Essay On The 1950's

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The 1950s was a decade of prosperity as well as a time of anxiety from the many major events that took place. The United States was the world’s strongest military power after World War II, which had positive effects for America, but would cause some rivalry later on between the US and the USSR. People were in a time of rejoice from soldiers returning from war and obtaining a great amount of money from rationing during war time. This initiated great economic prosperity, which led to much technological advancement and many new consumer goods became available to more people than ever before. However, the 1950s was also a time of great conflict mainly from the battle against communism at home and abroad in the USSR, causing an array of feelings …show more content…

People during this time wanted to leave crowded dirty cities and move to a calmer and smaller area. This was made possible by a man who constructed a majority of these houses, William Levitt. He constructed over 140,000 houses quickly and sold it cheap to the buyer, just what young couples who recently had a baby were looking for. It has been said that “the baby boom and the suburban boom went hand in hand” (History.com) because most families could not afford to live in an apartment and pay for their baby as well. Other reasons for moving were that “they came to own their own home, cook with their own appliances, mow their own lawn. They had GI loans in hand, babies on the way, and a ‘50s brand of pioneering spirit” (Blackwell). GI loans gave low-cost mortgages to returning soldiers; therefore it was cheaper to buy a suburban house than to rent an apartment. This movement “urged women to leave the workforce and embrace their roles as wives and mothers. The idea that a woman’s most important job was to bear and rear children” (History.com), started to reappear again. This trend is still very common present day as many women become housewives, especially when they have a baby they need to take care of. New technology was made to accommodate for newly built suburbs still used today, such as refrigerators and television, which advertised many household appliances. The construction of …show more content…

Most people had an accumulation of money from saving during the war time so they spent it on everything they wanted. Technological discoveries led to mass production of cars, groundbreaking designs, and great profits. “Air conditioning, powering steering, power breaks, and car radios were all introduced for safety measures and to appeal to the buyers” (Kallen 103). Automakers kept up with their competition by adding new gadgets to their cars so they would sell more, such as different styles and colors. Owning a car was not as much as a luxury anymore since, “rising incomes and easy credit brought late-model automobiles within reach, and by the end of the decade four out of five American households had a car” (Time-Life Books 95). Everyone was looking for the new appliance to own just to show it off and say they had it. No one really cared about safety measures with cars or traveling to far places in it, they just owned one for show. However, since “by 1958, almost 68 million cars and trucks were in use” (Kallen 103), more roads needed to be built and laws needed to be implemented. The need for an easier way to travel across the country was needed now more than ever with the sparked increase of automobiles. The government had been trying to pass acts to build highways, but some of them failed and others did not provide sufficient

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