THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT 1960-1980 The struggle of African Americans for equality reached its peak in the mid-1960s . After progressive vic- tories in the 1950s, African Ameri- cans became even more committed to nonviolent direct action . Groups like the Southern Christian Leader- ship Conference (SCLC), made up of African-American clergy, and the Student […]
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ORIGINS OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT African Americans became in- creasingly restive in the postwar years . During the war they had chal- lenged discrimination in the mili- tary services and in the work force, and they had made limited gains . Millions of African Americans had left Southern farms for Northern cit- ies, where
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THE CULTURE OF THE 1950s During the 1950s, many cul- tural commentators pointed out that a sense of uniformity pervaded American society . Conformity, they asserted, was numbingly common . Though men and women had been forced into new employment pat- terns during World War II, once the war was over, traditional roles were reaffirmed
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EISENHOWER(S) APPROACH When Dwight Eisenhower suc- ceeded Truman as president, he accepted the basic framework of gov- ernment responsibility established by the New Deal, but sought to hold the line on programs and expendi- tures . He termed his approach “dy- namic conservatism” or “modern Republicanism,” which meant, he ex- 270 plained, “conservative when it
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THE POSTWAR ECONOMY: 1945-1960 In the decade and a half after World War II, the United States ex- perienced phenomenal economic growth and consolidated its position as the world’s richest country . Gross national product (GNP), a measure of all goods and services produced in the United States, jumped from about $200,000-million in 1940 to
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THE COLD WAR AT HOME Not only did the Cold War shape U .S . foreign policy, it also had a pro- found effect on domestic affairs . Americans had long feared radi- cal subversion . These fears could at times be overdrawn, and used to jus- tify otherwise unacceptable politi- cal restrictions, but it
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EISENHOWER AND THE COLD WAR In 1953, Dwight D . Eisenhower be- came the first Republican president in 20 years . A war hero rather than a career politician, he had a natu- ral, common touch that made him widely popular . “I like Ike” was the campaign slogan of the time . After serving
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THE COLD WAR IN ASIA AND THE MIDDLE EAST While seeking to prevent Com- munist ideology from gaining fur- ther adherents in Europe, the United States also responded to challenges elsewhere . In China, Americans worried about the advances of Mao Zedong and his Communist Party . During World War II, the National- ist government
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HARRY TRUMAN(S) LEADERSHIP The nation’s new chief executive, Harry S . Truman, succeeded Frank- lin D . Roosevelt as president before the end of the war . An unpretentious man who had previously served as Democratic senator from Missouri, then as vice president, Truman ini- tially felt ill-prepared to govern . Roosevelt had not discussed
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COLD WAR AIMS The Cold War was the most im- portant political and diplomatic is- sue of the early postwar period . It grew out of longstanding disagree- ments between the Soviet Union and the United States that developed af- ter the Russian Revolution of 1917 . The Soviet Communist Party un- der V .I