The Affluent Fifties Suburbia Consumerism and the Liberal Consensus I Welcome to Levittown a Built in i New York ii New Jersey iii Philadelphia II b Assembly line neighborhoods i Houses equipped with the latest appliances c 800 000 people bought houses Economic Growth in the 1950s and beyond a GNP doubles b Growth the backdrop for US history 1950 70s c What made all this growth happen i Cold War military spending 1 the creation of military industrial complex a 10 15 of entire economy 2 the Interstate Highway System a Federal Highway Act of 1956 ii Deliberate government policy 1 the continuing influence of the New Deal idea of activist government a i e liberalism 2 1950s corporate liberalism anti communist corporate friendly 3 The Liberal Consensus the bipartisan popularity of moderate corporate liberalism in the 1950s and 60s a Example Dwight Eisenhower John F Kennedy III 1950s Corporate Liberalism in Action a Highway construction and Federally backed mortgages i Goal stimulate housing industry automobile industry and thus much of the economy resulting in better wages and more consumer spending ii Mortgages and racial discrimination 1 Federal Housing Authority FHA 2 Suburbs almost all white 3 Restrictive covenant kept people from selling their houses to African Americans IV Hyperconsumerism a Credit cards and TV commercials b Consumerism as Freedom i The Kitchen Debate Moscow 1959 1 Showing the soviets a modern American kitchen 2 Nixon and Khrushchev have a debate about the usefulness of the appliances V Cultural Critics of Corporations Consumerism and Suburbia a Sloan Wilson Man in the Grey Flannel Suit 1955 b C Wright Mill White Collar 1951 c David Riesman The Lonely Crowd 1951 d William Whyte The Organization Man 1956 e Betty Friedan The Feminine Mystique 1963
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