CHAPTER REVIEW
Rapid Review Guide
To achieve the perfect 5, you should be able to explain that
• The 1950s is viewed by some as a decade of complacency and by others as a decade of growing ferment.
• Large-scale economic growth continued throughout the 1950s, spurred by Cold War defense needs, automobile sales, housing sales, and the sale of appliances.
• The advertising industry did much to shape consumer desires in the 1950s.
• The GI Bill gave many veterans low-income mortgages and the possibility of a college education after World War II.
• Many families moved to suburbia in the 1950s; critics maintained that this increased the conformity of American society.
• During the baby boom the birthrate drastically increased; the baby boom lasted from 1945 to 1962.
• Presidents Truman and Eisenhower were both dwarfed by the memory of the personality and the policies of Franklin Roosevelt.
• Jackie Robinson did much to advance the cause of rights in the postwar era.
• Brown v. Board of Education was a tremendous victory for those pushing for school integration in the 1950s.
• The Montgomery bus boycott and the events at Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, demonstrated the techniques that would prove to be successful in defeating segregation.
• Many men and many women felt great frustration with suburban family life of the 1950s.
• 1950s teenagers are often called the “silent generation,” although James Dean, the Beat generation of writers, and Elvis Presley all attracted followers among young people who did rebel in the 1950s.
Time Line
1944: GI Bill enacted
1947: Taft-Hartley Act enacted
Jackie Robinson first plays for Brooklyn Dodgers
1948: Truman elected president in stunning upset
Truman orders desegregation of armed forces
1950: Diner’s Club credit card offered
1951: Publication of Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
1952: Dwight D. Eisenhower elected president
1953: Defense budget at $47 billion dollars
Allen Freed begins to play rock and roll on the radio in Cleveland, Ohio
1954: Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision
1955: First McDonald’s opens
Rebel Without a Cause released
Bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama
1956: Interstate Highway Act enacted
Majority of U.S. workers hold white-collar jobs
Howl by Allen Ginsberg first read
1957: Baby boom peaks
Publication of On the Road by Jack Kerouac
Resistance to school integration in Little Rock, Arkansas
1960: Three-quarters of all American homes have a TV set
Review Questions
1. Consumer spending increased in the 1950s because of all of the following except
A. many Americans were once again purchasing stock
B. many Americans were buying appliances for their homes
C. many families were buying automobiles
D. many Americans were buying homes
E. advertising had a major impact on the American consumer
(Correct Answer: A. Americans were buying consumer goods in the postwar era. Many had money but not goods to buy in World War II. The purchase of stock would become pronounced only after this post-World War II buying spree ended.)
2. The policies of the presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower are most similar to the policies of the presidency of
A. Franklin Roosevelt
B. William Howard Taft
C. Calvin Coolidge
D. Theodore Roosevelt
E. Woodrow Wilson
(Correct Answer: C. Although each was somewhat different in style, Coolidge and Eisenhower were both friends of big business, believed in a balanced budget, and believed in a smaller role for the federal government and the presidency.)
3. How did their experiences in the Great Depression and World War II affect the generation who began to raise families in the postwar era?
A. They turned inward to family for comfort.
B. They were likely to want to give their children many of the things they had not been able to have.
C. Interested in consumer goods, they would be likely to buy many things on credit.
D. A and B above.
E. All of the above.
(Correct Answer: D. Many of those who lived through the Depression were never comfortable with the idea of buying on credit; some never got credit cards at any point in their lives. Some historians say that this generation of parents spoiled their children, forming the expectations that some of these children would have as young adults in the 1960s.)
4. The most important impact of television on viewers of the early 1950s was that
A. it provided them with comedies that allowed them to forget the difficult years of the 1950s
B. it allowed them to receive the latest news of the day
G. it imposed a sense of conformity on American society
D. it fostered a growing youth culture
E. it allowed viewers to view the realities of communism in the Soviet Union
(Correct Answer: C. TV viewers could get comedies and news on the radio. There was little on television in the early 1950s that specifically appealed to youth.)
5. Many Americans were especially fearful of rock and roll in the 1950s because
A. many of the musicians who played it were black
B. Elvis Presley and many of the early performers of rock and roll came from a decidedly lower-class background
C. Elvis Presley and many other early rock and roll performers came from the American South
D. the messages found in early rock and roll supported communism
E. young people were buying fewer albums by established stars
(Correct Answer: A. Elvis, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, and others were of lower- class backgrounds and were from the South, but the main objection to rock and roll was its connection to black culture— for instance, Fats Domino, Chuck Berry, and Little Richard. No known early rock and roll song supported communism.)