Middle-Class White Americans After WWII

Out of some of the most turbulent times in history have come the greatest ages of success and prosperity. The 1920’s and 1950’s are two eras that exemplify the spirit of triumph and wealth. In both decades, a nation thrilled by the victorious conclusion of war and the return of their loved ones from war entered into an age of capitalism and materialism, bolstering the economy and with it national pride. Some of features most common to the 20’s and 50’s were consumerism and the accompanying optimistic mindset, the extent to which new ideas entered society, and discrimination in terms of both sexism and racism.

American minorities made up a significant amount of America’s population in the 1920s and 1930s, estimated to be around 11.9 million people, according to . However, even with all those people, there still was harsh segregation going on. Caucasians made African-Americans work for them as slaves, farmers, babysitters, and many other things in that line. Then when World War II came, “World War II required the reunification and mobilization of Americans as never before” (Module2). They needed to cooperate on many things, even if they didn’t want to. These minorities mainly refer to African, Asian, and Mexican-Americans. They all suffered much pain as they were treated as if they weren’t even human beings. They were separated, looked down upon,

Many critics classify the 1960’s as the decade of urban uprising and political shifts in the United States. Controversy surrounded these changes whether they were good or bad for the nation and leaving many Americans questioning the power of urban and political movements. In the excerpt “Triumph of the Left: Sixties Revolution and The Revolution in Manners” Kenneth Cmiel from the University of Iowa shows how the era of the sixties altered and affected the morals of many Americans when they encountered discrimination, hatred, and inequality. Along with that, Dan T. Carter carefully analyzes the political outcomes of the Presidential campaign of the 1960’s and it’s victory in the excerpt “Triumph of the Right: George Wallace, Richard Nixon, and the Critique of Federal Activism.” While many still argue that both of the tumultuous decade’s social movements harmed the way the United Sates functions today, it also evidently shows to be victorious due to its liberal changes that alters the ways Americans live and perform then and now. Both Cmiel and Carter support their positions with evidence that demonstrates that both urban uprising and political shifts successfully depart the nation from falling into conservative circumstances. Not only do both triumphs succeed, but they also open up doors for economic and political opportunities in the United States.

The period of the mid 30’s and 40’s during the Roosevelt presidency presented an evolution for minorities, the foundation for the civil rights movement was set during this era. The urgent necessities for Latinos, Blacks, and Native Americans came into focus for a government that was largely ignoring them previously. With the downfall of the economy, minorities were economically hit the worst. Many programs put in during Roosevelt’s administration never provided the same success for minorities that their white counterparts achieved. Still, FDR’s administration laid out multiple plans for minorities to achieve future success and equality. As new incentives with housing, industry, and civil rights tries to improve the lives’ of Latinos, Blacks, and Native Americans.

When World War II started in 1939, African Americans and white soldiers in the army were segregated. African Americans would only be limited to serve only in four normal army units that were established after the Civil War. The total number of black soldiers was 3,640. Five of the 3,640 were officers and three of them are chaplains. In the navy, there were a little less than four thousand African Americans served in the navy as mess men because that was the only category open to them. The Marine Corps and the Army Air Corps excluded African Americans entirely until after 1941. Black organizations and leaders began to challenge the racial practices of the military as they began demanding more involvement for Africans

American had been isolationist in keeping the affairs to itself. When the policy of Good Samaritan did not work out as America failed to keep the harmony between Europe countries, it became substantial that external concerns are devastating. Any idea of movement to stop the tyranny in Europe was even opposed strongly as a retaliation response to the failure. Nonetheless, the long tradition of isolationism finally ended when the World War II disrupted. The relinquishment of isolationism can be marked down by the popularity of Henry Luce, around February 1941, who was the founder and editor of Life and Time magazine. As an ardent enthusiast of the intervention in Europe against Hitler, Luce fancied the idea that America has had the most prowess compared to other countries and made it a point that the responsibility to that power should began to be shouldered by America. However he anticipated that they, Americans, should employ their influence on the world: he advised that the US to be a force of good. Global free enterprising, feeding and clothing the world, and spreading the archetypes of egalitarianism, equality, autonomy and fairness were what he believed should be insured by America to other countries. Luce also wrote to his readers that as America was still an isolationist, the influence of American culture was not bound to only their continent but to the whole world such as American jazz, movies, music and products.

Introduction African Americans relentlessly fought for racial equality in the 1960’s, going to drastic measures to gain equal rights. Many people risked as much as their lives for equality; for others to recognize their hardships. Although the 1960’s stayed the same as seen through the wealth gap, the 60’s saw sweeping change as seen through events such as the Freedom Riders of 1961, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Fair Housing Act of 1968. Therefore, these events prove that conflict cannot be solved without time and fortitude.

“More important, most African Americans did not benefit from the economic boom of the 1950s that allowed so many white Americans to purchase homes in the suburbs” (Hine & Harrold 569). In our history classes in almost every American school we were taught that the 1950s was a golden age due to the high consumerism, new businesses, the unparalleled prosperity, stay at home wives, and the old fashioned American barbeque on the weekends. Although this seemed like a golden age, it was much different for the people of color, especially the black community. The African Americans lost jobs, weren’t allowed to purchase homes due to the Jim Crow laws and the 1948 Shelley v. Kramer case, and their neighborhoods were deteriorating. Instances such as these

Borstelmann provides insight on the Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Carter, Regan, Bush, and Clinton administrations. The author provides an overview of how each administration viewed the racial inequality in the United States as well as internationally. Each administration faced racial challenges at a government level; however each administration also had their own personal views, dilemmas, and thoughts on human rights. He shows how the thinking of some American leaders was discriminatory and how that type of thinking was powerful when they fought for equality and decolonization. The author also shows how some leaders were sympathetic to the troubles of non-whites and were instrumental in the push for change and equality. Borstelmann was instrumental in his claim that the region in which each president grew up in had a bigger impact on their stance then the political party they belonged

In his commencement address at Howard University one year after signing into law the Civil Rights Act of 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson raised a question regarding the growing inequality between white and black Americans after World War II despite the country’s prosperity. Ira Katznelson’s When Affirmative Action Was White posits that the vast programs such as the New Deal and G.I. Bill of Rights of the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration, seen as progressive, were inherently racist. Katznelson discusses these programs and how they affected black Americans in their various political, economic, and social spheres. He examines these problematic and discriminatory areas under four scopes: welfare, the workplace, military service, and education.

Throughout the 1950’s the United States presented itself as an inflexible nation and worked hard to distinguish itself as a powerful country with a bolstering economy that could be observed within its middle class and one cherished by the nuclear family. The 1950’s is projected as a time of America’s best and has always been represented as an idyllic period that should be modeled throughout generations, but the problem arises when this “American Dream” is only available to the ones who can afford it or have the advantage of being born white. When people clearly see discrimination or a dividing line in their community history tells us that people will rebel. These rebels or outsiders in the 1950’s took to individualism instead of revolution or war and in the process created an identity that didn’t belong to the ideal American at the time or deflected any conforming to a Nation who urged it. Two characters that represent this outsider persona comes in the form of a “greaser” and ironically both are played by the same actor Henry

Post-WWII America can best be described as a time of social change. In regards to Communist USSR and Communist states like Cuba and China, ideologically fearful and competitive between the USSR and US. As time progressed for many Americans during the 50s, so did the change in the traditional and social norms (unconformity), which often shocked the mostly older generations who believed that traditions were fading. Many, labeled rebels or beats and the rebellion the Beat Movement, were mostly teenagers who started to break apart from conformity and heavily influenced the many forms of art. The rise of Rock and Roll became an important factor due to notable singers like Presley, who shocked many with his unconform dress which included undulated

Another dimension to the social redefinitions occurring in the Consumer Republic was manifested in the increasing cries of systematically oppressed peoples, such as African Americans, Women, and the LGBTQ community. The postwar years were defined by a vast increase in wealth and a government with new power to direct this wealth in powerful ways. It is unsurprising that given these circumstances, racism, both implicit and explicit became abundantly clear as these groups of people found themselves living lives very different from the newly minted American Dream of homeownership and suburban bliss. While the focus of this paper is not on the specifics of these social movements, it is important to note that the economic climate gave clear

At the start of the 1960s, many Americans perceived that they were at the emergence of a golden age. With the election of John F. Kennedy on January 20, 1961, the charismatic President’s confidence, as one historian put it, was which “the government possessed big answers to big problems.” However, that golden age never appeared. Surprisingly though, by the end of the 1960s, it seemed that the nation was falling apart. With the themes reflecting freedom, equality, and democracy during this era, this reflection will focus upon the social and political changes that reinforced these concepts, using the textbook, Give Me Liberty, and other readings, including Out of This Furnace and Coming of Age in Mississippi.

Throughout the course of American’s history people of colored skin have been infinitely and continuously oppressed and suppressed for decades. For numerous years people of color had to endure horrific attacks of inferiority and hatred. From being sold as property to being psychically, emotionally, and verbally beaten to ones defeat. The fight for equality between all races has been long fought especially for people of African descent. The need for change was in dire need and no more could the people stand it. During the 1900s it became lucid what needed to be done and without any warning the African-American Civil Rights Moment would begin. Initially around the 1930s spanning all the way to the late 1960s, those it is said to be the time of civil change. Of all the decades that fell into the duration of the African-American Civil Rights Moment many would say that the 1950s was the catalyst for the major change that was brought upon many Americans during the African-American Civil Rights Moment. Many key events happened during the 1950s and if they creased to happen then it would be a great lose and an immense setback. Though key events did occur before the 1950s the majority were placed in the 1950s. The 1950s was a time of great importance for civil rights and essentially the spark in which great change overcame the people of the United States of America.