HIS 450 Wk 2

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Feb 20, 2024

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HIS-450 Topic 2 The Golden and Mystical 1950s Worksheet 1. What specific effects did Urban Sprawl have on U.S. society? Explain. The movement of the American population to urban centers during WW2 resulted in such urban problems as traffic jams, high taxes, overcrowded schools, high real estate prices and taxes, and high crime rates. In contrast to this, the suburbs offered open spaces where spacious houses could be built for a fraction of what big-city construction would cost. Suburban homes provided privacy and quiet not found in the city. Many suburbanites also sought a community of like-minded people and accessible local government. As the population shifted to the suburbs, businesses followed to take advantage of the growing suburban markets (Donaldson 2012). By 1960, a majority of American families owned their homes, mostly in the suburbs. The rapid growth of the suburbs was a result of the synergy between the federal government and the private sector in which low-interest mortgages and tax subsidies produced a postwar housing boom. This was further assisted by a marked increase in federally funded highway construction which served to connect the central cities with their surrounding bedroom communities. As a result of this population shift, the 1960 census showed a marked white majority in the suburbs (as high as 98%) while some of the nation’s larger cities, such as Washington, D.C., and Atlanta, had minority majorities. As middle-class people moved out of the central cities, property values and tax bases declined, social services were eliminated, and crime rates soared. This resulted in a hollowed out urban core, consisting mostly of minorities, surrounded by affluent white suburbia. There was little public transportation between the inner city and the suburbs, making access to suburban jobs difficult for inner city residents without private transportation. Finally, with public education mostly based on property taxes, suburban education flourished while inner city schools declined. Reference: Moss, G., & Thomas, E. A. (2012). Moving on (p. 68). Prentice Hall. 2. How did the advent of Rock and Roll and the “Teen Culture” impact U.S. society? Explain. In the 1950s, American teenagers increasingly defined themselves through peer culture rather than by the culture of their parents (Donaldson, 2012). Driven by fads and centered around pop music and the automobile, affluent teenagers constituted an untapped market to be exploited, and advertisers and merchandisers responded with enthusiasm.

In the early 1950s as pop music began to define teen culture, Allen Freed, a white Cleveland disc jockey, began airing “rhythm-and-blues”, a genre based on African American music. In 1954 a white band, Bill Haley and the Comets, recorded “Rock Around the Clock” establishing rock and roll as a legitimate musical genre. In 1956, the sexually suggestive gyrations of Elvis Presley burst on the music scene. Rock and Roll, pop music with an R and B foundation, had become the music of teenage America. The popularity of white Rock and Roll helped bring African American music into the mainstream gaining Black American recording artists such as Ray Charles and Chuck Berry wide-spread acceptance. The automobile granted teenagers who could drive unprecedented freedom, as well as provided the means for cruising, street racing and making out. However, the rebellious nature of the youth culture and its resistance to adult authority led to an increase in juvenile delinquency and youth crime. Teenagers in the 1950s embraced the aspects of suburbia, consumer culture, and the automobile while simultaneously defining themselves by their peer culture rather than the culture of their parents, which is still seen today. Reference: Moss, G., & Thomas, E. A. (2012). Moving on (p. 72). Prentice Hall. 3. How did “dynamic conservatism” affect the U.S. political landscape? Explain. During the Eisenhower administration, the Republican party was interested in not only eliminating the Fair deal policies of Harry S. Truman, but also the New Deal policies of FDR and minimizing government control of the economy. Although Eisenhower disliked the big government programs of Truman's Fair Deal, he favored a more moderate course, one that he called Modern Republicanism or Dynamic Conservatism (Shannon, 1958). Dynamic Conservatism was intended to preserve individual freedom and the market economy while at the same time the government would provide necessary assistance to those, who through no fault of their own, could not provide for themselves. Dynamic Conservatism also emphasized governmental economy and decentralization of Federal projects through cooperation with State and local governments as well as private enterprise As President, Eisenhower pursued legislation that expanded Social Security, increased the minimum wage, created the Department of Health, Education and Welfare (Now the departments of Health and Human Services and Education), and supported government construction of low-income housing. He also supported school construction, and educational programs, particularly in science; pushed for the funding of a new system of interstate highways; established a "soil bank," which paid farmers to withdraw lands from production in the interest of maintaining food prices and conserving agricultural resources, and distributed farm surpluses at home and abroad in the form of school lunches and foreign aid. Eisenhower also vigorously supported judicial decisions regarding school desegregation. His administration lowered individual and corporate taxes, abolished the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, stressed

reduction of the national budget, and rejected proposals for large public utility projects, such as dam construction (National Park Service, 2023). References: National Park Service - The Presidents (Dwight Eisenhower) . (n.d.). NPS.Gov Homepage (U.S. National Park Service). Retrieved February 22, 2023, from https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/presidents/bio34.htm. Shannon, W. (1958, November 1). Eisenhower as President: A Critical Appraisal of the Record - William V. Shannon, Commentary Magazine . Commentary Magazine; https://www.facebook.com/commentarymagazine. https://www.commentary.org/articles/william-shannon/eisenhower-as-presidenta-critical- appraisal-of-the-record/ 4. What was “Politics of Consensus”? How does this compare with the current political discourse in the U.S. today? Which of these two views of perpetuating democratic government are better? Explain. By the 1950, a domestic consensus had emerged political struggles and intellectual gyrations of the New Deal period and consisted of a common agreement that the Federal government has a responsibility to maintain the rudiments of a welfare state. Social security, unemployment compensation, and minimum wages were the basic features of this program, and its chief guarantors were the trade unions which were the most numerous and politically dependable of all the New Deal beneficiaries. Also, by 1950, the consensus on foreign policy was also well established. It rested on the concept of containment of Russian aggression to avoid a third (and possibly nuclear) world war. Consensus is hardly the appropriate word to describe modern politics. The US has split politically into two distinct viewpoints that have little in common. There is also little chance for dialog or consensus as one side has declared itself to be morally superior and views the other side as racist, bigoted, and homophobic and as such, their views do not deserve consideration, or even should be allowed to be expressed. There must be a basic consensus, or the country will either dissolve, enter into a civil war, or the self-righteous will move to rule over the “deplorables”. Such a move would be for their own good, but by force, if necessary. But not before the self-righteous disarm them. Reference: Shannon, W. (1958, November 1). Eisenhower as President:A Critical Appraisal of the Record - William V. Shannon, Commentary Magazine . Commentary Magazine.

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5. What effect did Sputnik have on U.S. society? Be sure to discuss its effects on both foreign and domestic policy? In September 1957, the Soviets test-fired an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), over a year ahead of the United States. Followed in October of that year by the successful launch of Sputnik and two additional satellites, including one that carried a dog into space, Soviet rocket science appeared to be well ahead of the American program. This caused concern by the American public that America was losing both the arms and the space race and increased cold war tension between the two countries (Office of the Historian, 2023). Popular pressure for increased spending for research and development of U.S. rockets and missiles forced Eisenhower to direct the Army to develop a space satellite, Explorer 1, which was successfully launched into orbit on February 1, 1958. After Sputnik, the American educational system became a national security issue. In 1958, with any shortcoming to be corrected for the United States to regain its technological edge. To achieve this, Congress passed the National Defense Education Act (NDEA), which increased funding for secondary math and science programs. Not to let a crisis go to waste, Democrats complained of a “missile gap,” a phrase they used against Republicans in the 1958 and 1960 elections, which brought the Democrat John F. Kennedy to the presidency instead of Eisenhower’s vice president, Richard M. Nixon. Additionally, to establishing the Democrats as favoring stronger national defense and space efforts than the Republican administration, then senator Lyndon B. Johnson conducted a thorough and well-publicized investigation of the nation’s missile and space programs. Reference: Milestones: 1953–1960 - Office of the Historian . (n.d.). Office of the Historian. Retrieved February 22, 2023, from https://history.state.gov/milestones/1953-1960/sputnik.

HIS 450 Wk 2

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