HIST 106 1st Edition Lecture 25Outline of Last Lecture I. Korean war continuedII. The second red scareIII. Election of 1953IV. Eisenhower abroadV. The 1950sOutline of Current Lecture I. Setting the stageII. 1950sIII. 1950s societyIV. More of EisenhowerV. Beginning of the Civil Rights MovementCurrent Lecture- Setting the stageo Bretton woods agreement, July 1944 International monetary fund - Given the ability to monitor what kinds of deficits the countries in this systemhaveo The French fight a war in Algeria, but the IMF would not monetarily support the waro International bank for reconstruction and development (part of the world bank)o Other currencies will be pegged to the US dollar and the dollar will be pegged to gold Other countries peg their currency to the dollar; the dollar is pegged to gold- 1950so Economic stagnation in early 1950s Very few consumer goods were being produced - No consumer vehicles produced during WWII There was unemployment from wartime, factories being closedo Late 1950s unprecedented economic growth Soldiers that had been saving their money now had a lot of spending powero Reasons fro growth Consumer spending in the post-war Massive government spending programs- A huge amount was spent over the next 50 years on national defense- 1950s societyo Baby boom A lot of the soldiers who came home from war start families Between 1920 and 1960, the US has a 19% increase in population o Education GI bill (Montgomery GI bill passed in 1944)- The government pays for veterans’ educationo Higher education, job training, help for mortgages, unemployment insurance Set up universities to be accessible to a wider portion of the population than ever before Places like Texas A&M expanded during this era- There were so many incoming freshman that Texas A&M had to expand the campuso William Levitto Levittown All homes had the same floor plan but there were four different facades to help differentiate the thousands of homes Extremely affordable homeso By 1951 17,000 new homes were built o Dependence on the car The urban centers still had the most employment, but more and more people living outside of the city- More of Eisenhowero Eisenhower had never had an elected office prior to being president and was the lastgeneral to date that had become presidento Truman had created the Fair Deal that consisted of 21main points Was very ambitious and did not pass- Started using a lot of executed order (desegregating the army) Put forth a bill in congress to provide universal healthcare (did not pass) Extended benefits for GI bill to all veterans post-WWIIo Federal highway act of 1956 Eisenhower had seen the autobahn in Germany and thought the US needed something similaro Heavy military funding Mutually assured destruction (MAD)- Built up as many nuclear weapons as possible to keep up with Russiao If one country drops a bomb, then all of the bombs on both sides would be dropped o Nuclear bomb testing Tested weapons on Bikini Island to see what happened when a bomb went off at sea Test in the Nevada deserto Developed a boat-load of crap we didn’t actually need and that would only be used for a few years- Beginning of the Civil Rights Movemento Brown vs. Topeka board of education, 1954 The supreme court declared that segregation was unconstitutional and ordered the expedient integration of public schoolso Montgomery bus boycott, 1955 Rosa Parks-was protesting the segregation of the public transportation serviceso Integration of Little Rock High School, 1957 Little Rock 9-a group of black students that wanted to enroll in Little Rock high school (a white high school) The governor used the national guard and police to block the students from attending the high school Eisenhower could not allow state sponsored discrimination such as this and knewthat he had to enforce the law- Tells the governor to stop what he is doingo When the governor says no, Eisenhower federalized the national guard and forced them to leave Little Rock high schoolo Eisenhower calls in the paratroopers and has them protect the students while they enroll The paratroopers stay the entire year at the high school to protect thestudents and enforce desegregation In the end, it was the law makers closest to where the problems were that were the most
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