I've been on a history kick for the last 5 months and I'm almost done. I am feeling the pressure to get back to covering housekeeping but I must finish what I started. With this history lesson, I hope to convey the idea that history was at the time current events and all current events, even international ones impact us in our homes.
I'll begin with a quick summary of the flow of modern American education, then pick up where I left off with the post-WW1 era and bring us up to 1950.
In the 1840's, over a million Irish Catholic immigrants arrive in the US, most in NYC and their local neighborhoods struggled to control their own schools as a way of preventing their children from being force-fed the Protestant curriculum taught by the only organized school system at the time.
1848 saw the beginning of a long tradition of "reform schools" which combined education with the juvenile justice system.
The war with Mexico ended in 1848 with the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo, which gave the US all of what is now the US Southwest, Utah, Nevada, Wyoming and most of California. The treaty guaranteed citizenship rights to everyone living in these areas and that they could retain their native language, including in education.
From 1865 through 1877, African Americans mobilized to bring public education to the South. Alliances were made with white Republicans to push for political change including the rewriting the states' constitutions to guarantee free public education. After the Civil War's Reconstruction era and Federal troops withdrew in 1877, the whites who regained political control laid the foundations for segregation in schools and everywhere else in their jurisdiction.
This is a 1895 8th Grade Final Exam taken from the original document on file at the Smokey Valley Genealogical Society and Library in Salina, Kansas.
8th Grade Final Exam:
Salina , KS - 1895
Grammar (Time, one hour)
1. Give nine rules for the use of
capital letters.
2. Name the parts of speech and define
those that have no modifications
3. Define verse, stanza and paragraph.
4. What are the principal parts of a
verb? Give principal parts of 'lie,' 'play,' and 'run'.
5. Define case; illustrate each case.
6. What is punctuation? Give rules for
principal marks of punctuation.
7 - 10. Write a composition of about 150
words and show therein that you
understand the practical use of
the rules of grammar.
Arithmetic (Time,1 hour 15 minutes)
1. Name and define the Fundamental Rules of Arithmetic.
2. A wagon box is 2 ft. Deep, 10 feet
Long, and 3 ft. Wide. How many bushels of wheat will it hold?
3. If a load of wheat weighs 3,942 lbs,
what is it worth at 50 cts/bushel,
deducting 1,050 lbs for tare?
4. District No 33 has a valuation of
$35,000. What is the necessary levy to carry on a school seven months at $50 per
month, and have $104 for incidentals?
5. Find the cost of 6,720 lbs. Coal at
$6.00 per ton.
6. Find the interest of $512.60 for 8
months and 18 days at 7 percent per annum.
7. What is the cost of 40 boards 12
inches wide and 16 ft long at $20 per metre?
8. Find bank discount on $300 for 90
days (no grace) at 10 percent.
9. What is the cost of a square farm at
$15 per acre, the distance of which is 640 rods?
10. Write a Bank Check, a Promissory
Note, and a Receipt.
U.S. History (Time, 45 minutes)
1. Give the epochs into which U.S.
History is divided
2. Give an account of the discovery of
America by Columbus .
3. Relate the causes and results of the
Revolutionary War.
4. Show the territorial growth of the
United States .
5. Tell what you can of the history of
Kansas .
6. Describe three of the most prominent
battles of the Rebellion.
7. Who were the following: Morse,
Whitney, Fulton, Bell, Lincoln, Penn, and Howe?
8. Name events connected with the
following dates: 1607, 1620, 1800, 1849, 1865.
Orthography (Time, one hour)
1. What is meant by the following:
alphabet, phonetic, orthography,
etymology, syllabication?
2. What are elementary sounds? How
classified?
3. What are the following, and give
examples of each: trigraph, subvocals,
diphthong, cognate letters,
linguals?
4. Give four substitutes for caret 'u'.
5. Give two rules for spelling words
with final 'e.' Name two exceptions under each rule.
6. Give two uses of silent letters in
spelling. Illustrate each.
7. Define the following prefixes and use
in connection with a word: bi, dis, pre, semi, post, non, inter, mono, sup.
8. Mark diacritically and divide into
syllables the following, and name the sign that indicates the sound: card,
ball, mercy, sir, odd, cell, rise, blood, fare, last.
9. Use the following correctly in
sentences: cite, site, sight, fane, fain, feign, vane, vain, vein, raze, raise, rays.
10. Write 10 words frequently
mispronounced and indicate pronunciation by use of diacritical marks and by
syllabication.
Geography (Time, one hour)
1 What is climate? Upon what does
climate depend?
2. How do you account for the extremes
of climate in Kansas ?
3. Of what use are rivers? Of what use
is the ocean?
4. Describe the mountains of North
America .
5. Name and describe the following:
Monrovia, Odessa, Denver, Manitoba,
Hecla , Yukon , St. Helena, Juan
Fernandez, Aspinwall and Orinoco .
6. Name and locate the principal trade
centers of the U.S. Name all the
republics of Europe and give the
capital of each.
8. Why is the Atlantic Coast colder than
the Pacific in the same latitude?
9. Describe the process by which the
water of the ocean returns to the sources of rivers.
10. Describe the movements of the earth.
Give the inclination of the earth.
Between 1893 and 1913, the school boards in the country's big cities were reduced in size and local control of immigrant neighborhood schools was replaced by citywide elected board members. The makeup of the school boards changed from local small businessmen and wage earners to big businessmen and other members of the elite class.
In 1917, the Smith Hughes Act passes, providing federal funding for vocational education. Big manufacturing corporations push this, because they want to remove job skill training from the apprenticeship programs of trade unions and bring it under their control.
By the 1930's, most rural counties had several one room school houses with one teacher who taught all grades, the eighth grade being the last formal schooling for most children. Eighth grade graduations were an event of considerable importance in an era when only a small fraction of graduates continued. Graduation exercises and related activities continued to be a centerpiece of town life even as times changed and most students went on to high school and beyond. It took 3 or 4 weeks for the results to be posted in the county newspaper. Here are some questions from a 1930's eighth grade final exam in Rush County, Kansas.
http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/BACKTOTHEPAST/2004-11/1101526996
WRITING 1. Give six rules to be observed at all times when writing.
2. Write two stanzas of some poem.
SPELLING 1. Use the following words and expressions in
sentences: some time, sometime, its, it's.
2. Syllabify and mark the accented syllables and the
vowels so as to show their sounds: majesty, whereby,
shamefully, angrily,dis-agreeable,unfinished,control,
develop,gasoline,oppose.
U.S. HISTORY
1. Answer the following questions in regard to the Articles of Confederation:a) From whom did the authority come to write them?
b) What state was the last to ratify the Articles?
When?
c) In what way were the Articles weak as a governing
instrument?
2. Beginning with the original territory as granted by
the Treaty of Paris,at the close of the Revolutionary
War, make an outline that shows all the territorial
acquisitions up to the present time. Give the time of
acquisition, the source from which the territory
came, and the cost, if purchased.
GRAMMAR 1. Diagram or analyze: As he approached the
village,he met a number of people, but none whom he
knew.
2. Name and define the eight parts of speech. Give an
example of each.
AGRICULTURE 1. Name the five worst weeds in your locality and give the best methods of eradicating them.
2. What are hotbeds? How are they constructed? Of what
value are they to the gardener?
KANSAS HISTORY 1. Name the state offices and officers.
2. Give events connected with the history of Kansas for these dates: 1804-1806, 1820, 1854, 1861.
CIVIL GOVERNMENT 1. Give the salary and qualifications of the president.
2. How are the expenses of our government met?
ARITHMETIC 1. How many cubic yards of earth are thrown out in digging a cellar 24 ft. by 15 ft. by 8 ft.?
2. Define: Commission, par value, discount, net
proceeds, interest, insurance, brokerage,
parallelogram, percent, convex surface.
Copyright 1997 The Washington Post Company
By 1932, most school districts were using the "intelligence testing" method to place students in different academic tracks.
Regarding Home Economics, this curriculum was taught in urban high schools, originally addressing the need to educate women of the common classes who were faced with providing a safe and healthy home under the great duress of inner city slums and rugged rural life. It was a huge success with independent state colleges investing in "outreach programs" including printed media, travelling exhibits in railroad cars and state and county fairs. These outreach programs soon shaped what was to become common knowledge; germ theory, proper personal sanitation and how to cook and sew. In New York State, this outreach program was called the Home Bureau and they distributed over 500,000 copies of the Home Bureau Creed. This statement of ideals was penned by Ruby Green Smith, home economics professor at Cornell University after having received her PhD from there in 1914, was beautifully illustrated and meant to hang as art and a promise to households across the country.
Home Bureau Creed
" To maintain the highest ideals of home life; to count children as the most important of crops; to so mother them that their bodies may be sound, their minds clear, their spirits happy, and their characters generous.
To place service above comfort, to let loyalty to high purpose silence discordant notes, to let neighborliness supplant hatrids, to be discouraged never, to lose self in generous enthusiasms, to extend to the less fortunate a helping hand, to believe one's community may become the best of communities, and to cooperate with others for the common ends of a more abundant home and community life.
This is the offer of the Home Bureau to the Homemaker of today."
In the classrooms of the state colleges Home Economics included; basic science, sewing, millinery, cooking, economics, fine arts, chemistry and bacteriology, nutrition, accounting, teaching, culture and early childhood development and were all addressed in fine detail. The outreach programs fulfilled the needs of common women but the colleges and universities educated with vocation in mind.
US views of the World
After WW1, women were now voting. The US, blaming President Wilson for breaking his promise to stay out of Europe's war, turned their back on him. He came up with the 14 points which later became the points which the League of Nations was based around, but the voting public had no trust in him. America became isolationist, not joining the League of Nations, nor ratify the Treaty of Versailles nor the International Court of Justice. Many citizens had immigrated to America wishing to cut ties with the old world and Americans didn't want any more soldiers to die in a foreign war nor take on what they soon realized to be massive financial costs. Tariffs were raised to protect American goods and that policy worked really well, creating the boom time of the 1920's. Fear was also dominate in our culture, fear that future immigrants would be willing to work for less money and take "real American's" jobs and there was a deep fear of new political ideas, especially communism. Laws were passed to reduce the immigration from poorer countries. A literacy test was required before entry into the US and only 3% of the existing number of Americans of any nationality would be allowed in. For instance, since there were a large number of Irish in the US and very few Chinese, more Irish were let in than Chinese. The plan was to keep out Africans, Asians and South Americans while continuing to allow English speaking, educated white Europeans. This isolationism actually damaged World Peace since the USA failed to join the League of Nations.
http://www.slideshare.net/guest0e466c/the-usa-after-ww1
Politics and the home front
By 1920, World War I was over. The wartime boom had collapsed. Diplomats and politicians were arguing over peace treaties and the question of America's entry into the League of Nations. Overseas there were wars and revolutions; at home there were strikes, riots and a growing fear of radicals and terrorists. Disillusionment was in the air.
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/nfhtml/nfexpe.html
Before his nomination, Warren G. Harding declared, "America's present need is not heroics, but healing; not nostrums, but normalcy; not revolution, but restoration; not agitation, but adjustment; not surgery, but serenity; not the dramatic, but the dispassionate; not experiment, but equipoise; not submergence in internationality, but sustainment in triumphant nationality...."
A Democratic leader, William Gibbs McAdoo, called Harding's speeches "an army of pompous phrases moving across the landscape in search of an idea." Their very murkiness was effective, since Harding's pronouncements remained unclear on the League of Nations, in contrast to the impassioned crusade of the Democratic candidates, Governor James M. Cox of Ohio and Franklin D. Roosevelt. http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/presidents/warrenharding
Republican Harding inherited unemployment was at nearly 12% and the federal debt had exploded thanks to wartime expenditures. Republicans in Congress easily got the President's signature on their bills among them, they eliminated wartime controls on business, restored the high protective tariff, established a federal budget system and imposed tight limitations on immigration. The government and the Federal Reserve System (now known as "the Fed" which is the central banking system of the US, created in 1913 in response to a series of financial panics early in the 19-teens) addressed the depression by doing the opposite of what experts now recommend. The government did what a responsible household would do when faced with lean times, it slashed it's budget tremendously and the Fed hiked loan rates to record highs. Federal spending was slashed from $18.5 billion to $6.4 billion in in one year and over the next two years it was reduced to $3.3 billion. The Fed raised it's rate to a record high 7 %. What this did was encourage the less stable, less committed and smaller business to die off leaving the stronger business that could stand the test of lean times to survive. The downturn only lasted a few years and the result was a tremendous boom time. Apparently, the free market works providing new business are encouraged to start up once the economy improves. http://www.thefreemanonline.org/features/the-depression-youve-never-heard-of-1920-1921/ (this is an excellent website for an "outside the common knowledge" of finance publication called the Freeman.)
The behind the scenes of Harding's administration was extremely corrupt which worried him greatly and as he wrestled with the decision to reveal or not. His Secretary of Commerce, Herbert Hoover urged him to publish what he knew of the shady business going on in his administration but he feared the political repercussions and died of a heart attack in Aug of 1923 which left Calvin Coolidge as President.
During this government austerity, business and production methods allowed manufacturers to make large profits which they plowed back into new factories. Department store and service station chains used massive buying power and operating efficiency to keep prices low while increasing service and choice, helping wages go further. Chain discount grocery stores began to threaten local store owners not only with their purchasing power but they could offer extended credit. The unfortunate coincidence of a widespread drought in the mid-west made remarkably worse by 30 years of aggressive and unsound farming techniques fed the cities with people eager to work since city people benefited most from these advances. Now able to purchase the cars, fridges, washing machines, pianos, vacuum cleaners, furniture and radios which were formerly only available to the wealthy, households were filled with these products and between 75 and 90% of all purchases were with only a down payment. This was unprecedented in all of history, happened really quickly and was embraced by all.
British manufacturers soon followed this business plan. Even though Britain had been an industrialized nation for quite some time and there were numerous books written by credible doctors detailing the unhealthy lives of the employees at the hands of the business owners, the power and money in the hands of the owners allowed for much more to be printed that sang the praises of "good jobs". The 1920's in post war Europe was exceeding dismal. There was massive inflation that destroyed the wealth of the middle class and lead to the political and economic turmoil which fueled the next world war.
In the US, the number of millionaires shown in the Tax Reports of the Treasury Department increased dramatically.... in 1921 there were 21 individuals with an annual income of over one million dollars, 75 in 1924, 207 in 1926, nearly all of whom lived in apartments on Park Ave in New York City. Interesting to note, tax rates fell during these years but the portion of US tax revenue, collected from the wealthy (anyone making over $50,000) climbed from 44.2% in 1921 to 78.4% in 1928. Not only did the common folk splurge but these millionaires did too, filling these apartments with the antiques and paintings Europeans were desperate to sell. It was no coincidence that executive salaries ballooned to extravagant levels widening the gap between management and workers, business execs used their financial influence in the school systems and in politics to ensure their positions of power. Business ethics collapsed and corruption was wide spread. The pollution of all types from these manufacturing plants and mines had been going on for quite some time but attempts at governmental regulation was no match for the power and corruption of these industries. Thanks to Samuel Gompers, leader of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) who was impressed with the German Workers' Compensation Laws which instead of injured workers suing for damages in court and having to prove the employer negligent, compensated all injuries at a fixed rate which appealed to employers since it offered predictability in costs and reduced labor strife. But these covered on the job injuries so the populations living downstream and down wind were not covered and new illnesses were widespread. http://eh.net/encyclopedia/article/aldrich.safety.workplace.us
In 1927, US tariff laws coupled with our military might created trade wars with Canada and France and allowed the US to capitalize on Chinese imports, which were at the one billion dollar level and growing at about 30% per year with the oil and tobacco industries leading the way. The coal industry had free reign with the booming industrial demand. Using borrowed money, speculators pushed up the prices of houses, land and shares. The Share Market climbed to dizzy heights as shares could also be purchased with 10% down with the remainder of the price being financed by a loan from the share broker. This plan exacerbated the problem when the Share Market wavered and lead to the Share Market Crash of 1929. The prosperity vanished almost overnight and despite everything the various governments could do, the US and much of the world slipped into a harsh depression that lasted a decade. As my Grandmother used to say, the "great Depression" wasn't all that great.
Government Assistance
Herbert Hoover was President Wilson's head of the Food Administration during the First World War and was able to cut the consumption of food shipped overseas and avoid rationing at home, yet kept the Allied Forces fed. He was on the Supreme Economic Council and head of the American Relief Administration which organized shipments of food to the starving millions in war torn Europe and famine stricken Russia. "Twenty million people are starving." he said when his critics accused him of helping "Bolshevism". "Whatever their politics, they shall be fed." After capably serving as Secretary of Commerce under Presidents Harding and Coolidge during the boom times, he became the Republican Presidential nominee in 1928. "We in America today are nearer to the final triumph over poverty than ever before in the history of any land." His election seemed to ensure prosperity yet within months the share market crashed (now called the Stock Market) and the Nation was in deep depression.
After the crash, Hoover announced that while he would keep the Federal budget balanced, he would cut taxes and expand public works spending. The situation in Europe worsened our own crisis. He presented to Congress a program called the Reconstruction Finance Corporation to aid business, help farmers facing mortgage foreclosures, banking reform, a loan to states for feeding the unemployed, expansion of public works and drastic governmental streamlining. He also reiterated his view that while people must not suffer from cold and hunger, caring for them must be primarily a local voluntary responsibility. His opponents in Congress, who wanted to sabotage the program for their own political gain, unfairly painted him as callous and cruel. Hoover became the scapegoat for the Depression and was badly defeated in 1932. He persevered in the public eye during the 1930's and was a powerful critic of "the New Deal" warning against tendencies toward statism : Merriam Websters' definition of statism - concentration of economic controls and planning in the hands of a highly centralized government often extending to government ownership of industry.
America chose Democrat Franklin Delano Roosevelt, fifth cousin to Republican Teddy Roosevelt who was still greatly admired. When he took office there were 13 million (over 10%) unemployed and almost every bank was closed. In his first 100 days, he was able to get his program through Congress which did bring recovery to business and agriculture, relief to the unemployed and to those facing foreclosure, especially through the establishment of the Tennessee Valley Authority. Check out this website, to get the scoop on the TVA in their own words. http://www.tva.com/abouttva/history.htm Relief (for the unemployed), Recovery (of the economy) and Reform (of the financial system) was the "New Deal".
The New Deal produced a political realignment, making the Democratic Party the majority (as well as the party that held the White House for seven out of nine Presidential terms from 1933 to 1969), with its base in liberal ideas, the white South, traditional Democrats, big city machines, and the newly empowered labor unions and ethnic minorities. The Republicans were split, with conservatives opposing the entire New Deal as an enemy of business and growth, and liberals accepting some of it and promising to make it more efficient. The realignment crystallized into the New Deal Coalition that dominated most presidential elections into the 1960s, while the opposition Conservative Coalition largely controlled Congress from 1937 to 1963. By 1936 the term "liberal" typically was used for supporters of the New Deal, and "conservative" for its opponents. From 1934 to 1938, Roosevelt was assisted in his endeavours by a “pro-spender” majority in Congress.
Many historians distinguish a "First New Deal" (1933–34) and a "Second New Deal" (1935–38), with the second one more liberal and more controversial. It included a national work program, the Works Progress Administration (WPA), that made the federal government by far the largest single employer in the nation.[1] The "First New Deal" (1933–34) dealt with diverse groups, from banking and railroads to industry and farming, all of which demanded help for economic survival. The Federal Emergency Relief Administration, for instance, provided $500 million for relief operations by states and cities, while the short-lived CWA (Civil Works Administration) gave localities money to operate make-work projects in 1933-34.[2]
The "Second New Deal" in 1935–38 included the Wagner Act to promote labor unions, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) relief program which put unemployed to work on public projects including the construction of hundreds of school, bridges, roads etc, the Social Security Act, and new programs to aid tenant farmers and migrant workers. The final major items of New Deal legislation were the creation of the United States Housing Authority and Farm Security Administration, both in 1937, and the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, which set maximum hours and minimum wages for most categories of workers.[3]://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Deal He was making enemies with businessmen and bankers who were alarmed at the experimental nature of his policies and because he had taken the Nation's currency off the gold standard and was running up deficits.
By 1936, he was reelected by a top-heavy margin and feeling he had the populous behind him, sought legislation to enlarge the Supreme Court who had been invalidating key New Deal measures. He lost the Supreme Court battle but inspired a revolution in constitutional law. There after, the Government could legally regulate the economy. He also kept his eye on international affairs, China and Japan were warring and Europe was becoming increasingly unstable. He pledged the United States to the "good neighbor" policy which changed the Monroe Doctrine from a manifesto into agreements with various US friendly countries for mutual action against aggressors. He much preferred to remain neutral but at the same time he was committed to strengthening allies under threat of attack.
Roosevelt and several Presidents before him often used the National Guard to quell strikes and the violence usually resulted in deaths to the strikers. Many mill and industry owners had their own guards that used physical violence with impunity during this time to intimidate the workers. The US government was still very much pro business inspite of the regulations passed. By 1937, there was an economic downturn. A bitter split erupted between the AFL and the CIO labor unions, add to that controversy over Roosevelt's attempts at adding seats to the Supreme Court and the splitting up of Democrats into a conservative wing made up of Southern states and the more liberal New Deal supporters, which led to a major Republican gains in the Congress in 1938. Conservative Republicans and Democrats in Congress joined to create a Conservative Coalition and by 1942-43 they shut down relief programs and blocked major liberal proposals.
Roosevelt, by that time Japan had bombed Pearl Harbor and FDR had turned his focus to the war effort and here we go again. All resources of farm and manufacturing was dedicated to the war effort. He died suddenly before the war was over. His Democratic Vice President Harry Truman received no briefing on the machinations of the US war effort and suddenly he was faced with the most crucial decisions in history. He sent an urgent plea to the Japanese to surrender and they refused so he ordered atomic bombs to be dropped on their biggest war machine industries in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. They surrendered quickly. The Korean War followed over problems with the way the peninsula of Korea was divided between the victorious Allied forces and the Japanese Empire who had ruled Korea from 1910. The Soviet military force occupied the North half and the US occupied the Southern half. The north became communist and the south capitalist and warfare continued here until 1953 when the Korean Armistice Agreement was signed which in effect was an agreement to stop hostilities, but peace was never reached just a cease of hostilities. Russia and the US remain bitter enemies for decades after.
The charter of the United Nations was signed in June of 1945 in the hopes of preserving the peace so dearly paid for. Thus far, he had followed his predecessor's policies but post WWII he began hi own agenda, expanding Social Security, pushed for a full-employment rate with a permanent Fair Employment Practices Act and began public housing and slum clearance taking this edge out of big business' hands.
Education and Common Knowledge post WWII
The GI Bill was one of FDR's last acts as President and forever dismissed the idea that college was only for the elite. Nearly 8 million WII vets took advantage of the bill during the 7 years it was offered. The college population doubled. The law provided the same opportunity to every veteran so racial and financial barriers were broken. This provided a productive pool of highly-educated employees at a time when American businesses were willing to pay handsomely for engineering and management skills. Cheap oil from domestic wells helped keep the engines of industry running. Advances in science and technology explored during wartime fed this trend and was assisted by the fact that there was virtually no international competition since most of the civilized world had the living sh*t bombed out of them.
On Jan 1st, 1946, the first of 78 million baby boomers was born, mostly of these newly educated vets which resulted in unprecedented school population growth and massive social change. Also in 1946, the US District Court in Los Angeles rules that educating children of Mexican descent is separate facilities is unconstitutional, thus prohibiting segregation in California schools which set a precedent for Brown vs the Board of Education of Topeka in 1954. Educators were coming up with new and better methods of teaching children. The old teaching methods based on fear, physical punishment and intimidation was giving way to a slightly more nurturing style of teaching with positive stimulus used as well as negative. Parents were expected to have their child ready to learn by the time they were old enough to attend school and children were expected to get the most our of their education as possible.
The post-World War II era was a time of great economic prosperity for the United States. However, critics of this period have pointed out a widespread, stultifying conformity that permeated many realms of society. Pockets of rebellion and alternative lifestyle existed, but they were largely under the surface and ignored by mainstream America.
Conformity, according to marketing scholars Max Sutherland and Alice K. Sylvester, is the need to avoid standing out from the crowd. (Sutherland and Sylvester, 68) Its manifestations in 1940s and 1950s culture included long rows of new, identical suburban houses; widely accepted standards of dress for men, women and children; the acceptance of a largely uniform set of home appliances and equipment; little social tumult, particularly on large-scale levels. The widespread acceptance of what would now seem to be controversial government activities like the Korean War, the denouncement and "rooting out" of Communism and the establishment of an atomic weapons program were embraced as the American way.
A number of factors might help explain postwar conformity. First, the residual sense of national unity from World War II and the growing threat represented by the U.S.S.R. helped ease political distinctions and contributed to a sense of togetherness--at least among those who denounced and shunned "reds" and "pinkos." Secondly, the increased adaptation of mass production techniques led, quite naturally, to the mass consumption of these goods. As Hazel G. Warlaumont wrote in her Advertising in the 60s: Turncoats, Traditionalists and Waste Makers in America's Turbulent Decade, "Maintaining middle-class conformity and family life as utopia was essential for selling the stockpile of consumer goods and services to the masses." (Warlaumont, 125) Thirdly, the arrival of television in nearly all American homes helped to perpetuate an idealized conception of the family, as seen in situation comedies likeFather Knows Best, Leave it to Beaver and The Donna Reed Show. Fourthly, as noted in Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique, marketers became much more savvy about manipulating consumers, particularly females who were mostly confined to the home by culture and by discrimination. Fifthly, racial and economic segregation prevented a wide range of diverse perspectives from reaching the public eye, contributing to the era's sense of "sameness." .
http://www.duke.edu/~ajc6/7up/Conformity.htm
The explosion of revealing printed material of the early industrial revolution in the Progressive Era did not happen in this era of growth and the general public embraced a comfortable routine fueled by the knowledge that US might had made the world right. Common knowledge was in the hands of manufacturers and their advertisers, thanks in large part to TV. The outreach programs of the land grant colleges was no longer a priority, and education became a vocational necessity focused on working outside the home rather than a tool to encourage people improve themselves with life skills. These outreach programs did a great job at creating the common knowledge for those who ran the household in the first decades of the 1900's, teaching thrift, self sufficiency, independent study, problem solving and the practical knowledge of maintaining a home and caring for a family. Leisure time was spent with music and crafts to augment the home. The new common knowledge was conformity, having the homemaker's autonomy replaced by the rise of consumerism.
1 Warfare is extremely disruptive to a society even if it is not being bombed. Everything pours into the war effort.
2 Corruption is to be expected where high finance is concerned, whether it be in business, politics or banking and each of these forces manipulates the others. 3 Education best serves the public when it is addressed to the public on the local level as in the outreach programs. Formal vocational schooling can be very narrow in scope.
4 Do not underestimate the ability of advertisers to psychologically manipulate.
These new parents were brought up by those who valued thrift and individuality just one generation prior. This has great bearing on the point of all this history. The waves of political, educational and societal change don't take place out there in the big world. It takes place in our homes. It shapes who we are. I like being able to determine my own way of being, I like being educated without an agenda so that I can make decisions for myself. These outside forces of government, education and business can either feed or starve our individualism and it concerns me how much power over our individual lives these outside forces have. That is "house keeping", keeping our home culture under our own power.
So much for the first half of the 20th century. The Eisenhower administration is next, maintaining the new status quo for two terms in office. His "Modern Republicanism" brought prestige to the presidency. We'll see when I'll take up my next post.
Between 1893 and 1913, the school boards in the country's big cities were reduced in size and local control of immigrant neighborhood schools was replaced by citywide elected board members. The makeup of the school boards changed from local small businessmen and wage earners to big businessmen and other members of the elite class.
In 1917, the Smith Hughes Act passes, providing federal funding for vocational education. Big manufacturing corporations push this, because they want to remove job skill training from the apprenticeship programs of trade unions and bring it under their control.
By the 1930's, most rural counties had several one room school houses with one teacher who taught all grades, the eighth grade being the last formal schooling for most children. Eighth grade graduations were an event of considerable importance in an era when only a small fraction of graduates continued. Graduation exercises and related activities continued to be a centerpiece of town life even as times changed and most students went on to high school and beyond. It took 3 or 4 weeks for the results to be posted in the county newspaper. Here are some questions from a 1930's eighth grade final exam in Rush County, Kansas.
http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/BACKTOTHEPAST/2004-11/1101526996
WRITING 1. Give six rules to be observed at all times when writing.
2. Write two stanzas of some poem.
SPELLING 1. Use the following words and expressions in
sentences: some time, sometime, its, it's.
2. Syllabify and mark the accented syllables and the
vowels so as to show their sounds: majesty, whereby,
shamefully, angrily,dis-agreeable,unfinished,control,
develop,gasoline,oppose.
U.S. HISTORY
1. Answer the following questions in regard to the Articles of Confederation:a) From whom did the authority come to write them?
b) What state was the last to ratify the Articles?
When?
c) In what way were the Articles weak as a governing
instrument?
2. Beginning with the original territory as granted by
the Treaty of Paris,at the close of the Revolutionary
War, make an outline that shows all the territorial
acquisitions up to the present time. Give the time of
acquisition, the source from which the territory
came, and the cost, if purchased.
GRAMMAR 1. Diagram or analyze: As he approached the
village,he met a number of people, but none whom he
knew.
2. Name and define the eight parts of speech. Give an
example of each.
AGRICULTURE 1. Name the five worst weeds in your locality and give the best methods of eradicating them.
2. What are hotbeds? How are they constructed? Of what
value are they to the gardener?
KANSAS HISTORY 1. Name the state offices and officers.
2. Give events connected with the history of Kansas for these dates: 1804-1806, 1820, 1854, 1861.
CIVIL GOVERNMENT 1. Give the salary and qualifications of the president.
2. How are the expenses of our government met?
ARITHMETIC 1. How many cubic yards of earth are thrown out in digging a cellar 24 ft. by 15 ft. by 8 ft.?
2. Define: Commission, par value, discount, net
proceeds, interest, insurance, brokerage,
parallelogram, percent, convex surface.
Copyright 1997 The Washington Post Company
By 1932, most school districts were using the "intelligence testing" method to place students in different academic tracks.
Regarding Home Economics, this curriculum was taught in urban high schools, originally addressing the need to educate women of the common classes who were faced with providing a safe and healthy home under the great duress of inner city slums and rugged rural life. It was a huge success with independent state colleges investing in "outreach programs" including printed media, travelling exhibits in railroad cars and state and county fairs. These outreach programs soon shaped what was to become common knowledge; germ theory, proper personal sanitation and how to cook and sew. In New York State, this outreach program was called the Home Bureau and they distributed over 500,000 copies of the Home Bureau Creed. This statement of ideals was penned by Ruby Green Smith, home economics professor at Cornell University after having received her PhD from there in 1914, was beautifully illustrated and meant to hang as art and a promise to households across the country.
Home Bureau Creed
" To maintain the highest ideals of home life; to count children as the most important of crops; to so mother them that their bodies may be sound, their minds clear, their spirits happy, and their characters generous.
To place service above comfort, to let loyalty to high purpose silence discordant notes, to let neighborliness supplant hatrids, to be discouraged never, to lose self in generous enthusiasms, to extend to the less fortunate a helping hand, to believe one's community may become the best of communities, and to cooperate with others for the common ends of a more abundant home and community life.
This is the offer of the Home Bureau to the Homemaker of today."
In the classrooms of the state colleges Home Economics included; basic science, sewing, millinery, cooking, economics, fine arts, chemistry and bacteriology, nutrition, accounting, teaching, culture and early childhood development and were all addressed in fine detail. The outreach programs fulfilled the needs of common women but the colleges and universities educated with vocation in mind.
US views of the World
After WW1, women were now voting. The US, blaming President Wilson for breaking his promise to stay out of Europe's war, turned their back on him. He came up with the 14 points which later became the points which the League of Nations was based around, but the voting public had no trust in him. America became isolationist, not joining the League of Nations, nor ratify the Treaty of Versailles nor the International Court of Justice. Many citizens had immigrated to America wishing to cut ties with the old world and Americans didn't want any more soldiers to die in a foreign war nor take on what they soon realized to be massive financial costs. Tariffs were raised to protect American goods and that policy worked really well, creating the boom time of the 1920's. Fear was also dominate in our culture, fear that future immigrants would be willing to work for less money and take "real American's" jobs and there was a deep fear of new political ideas, especially communism. Laws were passed to reduce the immigration from poorer countries. A literacy test was required before entry into the US and only 3% of the existing number of Americans of any nationality would be allowed in. For instance, since there were a large number of Irish in the US and very few Chinese, more Irish were let in than Chinese. The plan was to keep out Africans, Asians and South Americans while continuing to allow English speaking, educated white Europeans. This isolationism actually damaged World Peace since the USA failed to join the League of Nations.
http://www.slideshare.net/guest0e466c/the-usa-after-ww1
Politics and the home front
By 1920, World War I was over. The wartime boom had collapsed. Diplomats and politicians were arguing over peace treaties and the question of America's entry into the League of Nations. Overseas there were wars and revolutions; at home there were strikes, riots and a growing fear of radicals and terrorists. Disillusionment was in the air.
The giants who had dominated the political scene for a generation were gone -- Theodore Roosevelt died in 1919 and Woodrow Wilson was a broken invalid living in seclusion. Even so, the presidential election of 1920 continued the debate between the nationalistic activism of Roosevelt's presidency and the global idealism of Wilson's administration.
On June 8, 1920, the Republicans nominated Warren G. Harding, an Ohio newspaper editor and United States Senator, to run for president with Calvin Coolidge, governor of Massachusetts, as his running mate. The Democrats nominated another newspaper editor from Ohio, Governor James M. Cox, as their presidential candidate, and thirty-seven-year-old Franklin Delano Roosevelt for vice president.
The presidential election of 1920 was the last election campaign made accessible to the public solely through the use of record albums. By election night -- November 2, 1920 -- the "election campaign by phonograph" was a thing of the past, superseded by the first commercial radio broadcast coverage of election returnshttp://memory.loc.gov/ammem/nfhtml/nfexpe.html
Before his nomination, Warren G. Harding declared, "America's present need is not heroics, but healing; not nostrums, but normalcy; not revolution, but restoration; not agitation, but adjustment; not surgery, but serenity; not the dramatic, but the dispassionate; not experiment, but equipoise; not submergence in internationality, but sustainment in triumphant nationality...."
A Democratic leader, William Gibbs McAdoo, called Harding's speeches "an army of pompous phrases moving across the landscape in search of an idea." Their very murkiness was effective, since Harding's pronouncements remained unclear on the League of Nations, in contrast to the impassioned crusade of the Democratic candidates, Governor James M. Cox of Ohio and Franklin D. Roosevelt. http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/presidents/warrenharding
Republican Harding inherited unemployment was at nearly 12% and the federal debt had exploded thanks to wartime expenditures. Republicans in Congress easily got the President's signature on their bills among them, they eliminated wartime controls on business, restored the high protective tariff, established a federal budget system and imposed tight limitations on immigration. The government and the Federal Reserve System (now known as "the Fed" which is the central banking system of the US, created in 1913 in response to a series of financial panics early in the 19-teens) addressed the depression by doing the opposite of what experts now recommend. The government did what a responsible household would do when faced with lean times, it slashed it's budget tremendously and the Fed hiked loan rates to record highs. Federal spending was slashed from $18.5 billion to $6.4 billion in in one year and over the next two years it was reduced to $3.3 billion. The Fed raised it's rate to a record high 7 %. What this did was encourage the less stable, less committed and smaller business to die off leaving the stronger business that could stand the test of lean times to survive. The downturn only lasted a few years and the result was a tremendous boom time. Apparently, the free market works providing new business are encouraged to start up once the economy improves. http://www.thefreemanonline.org/features/the-depression-youve-never-heard-of-1920-1921/ (this is an excellent website for an "outside the common knowledge" of finance publication called the Freeman.)
The behind the scenes of Harding's administration was extremely corrupt which worried him greatly and as he wrestled with the decision to reveal or not. His Secretary of Commerce, Herbert Hoover urged him to publish what he knew of the shady business going on in his administration but he feared the political repercussions and died of a heart attack in Aug of 1923 which left Calvin Coolidge as President.
During this government austerity, business and production methods allowed manufacturers to make large profits which they plowed back into new factories. Department store and service station chains used massive buying power and operating efficiency to keep prices low while increasing service and choice, helping wages go further. Chain discount grocery stores began to threaten local store owners not only with their purchasing power but they could offer extended credit. The unfortunate coincidence of a widespread drought in the mid-west made remarkably worse by 30 years of aggressive and unsound farming techniques fed the cities with people eager to work since city people benefited most from these advances. Now able to purchase the cars, fridges, washing machines, pianos, vacuum cleaners, furniture and radios which were formerly only available to the wealthy, households were filled with these products and between 75 and 90% of all purchases were with only a down payment. This was unprecedented in all of history, happened really quickly and was embraced by all.
British manufacturers soon followed this business plan. Even though Britain had been an industrialized nation for quite some time and there were numerous books written by credible doctors detailing the unhealthy lives of the employees at the hands of the business owners, the power and money in the hands of the owners allowed for much more to be printed that sang the praises of "good jobs". The 1920's in post war Europe was exceeding dismal. There was massive inflation that destroyed the wealth of the middle class and lead to the political and economic turmoil which fueled the next world war.
In the US, the number of millionaires shown in the Tax Reports of the Treasury Department increased dramatically.... in 1921 there were 21 individuals with an annual income of over one million dollars, 75 in 1924, 207 in 1926, nearly all of whom lived in apartments on Park Ave in New York City. Interesting to note, tax rates fell during these years but the portion of US tax revenue, collected from the wealthy (anyone making over $50,000) climbed from 44.2% in 1921 to 78.4% in 1928. Not only did the common folk splurge but these millionaires did too, filling these apartments with the antiques and paintings Europeans were desperate to sell. It was no coincidence that executive salaries ballooned to extravagant levels widening the gap between management and workers, business execs used their financial influence in the school systems and in politics to ensure their positions of power. Business ethics collapsed and corruption was wide spread. The pollution of all types from these manufacturing plants and mines had been going on for quite some time but attempts at governmental regulation was no match for the power and corruption of these industries. Thanks to Samuel Gompers, leader of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) who was impressed with the German Workers' Compensation Laws which instead of injured workers suing for damages in court and having to prove the employer negligent, compensated all injuries at a fixed rate which appealed to employers since it offered predictability in costs and reduced labor strife. But these covered on the job injuries so the populations living downstream and down wind were not covered and new illnesses were widespread. http://eh.net/encyclopedia/article/aldrich.safety.workplace.us
In 1927, US tariff laws coupled with our military might created trade wars with Canada and France and allowed the US to capitalize on Chinese imports, which were at the one billion dollar level and growing at about 30% per year with the oil and tobacco industries leading the way. The coal industry had free reign with the booming industrial demand. Using borrowed money, speculators pushed up the prices of houses, land and shares. The Share Market climbed to dizzy heights as shares could also be purchased with 10% down with the remainder of the price being financed by a loan from the share broker. This plan exacerbated the problem when the Share Market wavered and lead to the Share Market Crash of 1929. The prosperity vanished almost overnight and despite everything the various governments could do, the US and much of the world slipped into a harsh depression that lasted a decade. As my Grandmother used to say, the "great Depression" wasn't all that great.
Government Assistance
Herbert Hoover was President Wilson's head of the Food Administration during the First World War and was able to cut the consumption of food shipped overseas and avoid rationing at home, yet kept the Allied Forces fed. He was on the Supreme Economic Council and head of the American Relief Administration which organized shipments of food to the starving millions in war torn Europe and famine stricken Russia. "Twenty million people are starving." he said when his critics accused him of helping "Bolshevism". "Whatever their politics, they shall be fed." After capably serving as Secretary of Commerce under Presidents Harding and Coolidge during the boom times, he became the Republican Presidential nominee in 1928. "We in America today are nearer to the final triumph over poverty than ever before in the history of any land." His election seemed to ensure prosperity yet within months the share market crashed (now called the Stock Market) and the Nation was in deep depression.
After the crash, Hoover announced that while he would keep the Federal budget balanced, he would cut taxes and expand public works spending. The situation in Europe worsened our own crisis. He presented to Congress a program called the Reconstruction Finance Corporation to aid business, help farmers facing mortgage foreclosures, banking reform, a loan to states for feeding the unemployed, expansion of public works and drastic governmental streamlining. He also reiterated his view that while people must not suffer from cold and hunger, caring for them must be primarily a local voluntary responsibility. His opponents in Congress, who wanted to sabotage the program for their own political gain, unfairly painted him as callous and cruel. Hoover became the scapegoat for the Depression and was badly defeated in 1932. He persevered in the public eye during the 1930's and was a powerful critic of "the New Deal" warning against tendencies toward statism : Merriam Websters' definition of statism - concentration of economic controls and planning in the hands of a highly centralized government often extending to government ownership of industry.
America chose Democrat Franklin Delano Roosevelt, fifth cousin to Republican Teddy Roosevelt who was still greatly admired. When he took office there were 13 million (over 10%) unemployed and almost every bank was closed. In his first 100 days, he was able to get his program through Congress which did bring recovery to business and agriculture, relief to the unemployed and to those facing foreclosure, especially through the establishment of the Tennessee Valley Authority. Check out this website, to get the scoop on the TVA in their own words. http://www.tva.com/abouttva/history.htm Relief (for the unemployed), Recovery (of the economy) and Reform (of the financial system) was the "New Deal".
The New Deal produced a political realignment, making the Democratic Party the majority (as well as the party that held the White House for seven out of nine Presidential terms from 1933 to 1969), with its base in liberal ideas, the white South, traditional Democrats, big city machines, and the newly empowered labor unions and ethnic minorities. The Republicans were split, with conservatives opposing the entire New Deal as an enemy of business and growth, and liberals accepting some of it and promising to make it more efficient. The realignment crystallized into the New Deal Coalition that dominated most presidential elections into the 1960s, while the opposition Conservative Coalition largely controlled Congress from 1937 to 1963. By 1936 the term "liberal" typically was used for supporters of the New Deal, and "conservative" for its opponents. From 1934 to 1938, Roosevelt was assisted in his endeavours by a “pro-spender” majority in Congress.
Many historians distinguish a "First New Deal" (1933–34) and a "Second New Deal" (1935–38), with the second one more liberal and more controversial. It included a national work program, the Works Progress Administration (WPA), that made the federal government by far the largest single employer in the nation.[1] The "First New Deal" (1933–34) dealt with diverse groups, from banking and railroads to industry and farming, all of which demanded help for economic survival. The Federal Emergency Relief Administration, for instance, provided $500 million for relief operations by states and cities, while the short-lived CWA (Civil Works Administration) gave localities money to operate make-work projects in 1933-34.[2]
The "Second New Deal" in 1935–38 included the Wagner Act to promote labor unions, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) relief program which put unemployed to work on public projects including the construction of hundreds of school, bridges, roads etc, the Social Security Act, and new programs to aid tenant farmers and migrant workers. The final major items of New Deal legislation were the creation of the United States Housing Authority and Farm Security Administration, both in 1937, and the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, which set maximum hours and minimum wages for most categories of workers.[3]://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Deal He was making enemies with businessmen and bankers who were alarmed at the experimental nature of his policies and because he had taken the Nation's currency off the gold standard and was running up deficits.
By 1936, he was reelected by a top-heavy margin and feeling he had the populous behind him, sought legislation to enlarge the Supreme Court who had been invalidating key New Deal measures. He lost the Supreme Court battle but inspired a revolution in constitutional law. There after, the Government could legally regulate the economy. He also kept his eye on international affairs, China and Japan were warring and Europe was becoming increasingly unstable. He pledged the United States to the "good neighbor" policy which changed the Monroe Doctrine from a manifesto into agreements with various US friendly countries for mutual action against aggressors. He much preferred to remain neutral but at the same time he was committed to strengthening allies under threat of attack.
Roosevelt and several Presidents before him often used the National Guard to quell strikes and the violence usually resulted in deaths to the strikers. Many mill and industry owners had their own guards that used physical violence with impunity during this time to intimidate the workers. The US government was still very much pro business inspite of the regulations passed. By 1937, there was an economic downturn. A bitter split erupted between the AFL and the CIO labor unions, add to that controversy over Roosevelt's attempts at adding seats to the Supreme Court and the splitting up of Democrats into a conservative wing made up of Southern states and the more liberal New Deal supporters, which led to a major Republican gains in the Congress in 1938. Conservative Republicans and Democrats in Congress joined to create a Conservative Coalition and by 1942-43 they shut down relief programs and blocked major liberal proposals.
Roosevelt, by that time Japan had bombed Pearl Harbor and FDR had turned his focus to the war effort and here we go again. All resources of farm and manufacturing was dedicated to the war effort. He died suddenly before the war was over. His Democratic Vice President Harry Truman received no briefing on the machinations of the US war effort and suddenly he was faced with the most crucial decisions in history. He sent an urgent plea to the Japanese to surrender and they refused so he ordered atomic bombs to be dropped on their biggest war machine industries in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. They surrendered quickly. The Korean War followed over problems with the way the peninsula of Korea was divided between the victorious Allied forces and the Japanese Empire who had ruled Korea from 1910. The Soviet military force occupied the North half and the US occupied the Southern half. The north became communist and the south capitalist and warfare continued here until 1953 when the Korean Armistice Agreement was signed which in effect was an agreement to stop hostilities, but peace was never reached just a cease of hostilities. Russia and the US remain bitter enemies for decades after.
The charter of the United Nations was signed in June of 1945 in the hopes of preserving the peace so dearly paid for. Thus far, he had followed his predecessor's policies but post WWII he began hi own agenda, expanding Social Security, pushed for a full-employment rate with a permanent Fair Employment Practices Act and began public housing and slum clearance taking this edge out of big business' hands.
Education and Common Knowledge post WWII
The GI Bill was one of FDR's last acts as President and forever dismissed the idea that college was only for the elite. Nearly 8 million WII vets took advantage of the bill during the 7 years it was offered. The college population doubled. The law provided the same opportunity to every veteran so racial and financial barriers were broken. This provided a productive pool of highly-educated employees at a time when American businesses were willing to pay handsomely for engineering and management skills. Cheap oil from domestic wells helped keep the engines of industry running. Advances in science and technology explored during wartime fed this trend and was assisted by the fact that there was virtually no international competition since most of the civilized world had the living sh*t bombed out of them.
On Jan 1st, 1946, the first of 78 million baby boomers was born, mostly of these newly educated vets which resulted in unprecedented school population growth and massive social change. Also in 1946, the US District Court in Los Angeles rules that educating children of Mexican descent is separate facilities is unconstitutional, thus prohibiting segregation in California schools which set a precedent for Brown vs the Board of Education of Topeka in 1954. Educators were coming up with new and better methods of teaching children. The old teaching methods based on fear, physical punishment and intimidation was giving way to a slightly more nurturing style of teaching with positive stimulus used as well as negative. Parents were expected to have their child ready to learn by the time they were old enough to attend school and children were expected to get the most our of their education as possible.
The post-World War II era was a time of great economic prosperity for the United States. However, critics of this period have pointed out a widespread, stultifying conformity that permeated many realms of society. Pockets of rebellion and alternative lifestyle existed, but they were largely under the surface and ignored by mainstream America.
Conformity, according to marketing scholars Max Sutherland and Alice K. Sylvester, is the need to avoid standing out from the crowd. (Sutherland and Sylvester, 68) Its manifestations in 1940s and 1950s culture included long rows of new, identical suburban houses; widely accepted standards of dress for men, women and children; the acceptance of a largely uniform set of home appliances and equipment; little social tumult, particularly on large-scale levels. The widespread acceptance of what would now seem to be controversial government activities like the Korean War, the denouncement and "rooting out" of Communism and the establishment of an atomic weapons program were embraced as the American way.
A number of factors might help explain postwar conformity. First, the residual sense of national unity from World War II and the growing threat represented by the U.S.S.R. helped ease political distinctions and contributed to a sense of togetherness--at least among those who denounced and shunned "reds" and "pinkos." Secondly, the increased adaptation of mass production techniques led, quite naturally, to the mass consumption of these goods. As Hazel G. Warlaumont wrote in her Advertising in the 60s: Turncoats, Traditionalists and Waste Makers in America's Turbulent Decade, "Maintaining middle-class conformity and family life as utopia was essential for selling the stockpile of consumer goods and services to the masses." (Warlaumont, 125) Thirdly, the arrival of television in nearly all American homes helped to perpetuate an idealized conception of the family, as seen in situation comedies likeFather Knows Best, Leave it to Beaver and The Donna Reed Show. Fourthly, as noted in Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique, marketers became much more savvy about manipulating consumers, particularly females who were mostly confined to the home by culture and by discrimination. Fifthly, racial and economic segregation prevented a wide range of diverse perspectives from reaching the public eye, contributing to the era's sense of "sameness." .
http://www.duke.edu/~ajc6/7up/Conformity.htm
The explosion of revealing printed material of the early industrial revolution in the Progressive Era did not happen in this era of growth and the general public embraced a comfortable routine fueled by the knowledge that US might had made the world right. Common knowledge was in the hands of manufacturers and their advertisers, thanks in large part to TV. The outreach programs of the land grant colleges was no longer a priority, and education became a vocational necessity focused on working outside the home rather than a tool to encourage people improve themselves with life skills. These outreach programs did a great job at creating the common knowledge for those who ran the household in the first decades of the 1900's, teaching thrift, self sufficiency, independent study, problem solving and the practical knowledge of maintaining a home and caring for a family. Leisure time was spent with music and crafts to augment the home. The new common knowledge was conformity, having the homemaker's autonomy replaced by the rise of consumerism.
The Rise of Consumerism
One of the factors that fueled the prosperity of the Fifties was the increase in consumer spending. Americans enjoyed a standard of living that was inconceivable to the rest of the world. For example, Vice President Nixon told Nikita Khrushchev in the mid-1950s that there were 60 million cars in the United States, but the Soviet leader simply refused to believe him. When Khrushchev came to visit America, Eisenhower arranged for him to fly in a helicopter over busy roads and parking lots to witness the remarkable signs of abundance for himself.
The time was ripe for Americans to change their spending patterns. The adults of the Fifties had grown up in conditions of economic deprivation, first due to the general poverty of the Great Depression and then due to the rationing of consumer goods World War II. During the Thirties, with unemployment sky-high and the economy in shambles, most people could simply not afford much beyond the basics. During the war, much of the nation's productive capacity shifted to armaments. Everything from sugar to gasoline to tires to nylon stockings were rationed. When consumer goods became available again, people wanted to spend. By the 1950s, though they made up just 6% of the world's population, Americans consumed a third of all the world's goods and services.
The difference between a production society, which focused on meeting basic needs, and a consumption society, which emphasized customers' wants, was like the difference between a 1908 Ford Model T and a 1959 Ford Galaxie. The Model T, available only in black, was a utilitarian piece of machinery intended for basic transportation. The Galaxie, decked out in shiny chrome, was a way to show off and to enjoy a sense of luxury, not just to move from place to place. Within a year or two, it would be obsolete as fashion changed. Blessed with abundant resources, America could afford to turn part of its productive capacity to creating glitz and fashionable waste. An older generation was careful to save and reuse; Americans in the Fifties began to use and throw away. They became "consumers."
Consumerism was driven by advertising. Spending on product promotion boomed, from $6 billion annually in 1950 to more than $13 billion by 1963. "The reason we have such a high standard of living," Robert Sarnoff, president of the National Broadcasting Company, said in 1956, "is because advertising has created an American frame of mind that makes people want more things, better things, and newer things."29
There's no question that advertising drove the purchase of new products, which in turn kept the nation's economic wheels turning. And, as Sarnoff pointed out, Americans did achieve a high standard of living. But some critics questioned whether a reliance on consumers to drive a huge portion of the economy was wise in the long term. Half a century later, our current economic crisis, fueled in part by a collapse of consumer spending, has raised the question again.http://www.shmoop.com/1950s/economy.html
The take-away here is The time was ripe for Americans to change their spending patterns. The adults of the Fifties had grown up in conditions of economic deprivation, first due to the general poverty of the Great Depression and then due to the rationing of consumer goods World War II. During the Thirties, with unemployment sky-high and the economy in shambles, most people could simply not afford much beyond the basics. During the war, much of the nation's productive capacity shifted to armaments. Everything from sugar to gasoline to tires to nylon stockings were rationed. When consumer goods became available again, people wanted to spend. By the 1950s, though they made up just 6% of the world's population, Americans consumed a third of all the world's goods and services.
The difference between a production society, which focused on meeting basic needs, and a consumption society, which emphasized customers' wants, was like the difference between a 1908 Ford Model T and a 1959 Ford Galaxie. The Model T, available only in black, was a utilitarian piece of machinery intended for basic transportation. The Galaxie, decked out in shiny chrome, was a way to show off and to enjoy a sense of luxury, not just to move from place to place. Within a year or two, it would be obsolete as fashion changed. Blessed with abundant resources, America could afford to turn part of its productive capacity to creating glitz and fashionable waste. An older generation was careful to save and reuse; Americans in the Fifties began to use and throw away. They became "consumers."
Consumerism was driven by advertising. Spending on product promotion boomed, from $6 billion annually in 1950 to more than $13 billion by 1963. "The reason we have such a high standard of living," Robert Sarnoff, president of the National Broadcasting Company, said in 1956, "is because advertising has created an American frame of mind that makes people want more things, better things, and newer things."29
There's no question that advertising drove the purchase of new products, which in turn kept the nation's economic wheels turning. And, as Sarnoff pointed out, Americans did achieve a high standard of living. But some critics questioned whether a reliance on consumers to drive a huge portion of the economy was wise in the long term. Half a century later, our current economic crisis, fueled in part by a collapse of consumer spending, has raised the question again.http://www.shmoop.com/1950s/economy.html
1 Warfare is extremely disruptive to a society even if it is not being bombed. Everything pours into the war effort.
2 Corruption is to be expected where high finance is concerned, whether it be in business, politics or banking and each of these forces manipulates the others. 3 Education best serves the public when it is addressed to the public on the local level as in the outreach programs. Formal vocational schooling can be very narrow in scope.
4 Do not underestimate the ability of advertisers to psychologically manipulate.
These new parents were brought up by those who valued thrift and individuality just one generation prior. This has great bearing on the point of all this history. The waves of political, educational and societal change don't take place out there in the big world. It takes place in our homes. It shapes who we are. I like being able to determine my own way of being, I like being educated without an agenda so that I can make decisions for myself. These outside forces of government, education and business can either feed or starve our individualism and it concerns me how much power over our individual lives these outside forces have. That is "house keeping", keeping our home culture under our own power.
So much for the first half of the 20th century. The Eisenhower administration is next, maintaining the new status quo for two terms in office. His "Modern Republicanism" brought prestige to the presidency. We'll see when I'll take up my next post.
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