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Effects of WW II on US society
Effects of WW II on US society
The effects World War 2 had on American society
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When WWII had begun it essentially was the beginning of the end of the depression. It got the momentum to move forward to create a better society. After world world II social and development in the united states was created through economic materialism, family structure, post-war trauma, and changes in work life. These ideas can be seen being carried out through a novel called The Man in the Grey Flannel suit because it sets an example of what a typical middle class family lived like in the 1950’s. In order for the country to develop the united states needed to modify to these four ideas. Another significant element to the 1950’s was the economy, creating a generation of materialism. The economy was thriving because the government had put …show more content…
However, in The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit, Betsy talks about how Tom has changed so much since coming back from the war and how things have changed. Through the story there are many moments where flashbacks from the war effect Tom’s everyday livelihood. The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit can also show the struggle people had understood why people may have been different from before the war, and how it was so hard to relate. However, even with a lot of the men coping with the PTSD from WWII it almost seemed that the war had not completely ended with the United States intervening in Gautama and the nuclear missile argument they were still having with the soviets. Another big adjustment that the fair deal had set up programs to help former war veterans get back to everyday life. One of the programs was free college education. The free education program not only helped the veterans find a new career, but it also helped society find higher paid wage jobs like, doctors, lawyers, and engineers. In turn the higher wages meant higher taxes, then additional money into the government in return. Another positive that turned into free education was the high amounts of people who started to get into college. The high turn out rate led to more colleges to be constructed, then in turn created supplementary jobs and more money. Life after the war seemed to be difficult to deal with emotionally, however, through government programs, individuals were able to form into a better working class and
During the post WWII period in America, the face of the nation changed greatly under the presidency of Truman and Eisenhower. America underwent another era of good feelings as they thought themselves undefeatable and superior over the rest of the world. Communism was the American enemy and American sought to rid the world of it. Because of the extreme paranoia caused by Communism, conformity became an ideal way to distinguish American Culture from the rest. Conformity became a part of every American Life to a large extent. It became evident through the medium of culture, society and politics throughout the era of the 50s.
Sloan Wilson published a great novel in 1955 based on his own life, The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit which is presented as an illustration of stereotypical 1950s conformity. In a time when the belief that the normal family was the most important part of America, Betsy Rath is rearing her children and is very influenced, consciously and subconsciously, by the existing thinking of that time. While being the perfectly supportive wife that Tom needs, she is far from the domestic goddess showed by the mid-century media. In fact, she is very human in her mistakes and flaws. Only her constant cheerleading has kept her husband from losing momentum, even as she struggles with their dissatisfying lives, their
The decade after the First World War saw tremendous change. Progressivism was a leading factor of World War I and in the 1920’s the evidence can be seen. Industries were making their products at an increasing rate. Products that were not populous before World War I were now used by millions of Americans. The automobile was only used by less than ten million of Americans and by the end of this post war decade that number has climbed to over thirty million. Also many new inventions were coming through making life for Americans much more comfortable. Radios, vacuum cleaners, irons, washing machines, and refrigerators were among the new necessities Americans just had to have.
Most of WWII took place half way through the 1940s, which had a reflective result on the majority of countries and citizens in Europe and Asia. The penalty of warfare lingered into the next part of the decade. Europe separated among the spheres of influence of the Soviet Union and the west foremost to the start of the Cold War. The 1940s also witnessed the premature early stages of new technologies including computers, nuclear power and jet propulsion, often first developed in tandem with the war effort, and later adapted and improved upon in the post-war era. The 1940s connects to the influence of contemporary America because it was the decade that changed so many things in life not only the government. In general our world as we knew it changed for the better and worse. The 1940s did the most to influence contemporary America because the U.S culture and society had changed a lot especially the role of women, many families were greatly impacted. The aspect of technology was completely revolutionized. During the decade the wealth rebounded from despair; big business improved its flawed public status; income and wages reached new heights; and dominant original sectors of the economy urbanized, particularly in the fabrication of buyer goods and armed forces hardware.
The American home front during World War II is recalled warmly in popular memory and cultural myth as a time of unprecedented national unity, years in which Americans stuck together in common cause. World War II brought many new ideas and changes to American life. Even though World War II brought no physical destruction to the United States mainland, it did affect American society. Every aspect of American life was altered by U.S. involvement in the war including demographics, the labor force, economics and cultural trends. During the Great Depression, the American birth rate had fallen to an all-time low due to delayed marriages and parenthood.
Life is full of unfortunate circumstances; terrible episodes happen to people every day whether they are pious, unpleasant, or indifferent. Those individuals, then have to choose whether to come to terms with the ordeal, or ignore it completely. In the selections, “Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, and “The Man in the Black Suit” by Steven King, both protagonists face traumatic experiences that affect their lives, and they are forced to cope with it. There are times in people’s lives when a terrible event happens, and because they are so unwilling to face it, they cope in an unhealthy manner. They do not know any other way to process what they are feeling, so they ignore it. Because people are either unwilling or unable to deal with
The bureaucratization of business in the 1920’s meant that more people could be employed in higher paying white-collar jobs than before, including, for the first time, housewives. This new income combined with the reduced prices for goods that resulted from mechanized production, assembly lines and a general decrease in the cost of technology created a thriving consumerist middle class that went on to fuel the economy in all sectors, especially the upper classes. Likewise, during World War II Americans saved up around 150 billion dollars, and this sum combined with the income of the GI Bill allowed normal people to buy expensive things, from houses to cars to electronics to education at a rapid rate, fueling the trademark prosperity of the 1950’s. The new automobile culture of the 50’s spawned new businesses that catered to mobile Americans, such as nicer and more standardized hotels like Holiday Inn, and drive-up restaurants like McDonalds. Just as the culture of the 1920’s was transformed by modernist ideas, the world of the 1950’s was reinvigorated by the introduction of the automobile to the middle class....
America’s entry into World War II had an importance to America after the war. The United States involvement in the war was long and took a toll on everyone in the war. The military of the U.S. was the deciding factor in World War II. The United States grew militarily and economically because of the war. Finally stopping the Great Depression and bringing on jobs for everyone including women, colored people and the fighters of the war.
World War II changed the world as a whole, but in this essay I am going to talk about how it changed America. After the war, many groups and organizations were created. The United Nations was born on October 24, 1945. This was a group meant to keep peace between nations. Tensions were still high between the United States and the Soviet Union after the war. Nevertheless, things were booming like never before here in our home country. With equal rights for women and African Americans, economic growth, and anti- war organizations became pro- war after Pearl Harbor. These are the ways I am going to discuss to you how World War Two changed our great country.
One of the main waves of music of the time was a calmer more gentle rock. A major band called The Beatles were so popular during this time it was called Beatle Mania. The Beatles were one of the numerous bands coming to America either many more would coming getting the title of the British invasion. During the 1960s America’s economy was greatly increasing. This time period focused on the housing and computer industry which overpowered automobiles, chemicals, and electrically powered consumer durables, which were the leading sectors in the 1950s. Agriculture fell from 19.2 to 7.5 percent, minimum wage increased from $1.00 to $1.25, and the unemployment of was around 6 percent. Another economic point is the growing middleclass. Between 1945 and 1960, the median family income, adjusted for inflation, almost doubled. Rising income doubled the size of the middle class. Before the Great Depression of the 1930s only one-third of Americans qualified as middle class, but in postwar America two-thirds did. Many middle class families of postwar America became suburban families. Of the 13 million new homes built in the 1950s, 85 percent were in the suburbs. The GI bill helped this growth greatly. Soldiers coming home from the war would have a government loan for a home or going to college. Making college more of a social norm. Which still effects society today making more jobs having a college degree required. The political culture focused more on containing communism with the theory helping this being called the domino theory “Military Intervention in Korea and Vietnam finally, you have broader considerations that might follow what you would call the falling domino principle. You have a row of dominoes set up, you knock over the first one, and what will happen to the last one is the certainty that it will go over very quickly. So you could have a beginning of a disintegration
The 1950s was a time when conformity held supreme in the culture at large. Issues such as women 's rights were thrown to the back as people tried to remain in the popular form of a family. These issues being put off only caused the prolonging of the tumultuous 1960s that would soon
In the book Perils of Prosperity by William E. Leuchtenburg, the United States at the time undergoes through times of tremendous economic growth and social changes in between 1914 to 1932. Leuchtenburg talks about some of the major changes that helped shaped the American society into what it is now today in his book. The standard of living rose, the economy flourished, the roles of women in the workforce and political changes are all examples of the major post-Civil War changes which Leuchtenburg talks about then leads into World War 1. It was a wonderful era of transformation for the United States, but there are consequences which occurred in those times. Despite the all the prosperity that took place, there were times where prosperity had
Aside from national security interests domestic thirst for oil boomed. The war brought us out of the Great Depression. During the Depression a traditionally capitalist American society embraced a kind of socialism with the New Deal. WWII transformed the bear turned in a raging bull. Capitalism was back with a vengeance, charging forward stronger than it had ever been before. The heavy industry built up to sustain the war effort was retooled to meet the demands of the emerging consumerist culture of the 1950s. The new explosion of industrial output became so pervasive that the decade ended with President Eisenhower warning of the dangers of the growing “Military-Industrial Complex.”
Then author goes on to talk about how the current president sends a message to the people of America saying that the war is over now and everything will return back to normal. The only problem is that the soldiers were ready to come back to America, but America’s employment was not ready for the soldiers to come back. The returning of soldiers to America sky rocketed unemployment and caused there to be massive outcry for more job opportunities. People were looking to President Wilson to do something about this crisis.
During the years between 1920 and 1960, America saw change in many aspects of life. The United States was a part of two major wars and a crash of the banking system that crippled the economy greater than ever seen in this country’s history. Also the country had new insecurities to tackle such as immigration and poor treatment of workers. These events led to the change of America lives socially, economically, and politically. The people of America changed their ideas of what the country’s place in the world should be. The issues challenging America led the country to change from isolation to war, depression to prosperity, and social change. The threats to American way of life, foreign and domestic, were the changing forces to the country in the twenties to the sixties.