conflict actually is (since it still exists today). The quote "Women as a rule don't seek job promotion, their emotions are secure in a limited job" pretty much sums up what women were expected to do in the society.
What happened that rooted this kind of a stubborn mindset (about gender roles) during this era? Was this an idea that was spread throughout the media with government help? Or is this just a mindset that can be traced throughout history?
Going off of Emily's ides about how the government just wanted the easiest way to "deal" with Latin America, I think that this whole reading was about how the US didn't really care what their actions did to Latin America, they just wanted their actions to benefit America and "The War on Communism". Thats in quotes because of the example they gave about the overthrow of the Guatemalan president. It's unreal that the goverment staged that, just to be able to keep land that they originall stole from the people of Guatemala. But I defintaly believe that that is something the United States would do.
During the whole reading, i was baffled by how much crazy shit the US did but i was surprised, I was wondering if anyone else felt this way? And why do you think we aren't surprised?
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This reading was so much better than other parts of this packet because it reminded me of U.S. Cars and Cities class from last mod and some different history classes. After the Cold War, lots changes are brought to U.S. such as an enormous growth of economy. The unemployment and inflation rate was below 5% for most of the time. U.S. was developed with cars and suburbs where people chose to live in for security and private spaces. The fact that car became such a neccessity in American back then meant that U.S. was really well-off. Because people had almost no economical pressure, they went ahead with marriage and pregnancy. It said "that every other young housewife I see is pregnant" page 29. The wage kept on increasing independently from market pressure, workers could keep on buying stuff without pressure and this sustained the wealthy economy. The divisions between sexes, and races were created. Most of the women were involved with Service Jobs such as hospital, social, and child care and clarical work. More womens got to work but with a low payment. When the suburbs were created, the houses became segregated depending on the classes and race.
