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Source: US History. Authored by: P. Scott Corbett, Volker Janssen, John M. Lund, Todd Pfannestiel, Paul Vickery, and Sylvie Waskiewicz. Provided by: OpenStax College. Located at: http://openstaxcollege.org/textbooks/us-history. License: CC BY: Attribution. License Terms: Download for free at http://cnx.org/content/col11740/latest/

The Eisenhower Era, Pt. 2

SUBURBANIZATION

Although the Eisenhower years were marked by fear of the Soviet Union and its military

might, they were also a time of peace and prosperity. Even as many Americans remained

mired in poverty, many others with limited economic opportunities, like African

Americans or union workers, were better off financially in the 1950s and rose into the

ranks of the middle class. Wishing to build the secure life that the Great Depression had

deprived their parents of, young men and women married in record numbers and

purchased homes where they could start families of their own. In 1940, the rate of

homeownership in the United States was 43.6 percent. By 1960, it was almost 62 percent.

Many of these newly purchased homes had been built in the new suburban areas that

began to encircle American cities after the war. Although middle-class families had

begun to move to the suburbs beginning in the nineteenth century, suburban growth

accelerated rapidly after World War II.

Several factors contributed to this development. During World War II, the United States

had suffered from a housing shortage, especially in cities with shipyards or large defense

plants. Now that the war was over, real estate developers and contractors rushed to

alleviate the scarcity. Unused land on the fringes of American cities provided the perfect

place for new housing, which attracted not only the middle class, which had long sought

homes outside the crowded cities, but also blue-collar workers who took advantage of the

low-interest mortgages offered by the GI Bill.

An additional factor was the use of prefabricated construction techniques pioneered

during World War II, which allowed houses complete with plumbing, electrical wiring,

and appliances to be built and painted in a day. Employing these methods, developers

built acres of inexpensive tract housing throughout the country. One of the first

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developers to take advantage of this method was William Levitt, who purchased farmland

in Nassau County, Long Island, in 1947 and built thousands of prefabricated houses. The

new community was named Levittown.

Levitt’s houses cost only $8,000 and could be bought with little or no down payment.

The first day they were offered for sale, more than one thousand were purchased. Levitt

went on to build similar developments, also called Levittown, in New Jersey and

Pennsylvania. As developers around the country rushed to emulate him, the name

Levittown became synonymous with suburban tract housing, in which entire

neighborhoods were built to either a single plan or a mere handful of designs. The houses

were so similar that workers told of coming home late at night and walking into the

wrong one. Levittown homes were similar in other ways as well; most were owned by

white families. Levitt used restrictive language in his agreements with potential

homeowners to ensure that only whites would live in his communities.

(David Norberg adding here: I think it is easy to miss the profound economic

implications of Leavittown’s whites only policy. For many working and middle-class

families, buying a house is a major step up in economic standing. Here’s one way to think

about it: consider the differences between paying rent vs. paying a mortgage over 20

years. If a person pays $1,000/month, that comes to a total of $240,000. Those paying

rent have nothing to show for it at the end of that period. Those who buy a house and pay

a mortgage have a valuable asset, and houses typically gain value over time.

Homeowners can sell that asset or leave it to children as an inheritance. The housing

policies of that era made it much easier for white families to gain wealth. In our era,

whites on average have significantly more wealth than African Americans, and this

history helps to explain why.

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You can find info on economic equality in the U.S. at

https://www.federalreserve.gov/econres/notes/feds-notes/recent-trends-in-wealth-

holding-by-race-and-ethnicity-evidence-from-the-survey-of-consumer-finances-

20170927.htm Back to the textbook.)

Figure 28.12 This aerial view of Levittown, Pennsylvania, reveals acres of standardized homes. The roads were curved to prevent cars from speeding through the residential community that was home to many young families.

In the decade between 1950 and 1960, the suburbs grew by 46 percent. The transition

from urban to suburban life exerted profound effects on both the economy and society.

For example, fifteen of the largest U.S. cities saw their tax bases shrink significantly in

the postwar period, and the apportionment of seats in the House of Representatives

shifted to the suburbs and away from urban areas.

The development of the suburbs also increased reliance on the automobile for

transportation. Suburban men drove to work in nearby cities or, when possible, were

driven to commuter rail stations by their wives. In the early years of suburban

development, before schools, parks, and supermarkets were built, access to an automobile

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https://www.federalreserve.gov/econres/notes/feds-notes/recent-trends-in-wealth-holding-by-race-and-ethnicity-evidence-from-the-survey-of-consumer-finances-20170927.htm

was crucial, and the pressure on families to purchase a second one was strong. As

families rushed to purchase them, the annual production of passenger cars leaped from

2.2 million to 8 million between 1946 and 1955, and by 1960, about 20 percent of

suburban families owned two cars. The growing number of cars on the road changed

consumption patterns, and drive-in and drive-through convenience stores, restaurants, and

movie theaters began to dot the landscape. The first McDonalds opened in San

Bernardino, California, in 1954 to cater to drivers in a hurry.

As drivers jammed highways and small streets in record numbers, cities and states rushed

to build additional roadways and ease congestion. To help finance these massive

construction efforts, states began taxing gasoline, and the federal government provided

hundreds of thousands of dollars for the construction of the interstate highway system.

The resulting construction projects, designed to make it easier for suburbanites to

commute to and from cities, often destroyed urban working-class neighborhoods.

Increased funding for highway construction also left less money for public transportation,

making it impossible for those who could not afford automobiles to live in the suburbs.

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Figure 28.13 In the late 1940s, a network of newly constructed highways connected suburban Long Island with Manhattan.

The nation’s new road network also served a military purpose; interstate highways made

it easier to deploy troops in the event of a national emergency.

THE ORGANIZATION MAN

As the government poured money into the defense industry and into universities that

conducted research for the government, the economy boomed. The construction and

automobile industries employed thousands, as did the industries they relied upon: steel,

oil and gasoline refining, rubber, and lumber. As people moved into new homes, their

purchases of appliances, carpeting, furniture, and home decorations spurred growth in

other industries. The building of miles of roads also employed thousands. Unemployment

was low, and wages for members of both the working and middle classes were high.

Following World War II, the majority of white Americans were members of the middle

class, based on such criteria as education, income, and home ownership. Even most blue-

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collar families could afford such elements of a middle-class lifestyle as new cars,

suburban homes, and regular vacations. Most African Americans, however, were not

members of the middle class. In 1950, the median income for white families was

$20,656, whereas for black families it was $11,203. By 1960, when the average white

family earned $28,485 a year, blacks still lagged behind at $15,786; nevertheless, this

represented a more than 40 percent increase in African American income in the space of

a decade.

While working-class men found jobs in factories and on construction crews, those in the

middle class often worked for corporations that, as a result of government spending, had

grown substantially during World War II and were still getting larger. Such corporations,

far too large to allow managers to form personal relationships with all of their

subordinates, valued conformity to company rules and standards above all else. In his

best-selling book The Organization Man, however, William H. Whyte criticized the

notion that conformity was the best path to success and self-fulfillment.

Conformity was still the watchword of suburban life: Many neighborhoods had rules

mandating what types of clotheslines could be used and prohibited residents from parking

their cars on the street. Above all, conforming to societal norms meant marrying young

and having children. In the post-World War II period, marriage rates rose; the average

age at first marriage dropped to twenty-three for men and twenty for women. Between

1946 and 1964, married couples also gave birth to the largest generation in U.S. history to

date; this baby boom resulted in the cohort known as the baby boomers. Conformity also

required that the wives of both working- and middle-class men stay home and raise

children instead of working for wages outside the home. Most conformed to this norm, at

least while their children were young. Nevertheless, 40 percent of women with young

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children and half of women with older children sought at least part-time employment.

They did so partly out of necessity and partly to pay for the new elements of “the good

life”—second cars, vacations, and college education for their children.

The children born during the baby boom were members of a more privileged generation

than their parents had been. Entire industries sprang up to cater to their need for clothing,

toys, games, books, and breakfast cereals. For the first time in U.S. history, attending

high school was an experience shared by the majority, regardless of race or region. As the

baby boomers grew into adolescence, marketers realized that they not only controlled

large amounts of disposable income earned at part-time jobs, but they exerted a great deal

of influence over their parents’ purchases as well. Madison Avenue began to appeal to

teenage interests. Boys yearned for cars, and girls of all ethnicities wanted boyfriends

who had them. New fashion magazines for adolescent girls, such as Seventeen, advertised

the latest clothing and cosmetics, and teen romance magazines, like Copper Romance, a

publication for young African American women, filled drugstore racks. The music and

movie industries also altered their products to appeal to affluent adolescents who were

growing tired of parental constraints.

Developments in American Culture

With a greater generational consciousness than previous generations, the baby boomers

sought to define and redefine their identities in numerous ways. Music, especially rock

and roll, reflected their desire to rebel against adult authority. Other forms of popular

culture, such as movies and television, sought to entertain, while reinforcing values such

as religious faith, patriotism, and conformity to societal norms.

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ROCKING AROUND THE CLOCK

In the late 1940s, some white country musicians began to experiment with the rhythms of

the blues, a decades-old musical genre of rural southern blacks. This experimentation led

to the creation of a new musical form known as rockabilly, and by the 1950s, rockabilly

had developed into rock and roll. Rock and roll music celebrated themes such as young

love and freedom from the oppression of middle-class society. It quickly grew in favor

among American teens, thanks largely to the efforts of disc jockey Alan Freed, who

named and popularized the music by playing it on the radio in Cleveland, where he also

organized the first rock and roll concert, and later in New York.

The theme of rebellion against authority, present in many rock and roll songs, appealed to

teens. In 1954, Bill Haley and His Comets provided youth with an anthem for their

rebellion—”Rock Around the Clock”. The song, used in the 1955 movie Blackboard

Jungle about a white teacher at a troubled inner-city high school, seemed to be calling for

teens to declare their independence from adult control.

Figure 28.14 The band Bill Haley and His Comets (a) was among the first to launch the new genre of rock and roll. Their hit song “Rock Around the Clock” supposedly caused some teens to break into violent behavior when they heard it. Chuck Berry (b) was a performer who combined rhythm and blues and rock and roll. He dazzled crowds with guitar solos and electrifying performances.

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Haley illustrated how white artists could take musical motifs from the African American

community and achieve mainstream success.

Teen heartthrob Elvis Presley rose to stardom doing the same. Thus, besides encouraging

a feeling of youthful rebellion, rock and roll also began to tear down color barriers, as

white youths sought out African American musicians such as Chuck Berry and Little

Richard.

While youth had found an outlet for their feelings and concerns, parents were much less

enthused about rock and roll and the values it seemed to promote. Many regarded the

music as a threat to American values. When Elvis Presley appeared on The Ed Sullivan

Show, a popular television variety program, the camera deliberately focused on his torso

and did not show his swiveling hips or legs shaking in time to the music. Despite adults’

dislike of the genre, or perhaps because of it, more than 68 percent of the music played

on the radio in 1956 was rock and roll.

HOLLYWOOD ON THE DEFENSIVE

At first, Hollywood encountered difficulties in adjusting to the post-World War II

environment. Although domestic audiences reached a record high in 1946 and the war’s

end meant expanding international markets too, the groundwork for the eventual

dismantling of the traditional studio system was laid in 1948, with a landmark decision

by the U.S. Supreme Court. Previously, film studios had owned their own movie theater

chains in which they exhibited the films they produced; however, in United States v.

Paramount Pictures, Inc., this vertical integration of the industry—the complete control

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by one firm of the production, distribution, and exhibition of motion pictures—was

deemed a violation of antitrust laws.

The HUAC hearings also targeted Hollywood. When eleven “unfriendly witnesses” were

called to testify before Congress about Communism in the film industry in October 1947,

only playwright Bertolt Brecht answered questions. The other ten, who refused to testify,

were cited for contempt of Congress on November 24. The next day, film executives

declared that the so-called “Hollywood Ten” would no longer be employed in the

industry until they had sworn they were not Communists. Eventually, more than three

hundred actors, screenwriters, directors, musicians, and other entertainment professionals

were placed on the industry blacklist. Some never worked in Hollywood again; others

directed films or wrote screenplays under assumed names.

Figure 28.15 One of the original Hollywood Ten, director Edward Dmytryk publicly announced he had once been a Communist and, in April 1951, answered questions and “named names” before the House Committee on Un-American Activities.

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Hollywood reacted aggressively to these various challenges. Filmmakers tried new

techniques, like CinemaScope and Cinerama, which allowed movies to be shown on large

screens and in 3-D. Audiences were drawn to movies not because of gimmicks, however,

but because of the stories they told. Dramas and romantic comedies continued to be

popular fare for adults, and, to appeal to teens, studios produced large numbers of horror

films and movies starring music idols such as Elvis. Many films took espionage, a timely

topic, as their subject matter, and science fiction hits such as Invasion of the Body

Snatchers, about a small town whose inhabitants fall prey to space aliens, played on

audience fears of both Communist invasion and nuclear technology.

THE TRIUMPH OF TELEVISION

By far the greatest challenge to Hollywood, however, came from the relatively new

medium of television. Although the technology had been developed in the late 1920s,

through much of the 1940s, only a fairly small audience of the wealthy had access to it.

As a result, programming was limited. With the post-World War II economic boom, all

this changed. Where there had been only 178,000 televisions in homes in 1948, by 1955,

over three-quarters of a million U.S. households, about half of all homes, had television.

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Figure 28.16 An American family relaxes in front of their television set in 1958. Many gathered not only to watch the programming but also to eat dinner. The marketing of small folding tray tables and frozen “TV dinners” encouraged such behavior.

Various types of programs were broadcast on the handful of major networks: situation

comedies, variety programs, game shows, soap operas, talk shows, medical dramas,

adventure series, cartoons, and police procedurals. Many comedies presented an idealized

image of white suburban family life: Happy housewife mothers, wise fathers, and

mischievous but not dangerously rebellious children were constants on shows like Leave

It to Beaver and Father Knows Best in the late 1950s. These shows also reinforced certain

perspectives on the values of individualism and family—values that came to be redefined

as “American” in opposition to alleged Communist collectivism. Westerns, which

stressed unity in the face of danger and the ability to survive in hostile environments,

were popular too. Programming for children began to emerge with shows such as Captain

Kangaroo, Romper Room, and The Mickey Mouse Club designed to appeal to members of

the baby boom.

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SUBURBANIZATION
THE ORGANIZATION MAN
Developments in American Culture
ROCKING AROUND THE CLOCK
HOLLYWOOD ON THE DEFENSIVE
THE TRIUMPH OF TELEVISION