Affluence and Conformity
Common Concerns: 1955-63
The nuclear threat from the Soviet Union – children practiced
‘duck and cover’ under desks at school
Conformity – critics said that American culture was excessively
homogenised
Consumerism
Advertisements- media and roadside were saturated with product
messages
American youth – less conformist and less well-behaved
Economic inequality – around 1/3 of Americans were poor
Race relations
Growing Ownership and Use of Cars
The purchase of cars slowed during the Great Depression and WW2
when factories geared production towards the war effort.
Cars were not cheap in 1955 – around 2/5 of the average family
income.
However, with the post-war economic boom, people had greater
disposable income to spend.
1955 – 7.9m new cars were manufactured.
They demonstrated and individual’s status and promised mobility
and freedom.
Why did Eisenhower initiate a highway construction
programme?
- Disliked excessive federal government intervention in the lives
of Americans but was typically American in that he loved cars.
1. Upon returning 2. Car ownership 3. Most Americans
to the US after rocketed from agreed with
WW2, he 39.3m in 1950 Eisenhower when
claimed that to 73.8m in he said that more
American roads 1960. He told cars meant
were in Congress that ‘greater
‘shocking an interstate convenience...gre
condition’ highway system ater happiness,
compared to was vital to and greater
German handle the standards of
autobahns. increased living’.
traffic.
Impact:
o Congress authorised the construction of 41,000 miles of
interstate highways that opened the continent to travel and
changes American society and culture.
, Automobiles and US Society
Social and o Wealthy men favoured the most spacious and
Ethnic Status expensive models – Lincolns and Cadillacs
o Middle- and working-class Americans usually bought
Fords and Chevrolets
o Cleaning the family car and waxing it became an
important ritual in the suburbs, reflecting the
increasing level of disposable income and leisure time
that middle class families enjoyed
o Sometimes defined ethnic status – poorer Hispanic
American drivers often bought cheap second-hand
Chevys
o Cadillacs became a desire status symbol for the black
middle class in the 1950s
Young People o Reflected the desire of young people to gain
independence and escape parental control
o Became an important part of dating – 1953 Kinsey
Report found that young people had almost as much
sex in automobiles as they did in their homes
o Young men expressed individuality by customising
their cars – changed respectable, safe family cars
Women o In some ways, cars helped to free women
o However, automobiles designed for women reflected
traditional values
- 1955 Dodge La Femme came with a matching
lipstick and shoulder bag
o Sometimes, the family car became a source of conflict
as men attempted to assert dominance y
monopolising the driving seat
The on-the-road o 1952 – first motel chain, Holiday Inn, opened near
culture Memphis.
o By 1960 there were 228 McDonald’s
o Roadside motels and restaurants created many jobs
o Changed the landscape – large areas of rural America
were covered with roads and adjacent motels,
restaurants, stores, huge parking lots, neon signs and
advertisements
White-collar o Increasingly large proportion employed in the service
jobs and industries and in associated office-based work – by
service 1960 there were 7.6m service workers
industries o Number of white-collar workers increased from
21.2m in 1950 to 27.2m
o Increased automation lowered the number of blue-
, collar workers – 39% to 36% of the workforce by
1960.
o 1960 – 34.8m service workers outnumbered
25.6m manual workers
Suburbanisatio o Enabled people to move from the cities into spacious
n homes in the suburbs
o Created a commuter belt
o Left cities with those who could not afford to move out
– lost their tax base and deteriorated
The Expansion of the Suburbs
Key Statistics:
17% lived in them in 1920.
1948-58 - 11m out of the 13m homes built were in the suburbs.
1960 – 33% of Americans lived in suburbs.
Why did the suburbs expand?
1. Housing There had been little house building in the
Shortages 1930s and during WW2
The shortage and easily available
mortgages encouraged builders to build
more homes
House buyers offered mortgages of up to
90% the value of their home and up to 30
years to pay them off at a low interest
2. Cost of Land Land and new homes where cheaper in
suburban areas than in cities
3. Car Increased car ownership and federal
Ownership highway construction made it easy for
and suburbanites to commute to work
Highways
4. ‘White White people migrated to the suburbs to
Flight’ escape high tax rates, noise and
congestion, and to enjoy more comfortable
homes
Levittowns
First development of the Levitt brothers was in Hempstead, Long
Island in 1947
17,000 homes and 80,000 residents
Seven village greens and shopping centres, nine swimming pools
and two bowling alleys
Hempstead homes were priced at $8,000 – only 2.5x the average
family income
Racially exclusive – rocks were thrown at a black American family
that bought a home in the Pennsylvania Levittown in 1957
It was 1960 before a Levittown house was sold to a black family in
New Jersey – one of the brothers claimed that if they sold a house to
, a black person, then ’90 or 95%’ of white customers will not buy into
the community’
How did white people contribute to the growth of urban ghettos?
Used restrictive covenants to exclude black Americans from white
neighbourhoods, even though the Supreme Court had declared these illegal in
1948
Lending institutions, developers and city officials made it difficult for black
Americans to find decent housing
Sometimes white people staged ‘housing riots’ where thousands of working-class
white people used looting and burning to drive out the sole black family
In the North, Midwest and West, white people who could afford it fled the nearby
overcrowded black ghettos. Once in the suburbs, they were unwilling to pay
increased taxes to assist inner-city areas. When black pressure for desegregation
grew from 1955-63, white southerners fled to the suburbs
Policies of the federal government promoted racial segregation.
Federal Government and the Ghettos
1. Government 2. Federally 3. Federal
policies led to a constructed government’s
change in the highways enabled attempt to
racial composition suburbanites to alleviate the black
of cities commute to city housing shortage
jobs was ineffective
The FHA distributed Allowed more affluent Federal
billions of dollars of to move out of the government’s
low-cost mortgages – cities to the suburbs attempt to alleviate
openly excluded Congress authorised the black housing
applicants the construction of shortage was
considered ‘risks’ 810,000 subsidised ineffective
because of their public housing units Only 325,203 federal
income or because and the purchase of housing units were
they were likely to slum areas for built between 1945
elicit a hostile redevelopment and 1965 and many
reaction from the Black Americans of them failed
white majority bitterly pointed out
The ‘risks’ were what that ‘urban renewal
the FHA described as equals the removal of
Common Concerns: 1955-63
The nuclear threat from the Soviet Union – children practiced
‘duck and cover’ under desks at school
Conformity – critics said that American culture was excessively
homogenised
Consumerism
Advertisements- media and roadside were saturated with product
messages
American youth – less conformist and less well-behaved
Economic inequality – around 1/3 of Americans were poor
Race relations
Growing Ownership and Use of Cars
The purchase of cars slowed during the Great Depression and WW2
when factories geared production towards the war effort.
Cars were not cheap in 1955 – around 2/5 of the average family
income.
However, with the post-war economic boom, people had greater
disposable income to spend.
1955 – 7.9m new cars were manufactured.
They demonstrated and individual’s status and promised mobility
and freedom.
Why did Eisenhower initiate a highway construction
programme?
- Disliked excessive federal government intervention in the lives
of Americans but was typically American in that he loved cars.
1. Upon returning 2. Car ownership 3. Most Americans
to the US after rocketed from agreed with
WW2, he 39.3m in 1950 Eisenhower when
claimed that to 73.8m in he said that more
American roads 1960. He told cars meant
were in Congress that ‘greater
‘shocking an interstate convenience...gre
condition’ highway system ater happiness,
compared to was vital to and greater
German handle the standards of
autobahns. increased living’.
traffic.
Impact:
o Congress authorised the construction of 41,000 miles of
interstate highways that opened the continent to travel and
changes American society and culture.
, Automobiles and US Society
Social and o Wealthy men favoured the most spacious and
Ethnic Status expensive models – Lincolns and Cadillacs
o Middle- and working-class Americans usually bought
Fords and Chevrolets
o Cleaning the family car and waxing it became an
important ritual in the suburbs, reflecting the
increasing level of disposable income and leisure time
that middle class families enjoyed
o Sometimes defined ethnic status – poorer Hispanic
American drivers often bought cheap second-hand
Chevys
o Cadillacs became a desire status symbol for the black
middle class in the 1950s
Young People o Reflected the desire of young people to gain
independence and escape parental control
o Became an important part of dating – 1953 Kinsey
Report found that young people had almost as much
sex in automobiles as they did in their homes
o Young men expressed individuality by customising
their cars – changed respectable, safe family cars
Women o In some ways, cars helped to free women
o However, automobiles designed for women reflected
traditional values
- 1955 Dodge La Femme came with a matching
lipstick and shoulder bag
o Sometimes, the family car became a source of conflict
as men attempted to assert dominance y
monopolising the driving seat
The on-the-road o 1952 – first motel chain, Holiday Inn, opened near
culture Memphis.
o By 1960 there were 228 McDonald’s
o Roadside motels and restaurants created many jobs
o Changed the landscape – large areas of rural America
were covered with roads and adjacent motels,
restaurants, stores, huge parking lots, neon signs and
advertisements
White-collar o Increasingly large proportion employed in the service
jobs and industries and in associated office-based work – by
service 1960 there were 7.6m service workers
industries o Number of white-collar workers increased from
21.2m in 1950 to 27.2m
o Increased automation lowered the number of blue-
, collar workers – 39% to 36% of the workforce by
1960.
o 1960 – 34.8m service workers outnumbered
25.6m manual workers
Suburbanisatio o Enabled people to move from the cities into spacious
n homes in the suburbs
o Created a commuter belt
o Left cities with those who could not afford to move out
– lost their tax base and deteriorated
The Expansion of the Suburbs
Key Statistics:
17% lived in them in 1920.
1948-58 - 11m out of the 13m homes built were in the suburbs.
1960 – 33% of Americans lived in suburbs.
Why did the suburbs expand?
1. Housing There had been little house building in the
Shortages 1930s and during WW2
The shortage and easily available
mortgages encouraged builders to build
more homes
House buyers offered mortgages of up to
90% the value of their home and up to 30
years to pay them off at a low interest
2. Cost of Land Land and new homes where cheaper in
suburban areas than in cities
3. Car Increased car ownership and federal
Ownership highway construction made it easy for
and suburbanites to commute to work
Highways
4. ‘White White people migrated to the suburbs to
Flight’ escape high tax rates, noise and
congestion, and to enjoy more comfortable
homes
Levittowns
First development of the Levitt brothers was in Hempstead, Long
Island in 1947
17,000 homes and 80,000 residents
Seven village greens and shopping centres, nine swimming pools
and two bowling alleys
Hempstead homes were priced at $8,000 – only 2.5x the average
family income
Racially exclusive – rocks were thrown at a black American family
that bought a home in the Pennsylvania Levittown in 1957
It was 1960 before a Levittown house was sold to a black family in
New Jersey – one of the brothers claimed that if they sold a house to
, a black person, then ’90 or 95%’ of white customers will not buy into
the community’
How did white people contribute to the growth of urban ghettos?
Used restrictive covenants to exclude black Americans from white
neighbourhoods, even though the Supreme Court had declared these illegal in
1948
Lending institutions, developers and city officials made it difficult for black
Americans to find decent housing
Sometimes white people staged ‘housing riots’ where thousands of working-class
white people used looting and burning to drive out the sole black family
In the North, Midwest and West, white people who could afford it fled the nearby
overcrowded black ghettos. Once in the suburbs, they were unwilling to pay
increased taxes to assist inner-city areas. When black pressure for desegregation
grew from 1955-63, white southerners fled to the suburbs
Policies of the federal government promoted racial segregation.
Federal Government and the Ghettos
1. Government 2. Federally 3. Federal
policies led to a constructed government’s
change in the highways enabled attempt to
racial composition suburbanites to alleviate the black
of cities commute to city housing shortage
jobs was ineffective
The FHA distributed Allowed more affluent Federal
billions of dollars of to move out of the government’s
low-cost mortgages – cities to the suburbs attempt to alleviate
openly excluded Congress authorised the black housing
applicants the construction of shortage was
considered ‘risks’ 810,000 subsidised ineffective
because of their public housing units Only 325,203 federal
income or because and the purchase of housing units were
they were likely to slum areas for built between 1945
elicit a hostile redevelopment and 1965 and many
reaction from the Black Americans of them failed
white majority bitterly pointed out
The ‘risks’ were what that ‘urban renewal
the FHA described as equals the removal of
