History

THE COUNTERCULTURE The agitation for equal opportuni- ty sparked other forms of upheaval . Young people in particular rejected the stable patterns of middle-class life their parents had created in the decades after World War II . Some plunged into radical political activ- ity; many more embraced new stan- dards of dress and sexual behavior […]

THE NATIVE-AMERICAN MOVEMENT In the 1950s, Native Americans struggled with the government’s pol- icy of moving them off reservations and into cities where they might as- similate into mainstream America . Many of the uprooted often had dif- ficulties adjusting to urban life . In 1961, when the policy was discontin- ued, the U .S

THE LATINO MOVEMENT In post-World War II America, Americans of Mexican and Puerto Rican descent had faced discrimina- tion . New immigrants, coming from Cuba, Mexico, and Central Ameri- ca — often unskilled and unable to speak English — suffered from dis- crimination as well . Some Hispanics worked as farm laborers and at times

THE WOMEN(S) MOVEMENT During the 1950s and 1960s, in- creasing numbers of married wom- en entered the labor force, but in 1963 the average working woman earned only 63 percent of what a man made . That year Betty Friedan published The Feminine Mystique, an explosive critique of middle- class living patterns that articulated a

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

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

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

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

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

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