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Eisenhower and the Consumer Culture · Saberian History Lectures

0:00
So, as we examine the 1950s and the Eisenhower
0:03
administration in particular, I begin our conversation
0:08
with three probing questions. The first question
0:13
is, what were the major policies of the New Deal?
0:17
Now that may seem very strange because when is
0:19
the New Deal? 19 what? 30s and into 1932 to 1941.
0:30
The question about the New Deal is pertinent
0:33
when you look at Eisenhower's legislative agenda,
0:37
and it's not terribly obvious. The second question
0:41
that I want you to consider is, a lot of people
0:45
think that Eisenhower, because he's a Republican,
0:48
is conservative, but in many ways, if you look
0:50
at the legislative feats and the economic unfolding
0:52
during the Eisenhower administration, we can
0:55
almost look at it as... Can we look at Eisenhower
0:59
as a progressive president? And in many ways
1:03
a continuation of the New Deal. Even though the
1:07
party labels may have changed, in many ways you
1:11
still have a continuation towards a more centralized
1:13
government under Eisenhower than you had previously
1:18
before FDR. And the final question is, what contributed
1:21
to the post -war prosperity? So we're going to
1:23
look at... Eisenhower's Philosophy and Priorities.
1:26
We're going to look at the post -war prosperity,
1:28
and then we're going to get into the criticisms
1:29
of the post -war prosperity more on Friday. So,
1:33
let's think about this for a moment. What are
1:40
the core policies of the New Deal? I know this
1:43
requires us to go back to the 1930s. So, New
1:47
Deal starts with the election of FDR back in
1:49
1932. Name one major policy from the New Deal.
1:56
Some of you still have to deal with it every
1:59
time you pick up a paycheck. What do you got?
2:02
Social security. Every time you get paid, you
2:05
look at your check, and there is money that goes
2:08
into social security. Okay? Now, Marty, are you
2:14
presently employed in a wage job, or you have
2:18
previously been employed in a wage job? No? Neither?
2:22
Marty never got a job. Okay. Who here has worked
2:26
a wage job? Okay. Zach, where'd you work? Okay,
2:33
Subway, Schlitterbahn, IHOP, okay. Now, Schlitterbahn
2:42
is categorized as seasonal work. I know it has
2:46
different labor standards because it's seasonal
2:48
employ. Because I don't know, they don't pay
2:51
you all overtime, do they? Do. Oh, they do. Okay,
2:55
so that was new. I heard they used to not. I
2:57
mean, my brother -in -law used to work there
2:58
back when he was a kid, but anyway. So you have
3:01
Social Security. You have, and we can call these
3:04
labor laws. Within the labor laws, you have the
3:11
40 -hour work week and minimum wage. Do we still
3:24
have Social Security today? Do we still have
3:26
a 40 -hour work week? Do we have minimum wage?
3:29
Has it gone up since 10 cents an hour? Has it
3:32
gone up since 1995? No. $7 .25 an hour it was
3:39
when I was your age. It has not gone up since.
3:43
Now, very few of you are actually paid minimum
3:46
wage, but you get the idea. Another one, and
3:51
again, this doesn't really come to our minds
3:53
right readily, except for our friends in ag.
3:55
Did the government of the United States, under
3:58
FDR, begin to involve itself in the practice
4:02
of agriculture in the United States? Yes, they
4:06
did. It was the Agricultural Adjustment Act.
4:09
By the way, does the United States still pay
4:12
farmers not to farm? Yes, not as much. subsidy
4:20
program has been curtailed. That didn't happen
4:23
until the 80s. Or really the 90s is when they
4:27
cut back on the farm bill. Okay, so you've got
4:30
agricultural adjustment, you've got labor laws,
4:32
you've got social security. These are major planks
4:35
of the New Deal. The other thing that you have
4:39
is what we would call pro -union legislation.
4:43
In other words, that industries under FDR had
4:47
to allow for unions to organize and to bargain
4:50
collectively. Now we get to the politics of it.
5:00
Okay. 1928, 1932, 1936, 19... 1940, 1944, 1948,
5:22
and 1952. I know this requires going back in
5:28
the timeline, but the timeline is important.
5:31
In 1928, who was elected President of the United
5:38
States? Hoover. Hoover was what party? I need
5:46
to move this over, don't I? Yeah, I do. Alright,
5:48
let me rewrite that, but here we go. So, 1928,
5:51
you have Hoover. What party is Hoover? Hoover
5:53
is a Republican. So that's 1928. Hoover has to
5:57
work with a Congress that is also Republican.
6:01
So, in this sort of table over here on the left,
6:04
I'm going to have the President and his party,
6:06
and on the right, I'm going to have Congress
6:08
and their party. So in 1928, you have a Republican
6:13
Congress, you have a Republican President. Hoover,
6:19
while himself a progressive who idealized Woodrow
6:22
Wilson, the Republican Congress was for the most
6:25
part part of the business, libertarian, agricultural
6:29
wing of the Republican Party. And again, when
6:32
we look at traditional party alignments, industrialists
6:35
and capitalists in the North tend to vote Republican,
6:37
libertarians and farmers out in the West tend
6:40
to vote Republican. 1929, stock market crashes.
6:45
Election of 1930, the Congress goes Democrat
6:48
in 1930. 1932, gets elected president. Who got
6:56
Franklin Delano Roosevelt? FDR. What party is
7:00
FDR? He's a Democrat. So when I look at the policies
7:04
of FDR, agricultural adjustment was... as its
7:10
very purpose to move dispossessed farmers from
7:13
the Republican Party to the Democratic Party
7:15
by virtue of the subsidies which was thought
7:19
to improve their condition. Also part of FDR's
7:24
coalition is Southern Conservatives and Union
7:28
Labor. So the Union Labor aspect of the New Deal
7:32
was to continue the support of union labor in
7:38
the Democratic coalition. Now, 1936, who gets
7:43
elected president? FDR, again. Second term. Democrats
7:51
are still in power in Congress in 1936. Next
7:55
up, 1940. FDR runs for an unprecedented third
7:59
term. What's interesting about when FDR runs
8:05
for his unprecedented third term, it costs him
8:08
some elements of the Democratic Party. There
8:11
are some conservative elements of the Democratic
8:14
Party who thought that the New Deal was getting
8:16
too close to socialism. You have Al Smith who
8:20
says openly, you have this president taking the
8:24
party which was the party of Jackson and Jefferson
8:27
to the party of Marx and Lenin. That will later
8:31
be quoted by Reagan in the 60s and again in the
8:33
80s. But the Democrats maintain their majority
8:39
in the House and the Senate, but they lose seats.
8:44
1944, who gets elected president? FDR. Congress
8:50
stays Democratic, but their... Margin, again,
8:58
is fraying. You get closer to party parity in
9:01
1944. You have the court packing scheme that
9:05
failed back in 1936. You have Lend -Lease. You
9:10
have some misgivings about the war, but you have
9:12
people supporting the president. 1945, FDR dies.
9:16
Who becomes president by succession? Truman.
9:20
Truman was FDR's vice president in 1944. So Truman,
9:24
the Democrat, is president by succession. 1948,
9:31
Truman is elected president in his own right.
9:39
Sorry? You didn't put an apostrophe by the fourth
9:42
E? Not an apostrophe, a parenthesis, but thank
9:46
you. Yes. Democrats still in power. 1950, the
9:52
Democrat majority, the one -party Democratic
9:55
state begins to decay. Actually, I'm sorry, 1948,
9:59
Truman wins re -election, but the Republicans
10:02
take the House. What do you now have? Divided
10:09
government. Oh my God, a government that was
10:11
divided into three parts as a divided government.
10:14
I couldn't imagine. Now, here's the thing. You've
10:19
got Congress, which now has some key Republican
10:22
features. Now, the other thing you have going
10:25
on, 1948 to 1952, you have a number of affronts
10:31
to the Truman administration. You have Republicans
10:36
take over Congress, which some of the Republicans
10:41
and some of the conservative Democrats... peel
10:44
back some of the pro -union legislation. You
10:47
have Truman's Fair Deal rejected when they vote
10:50
against him on creating a national health care
10:52
system. And then you have Congress begins to
10:58
investigate the administration for communist
11:02
infiltration. What spurs the communist witch
11:08
hunt? You have the United States losing China
11:12
to the communists. You have a stalemate war in
11:16
Korea, who some of the people had advocated the
11:20
escalation of the war in Korea after the Chinese
11:23
had entered. Among these was Douglas MacArthur,
11:26
but also key figures in Congress wanted to use
11:29
the utmost exertion of power, especially from
11:32
the period of 19, especially when the U .S. was
11:35
seen to have had nuclear supremacy. So, first
11:41
you have the idea that the Truman administration
11:42
was soft on communism, and then you have the
11:46
idea that the Truman administration had been
11:47
infiltrated by communists with McCarthy and the
11:51
House Un -American Activities Committee holding
11:53
hearings in prime time television looking for
11:57
communists, and the question was being asked
11:59
by the congressman to the person on the stand,
12:01
are you now or have you ever been a member of
12:04
the communist party? Under oath. And here's the
12:09
awkwardness. If I look at the New Deal, the government
12:16
pays you a retirement check. The government tells
12:20
you what to grow and pays you not to grow. The
12:23
government tells you you have to work with the
12:24
unions. The government tells you what to pay
12:26
a man and whether to hire a man. To the land
12:31
of the free and the home of the brave, what does
12:32
that smell and taste like? Socialism. And so,
12:36
in actuality, part of FDR's New Deal coalition
12:39
includes socialists. And so, of course, when
12:43
they start looking for socialists and communists,
12:45
guess what? They find some. Now, some of the
12:51
charges were trumped up, but some of those people
12:53
that they put in the stocks, that they put on
12:57
the blacklist, were legitimate and unrepentant
13:01
members of the Socialist Party. But, if you're
13:06
a person on the fence, you're a farmer for the
13:09
Midwest, and you start seeing communists getting
13:14
flushed out on national TV by the Congress, you're
13:17
thinking, you know, we've given the Democrats
13:20
a pretty good run. 1932 to 1948. 16 years of
13:29
one -party rule. It might be time for a change.
13:33
Now the Republicans put forward on their first
13:35
ballot of the Republican National Convention
13:37
a national hero. Dwight David Eisenhower. The
13:46
commanding general of the Normandy invasion.
13:49
The commanding general of the Allies in Europe.
13:56
Star power. No? We haven't elected celebrity
14:01
presidents lately? No? You haven't noticed. Echo
14:06
of history, yes. Now, I know it was funny. One
14:12
of my colleagues actually thought it was ridiculous
14:14
that I should compare our sitting president to
14:18
General Eisenhower, but both did have star power,
14:21
except the star power of... Mr. Trump is not
14:23
the same stars. These are not the general stars,
14:26
but it's the Hollywood stars. But, you know,
14:28
star power has its virtue. It at least gets your
14:31
name recognition. But anyway. So, time for a
14:34
change. That was the Republican motto. They put
14:36
forward Dwight David Eisenhower. And to sort
14:38
of beef up his anti -communist and conservative
14:43
credentials, Eisenhower chooses as his running
14:46
mate the star of the House Un -American Activities
14:48
Committee, Richard Milhouse Nixon. Eisenhower
14:52
wins in a landslide. If you look at that map,
14:55
that is fairly one -sided. You're talking 33
14:58
million votes to Adlai Stevenson's 27 million.
15:02
Look at the only places that Adlai Stevenson
15:05
carries in the Electoral College. What does he
15:07
carry? The American South. The South was going
15:12
to vote Democrat. The South votes solidly Democrat
15:14
until 1968. And then kind of continues to lean
15:19
Democrat until... 1992, Bill Clinton was the
15:23
first Democratic president to win the White House
15:26
without carrying Texas. But anyway. Texas has
15:32
gone from being a one -party Democratic state
15:34
to being a one -party Republican state. Now you
15:36
could be Jesus Christ, but if you ran as a Democrat,
15:38
you would lose the governorship. That being said,
15:41
you could be Beelzebul, and actually if you run
15:44
as a Republican, you'll probably win. You only
15:46
have to win the primary. That being said, that
15:48
might be an interesting idea. Change your name
15:50
to Beelzebul and run for the governorship of
15:53
a one -party state. That might be fun, yes? Beelzebul
15:56
for governor! No. Alright. Alright, so that happened.
16:01
But here's the thing. So, 1952. And I'm going
16:09
to leave the tables up here and I'm just going
16:11
to erase the rest of this bit. 1952, you have
16:14
a Republican Congress and you have a Republican
16:20
president under Eisenhower. If you're the Republican
16:29
Congress, You don't think that some of those
16:33
Republicans went to Congress with the stated
16:35
objective of repealing the New Deal? Repealing
16:42
the machinations of the government, the meddling
16:44
and the interventions that the industrialists,
16:47
the capitalists and the libertarians wanted to
16:50
be free of? Huh. Trying to repeal some massive
16:58
government intervention once you have all the
17:02
major players on your party. The problem is,
17:06
in American politics, it's a lot easier to win
17:11
when you're the opposition than it is to win
17:14
when you're the majority. Why? Not just that.
17:21
There's something far more exquisitely simple
17:24
about this. If you're the minority party, do
17:27
you have any pretense that you actually have
17:29
to govern? You just have to stop the majority
17:33
party from doing anything. And the way the rules
17:37
of our legislative bodies are written, stopping
17:40
up the works is remarkably simple. In the Senate,
17:45
you can filibuster. In Congress, there are a
17:48
thousand ways for a bill to die. However, In
17:54
American politics, it's a lot easier to lose
17:59
for winning. Because when you're the party in
18:03
power, what are you expected to do? You're expected
18:06
to get things done. And what do you have to do
18:09
to get things done? You have to have an overwhelming
18:12
consensus. You have to get all of the members
18:16
of your party to vote your way to undo very popular
18:20
legislation. Or even very unpopular legislation.
18:23
Oh my God. Not getting all your pieces together
18:26
to undo a piece of legislation. Too soon? But
18:33
anyway. So Eisenhower had no interest in undoing
18:39
the New Deal. Because... Did labor laws help
18:45
keep people prosperous? Did agricultural adjustment
18:49
seem to work? And in 1952, was Social Security
18:54
going bankrupt? In 1952, what was retirement
19:00
age? Same as it is now, 65. What was life expectancy?
19:08
50s. 55, maybe 60, but you're still retirement
19:13
age where people are actually collecting benefits
19:15
is well past life expectancy. Social security
19:21
works if most of the people who would collect
19:24
benefits are already dead. One of the other aspects
19:28
of the New Deal that I didn't really touch up
19:29
on, but FDR pushed, but actually in a way Eisenhower
19:33
pushed in new directions, was public works. Public
19:42
works. What was public works? The CCC, the Tennessee
19:49
Valley Authority, the building of dams, the electrification
19:51
of rural areas. The next frontier of public works.
19:55
Now you can look at the Federal Highway Act both
19:58
as a public work and as a military, as a defense
20:05
spending. So this is... You can look at this
20:07
as a public work, and you can look at it as defense
20:10
spending. If I look at it as a public work, building
20:20
the... Now, this National Highway Act, the Federal
20:25
Aid Highway Act of 1956, creates the interstate
20:29
highway system. Now, as part of the interstate
20:34
highway system, you do have a large number of
20:37
people being put to work building the highway.
20:39
Yes? But that wasn't the only reason behind the
20:42
highway system. One of the things that most of
20:48
you don't appreciate, and we will get to this
20:50
when we get to the 70s as well, is that the interstate
20:53
highway system and the internet were both originally
20:57
designed for military applications. I will say
21:01
that again. The interstate highway system and
21:04
the internet were both designed for military
21:06
applications. What military application do you
21:10
use an interstate highway for? To move manpower
21:16
and materiel from one end of this country to
21:18
another. Why would you want to be able to move
21:21
manpower and materiel from one end of this country
21:24
to another in 1952? What was the scare? The red
21:29
scare. the idea that the Communists would attack
21:32
the United States. And where could Russia attack
21:36
the United States? Does Russia have a Navy? Does
21:39
Russia have a Pacific Fleet? Does Russia have
21:43
a Baltic and a Black Sea and a Mediterranean
21:47
Fleet? Yes. So you have two large oceans and
21:51
the idea that the Soviets might attack either
21:53
the Atlantic or the Pacific had occurred to the
21:56
United States. Now where do you suppose General
21:58
Eisenhower had the idea that you could move troops
22:01
from your eastern front to your western front
22:02
with relative ease and relative speed? Germany.
22:06
Germany. Had they done it before? Often and well.
22:11
So you have the military concept of the interior
22:14
line. Now here's the other part. How did the
22:23
Germans transport manpower and material for most
22:27
of their history? By rail. The government controlled
22:30
the rail lines. So I'm going to put that aside,
22:35
not rail. Now, in the time of Hitler, they did
22:38
build the Autobahn. And so in many ways you have
22:41
the American interstate highway system was originally
22:44
inspired by the Autobahn. which was originally
22:47
designed for the efficient transport of manpower
22:49
and materiel. Now it's a really fun drive in
22:51
Germany. It also has commercial applications.
22:54
Now, the other aspect about it is, why did the
22:58
United States embrace highways and automobiles
23:02
instead of trains? I say this as many American
23:05
leftists would love to put us back onto trains,
23:07
but if you think about it, America made a very
23:09
deliberate choice to stick with the automobile.
23:12
What's the virtue of roads versus railroads?
23:17
Freedom of movement. Especially, think about
23:22
this, you're Dwight David Eisenhower, you're
23:23
running a campaign in Europe where, what happened
23:25
to most of the rail lines in Europe? Damaged
23:29
or destroyed. What do you need to do to screw
23:32
up a railroad? You can bomb it with an aircraft
23:34
or you can bomb it with an agent as sabotage.
23:39
So if you have the United States being attacked
23:42
by the Russians, do you want to be gummed up
23:44
by communist infiltration tying up the railroads?
23:48
No! If somebody bombs a road, can't you drive
23:52
around the crater? Okay, now if they take out
23:57
the upper deck in Austin or San Antonio, okay,
24:00
that's a little bit more of a mess. We'll get
24:01
how cities perverted the interstate highway system
24:03
later. But at its original phase, Prior to the
24:08
interstate highway system, if you wanted to go
24:10
from San Antonio to Dallas, you wouldn't take
24:12
the highway, you'd take a train. Now, a couple
24:16
of things. The two major highways that made San
24:19
Antonio, I -35 and I -10. Now, you all live near
24:24
281. Have any of you all been on I -35? When
24:28
you keep going north, I -35 is really nice. If
24:31
you keep going north on 281 towards Blanco, it's
24:33
kind of... Rinky -dink. You ever notice that?
24:36
You notice how the interstate highway systems
24:38
are nicer? Yes, it's because the U .S. designed
24:40
it to move tank columns. Kind of helps. Also,
24:47
kind of a side note, and I don't know if you
24:49
all knew this, did you notice that the odd -numbered
24:52
highways go north and south and the even -numbered
24:55
highways go east and west? Now you know. The
24:59
other thing you might have noticed, 1604 is a
25:03
loop. It's not. It's a separate numbering system.
25:07
It's still east and west. You take 1604 east,
25:12
you take 1604 west. Whereas in Austin, there's
25:16
a loop 1, which actually isn't a loop. You go
25:18
on that north -south. The other thing that's
25:21
kind of interesting, you ever notice the exit
25:22
markers on the highway? Those are mile markers.
25:26
And so if you ever have to calculate the distance
25:28
or if you have to tell someone where you are,
25:30
you tell them between what two exit numbers or
25:32
between what two mile markers. Now, what has
25:34
been the side effect both of the interstate highway
25:37
system and of the internet, something that was
25:39
originally designed for military applications,
25:41
has found the greatest use as what? What do you
25:45
find on the highway now? Commerce. You go up
25:53
and down I -35, that thing is littered with restaurants,
25:56
gas stations, malls, you name it. Commerce springs
25:59
from the highway, yes? And so it originally had
26:03
military applications. It has found commercial
26:06
applications, both due to commercial traffic,
26:10
commuter traffic, and the various ancillary industries
26:14
that have propped up on the side of the highway.
26:18
How many loud mouth advertisers say, take that
26:21
short drive down I -35, exit 301, you know what
26:23
I'm saying? And you just, hey, there are plenty
26:26
of people who make a fair enough living with
26:29
those jobs. But yes, how many people work, live,
26:34
most of your parents spend most of their lives
26:36
on the highway? If I actually calculated how
26:40
much the average American spends of their working
26:43
life on the highway, it would probably be at
26:46
least, out of a 40 -year work life, oh, at least
26:51
six years. But anyway. Okay. Which, I kind of
26:59
want to do this as an aside. So, if we look at
27:02
the preservation of the New Deal, if we look
27:04
at the National Highway Act, we have... really
27:08
this idea of Eisenhower as a progressive president,
27:10
there's one aspect where he maintains what I
27:13
would call conservative orthodoxy. What is the
27:17
one aspect of conservative orthodoxy that Republicans
27:22
try to pride themselves on? To cut what? And
27:28
spending. Actually, under Eisenhower, the tax
27:32
rates remained high. It was to cut spending.
27:35
So you have What did he cut spending on? Well,
27:39
you add spending cuts to the federal workforce
27:41
and to the military. You add defense cuts under
27:53
the former general. Now, part of that was demobilization
27:57
after the Second World War, but do you want to
27:59
necessarily demobilize your forces when you have
28:03
a conflict in Korea that's winding down and the
28:06
potentiality for armed conflict or Soviet invasion.
28:11
But how can you cut spending without compromising
28:15
combat efficiency? Say it again? You change what
28:21
you spend your money on. So in World War II,
28:24
you have... At the end of World War II, you have
28:30
large units moving from active duty to reserve
28:33
duty. If they're on reserve duty, by the way,
28:35
do you have to pay them as much? Do you have
28:39
to see to their subsistence when they're not
28:41
in active service? No. So you're not spending
28:44
as much on training, you're not spending as much
28:46
on feeding, you're not spending as much on clothing,
28:48
and you're not paying them as much if they're
28:49
on reserve. The other thing you have is an overall
28:52
reduction of the peacetime army. Now, how do
28:55
you increase combat effectiveness with fewer
28:58
soldiers? Oh, you're still thinking in conventional
29:05
terms. Nukes. Nuclear weapons which can kill
29:14
more people for less money. A brigade or a squadron
29:19
of nuclear -equipped aircraft. You can kill a
29:23
lot more people with nuclear -equipped aircraft
29:25
than you can with a combat brigade. And once
29:31
the bomb is made... You don't have to feed the
29:33
bomb. You don't have to clothe the bomb. You
29:36
don't have to pay the bomb. You don't have to
29:38
train the bomb. Nuclear weapons are a really
29:42
efficient way of cutting your defense budget
29:44
and giving the Soviet Union something to be afraid
29:48
of. So you have a transition from troops to nukes.
29:54
That was deliberate. Now, So you have, in the
30:07
1950s, the United States expanding its nuclear
30:09
arsenal and improving the nuclear arsenal. Also,
30:13
something I wanted to correct from the other
30:14
day, I did misspell Megadeth. There is an A in
30:18
Megadeth, the word meaning to kill by the millions.
30:20
There is no A in Megadeth, the band that rocked
30:24
the 80s and the 90s. So, if I see Megadeth on
30:28
your test, it is Megadeth, one word. Not Mega,
30:32
D -E -T -H, like... Like the rock band. Although
30:37
that actually came up on a UIL spelling test
30:39
one time. Alright, getting back to it. Yeah.
30:42
Yeah, one kid actually spelled Megadeth like
30:44
the band. And I was like, it is a word. It just
30:47
doesn't fit the definition. Anyway. I know. Alright.
30:53
So, McDonald's. Something that cropped out of
30:56
the highway. McDonald's actually began in California.
31:01
It actually started as car hop service, not as
31:05
drive -thru. Right, now here's my question for
31:09
you. Do they still let y 'all do roller skates
31:13
or no? It's so scary. I know what happens if
31:19
you fall. There's a step. It means like step
31:21
down. But you still do a fast on them. So they
31:24
didn't, like, slope it? No, they didn't. All
31:28
right. Right. No, what you do is, instead of
31:34
having a curb, you have, like, a slope all the
31:36
way around. No, no, you still have the bumps
31:40
so they don't drive onto the patio, but for you.
31:43
Anyway. Now, by the way... Drive -thru as a technology
31:48
will come to fast food a little bit later. What
31:50
technologies do you need for drive -thru to work?
31:56
Intercom and in modern drive -thru, radio. So,
32:00
for example, the people working the intercom
32:02
in fast food today, they have a portable headset,
32:04
portable radio that allows you to move in the
32:06
space. Before, they had an intercom system that
32:08
would intersect with the speaker, but now the
32:10
system is radio -based. You get the idea. At
32:13
this time, radio as a technology is still, relatively
32:15
speaking, pricier. But yeah, McDonald's got started
32:19
back then. I know. My, how the prices have increased.
32:25
Now, one other thing I wanted to say, and I didn't
32:28
embellish on this as much, and I don't know if
32:30
I'm going to weave this into the tape. The 1950s
32:33
is kind of a fascinating time insofar as, have
32:36
you observed that there is kind of a nostalgia
32:38
for the 1950s in this culture, even now? Have
32:43
any of you been to a 1950s -themed restaurant?
32:49
Right. Now, one of the things about the 1950s,
32:54
and I have seen people both compliment and complain
32:58
the current administration by saying they want
33:01
to take us back to the 1950s, although that critique
33:03
is sometimes seen on racial lines, but the economy
33:07
of the 1950s was moving great guns. A couple
33:10
of things you've got going on. The prosperity
33:13
of the 1950s was almost the prosperity that the
33:15
New Deal wished it had realized. Here's why.
33:19
Who is the only major industrialized economy
33:23
that was not messed with by the war? America.
33:28
So America is leading the world in industrial
33:30
productivity. You also have a massive infusion
33:35
of capital into the economy. When you have periods
33:40
of economic growth that often occurs because
33:43
of massive infusions of capital. In the 1920s,
33:46
you saw it with the layaway credit. In the 1950s,
33:51
you see it because of, and this is the part.
33:54
So you have capital. I'm also going to put industrial
33:57
output. You have two major sources of capital
34:09
coming into the economy. During World War II,
34:13
you had 16 million people under arms. When those
34:22
people are in the military service, are they
34:23
getting paid? Yes. When those people are in the
34:28
military service deployed in France, or deployed
34:30
in occupying Japan, or deployed in Okinawa, Iwo
34:34
Jima, are they in a place that they're going
34:35
to be able to spend their money? So you have
34:38
people making money. They got accounts with the
34:42
government that they can't spend. So you have
34:46
people making money. We'll just call it combat
34:48
pay, although the term combat pay has a very
34:51
specific meaning. And then you have, and then
34:55
some of them, and then many of them leave the
34:57
service and they get money from the Montgomery
34:58
GI Bill. The Servicemen's Readjustment Act, which
35:01
was passed back during the war in 1944, but that
35:06
GI Bill of Rights, that Servicemen's Readjustment
35:08
Act, gave veterans money that they could spend
35:13
on college, on health insurance, on home loans,
35:15
on car loans. It was a large influx of capital
35:19
into the economy, which then spurs a buying spree.
35:22
Now, there's something else going on. All right.
35:25
Let's go back for a moment. First comes love,
35:28
then comes marriage, then comes someone with
35:31
the baby carriage. You also have 1946 to 1947,
35:35
16 million, mostly men, returning from war to
35:41
the home front. You have economic prosperity
35:43
and basically about, if I go from 1929 to 1949,
35:48
about 20 years of pent -up sexual energy. Because
35:55
in the Great Depression, marriage rates went
36:01
down, birth rates went down. Which means people
36:05
weren't doing what? People were not making babies.
36:10
Also, even though reliable birth control is technologically
36:13
available in the 1920s, it's not widely disseminated.
36:16
So, you have... And I'm not kidding. You're talking.
36:19
When they call it the baby boom, they are not
36:21
kidding. You have a massive population increase
36:24
from 1945 to 1955. I know it's very unfortunate
36:27
for you all to think about your grandparents
36:29
and your great -grandparents as sexual human
36:31
beings, but if they weren't, you and I wouldn't
36:34
be having this conversation. Nice family. By
36:37
the way, dawn of the TV dinners, most people
36:39
associated with the microwave, the first TV dinners
36:42
were actually convection oven. Actually, if you
36:44
look at a boxed meal right now, and you look
36:46
at it, it still has directions for how to make
36:48
it in a convection oven. Have any of you, I mean,
36:51
I usually do it when you do the large lasagna
36:53
one that you can't fit in the microwave. Sorry,
36:56
the Stouffer's lasagna is still awesome. All
36:57
right, moving on. Alright, so you also have something
37:00
else. Not only do you have the capital for people
37:05
to buy homes, now you have people making babies
37:08
which makes them want to buy homes. Because I
37:10
hate to break it to you, if you've got a screaming
37:12
child screaming at the top of their lungs in
37:15
an apartment, your neighbors are not going to
37:17
like you. I'm not saying that I did have a neighbor
37:22
when I lived in an apartment who had a screaming
37:24
baby that cost me some sleep, but hey, now I
37:26
got my own child that cost me some sleep and
37:28
she's lucky she's cute. Alright, moving on. Alright,
37:32
you have a change in American housing. You have
37:36
a lot of people moving to the south and to the
37:39
west into suburbs. Dun, dun, dun. Now, here's
37:46
the thing. Suburbs. What's different about suburbs?
37:52
It's a single family home with a yard that has
37:58
no agricultural value whatsoever. As opposed
38:02
to previously, Americans either lived on agricultural
38:05
properties that they would cultivate either for
38:08
commercial or for subsistence use, or they would
38:11
live in cities. in apartments or in some type
38:15
of close -gramped environment. Here you have
38:16
people moving out into the hinterland in these
38:18
subdivisions. Now, kind of interesting, in the
38:21
time of Levittown, your average suburban home,
38:24
the house lot was probably about one -fourth
38:28
to one -sixth of an acre, house and yard. Nowadays,
38:31
I think the house lots and subdivisions are about
38:34
an eighth of an acre. That's because people figured
38:36
out they didn't like mowing their lawns. I'm
38:40
just saying. So what does a subdivision allow
38:46
you to do? It allows you to build more homes
38:50
in a smaller space which also allows you to sell
38:54
them for less. How many of you know people who
39:00
live in the subdivision and if you didn't actually
39:02
know the house number you couldn't tell their
39:04
homes apart? How many of you have heard the expression
39:07
cookie cutter subdivisions? This actually...
39:11
begins in the 1950s. Now, you also have segregation
39:19
both in the South and in the North. So one of
39:22
the things that happens is similar to the mass
39:26
migration of African Americans from the South
39:28
to the North during and after World War I, you
39:33
have a massive migration of African Americans
39:35
to the North after World War II. Now, one of
39:43
the things I was going to point out is, so you
39:46
have these people, they get together, they make
39:48
these kids, and the kid becomes the center of
39:50
attention. By the way, how is that different
39:59
from previous aspects of American life? What
40:01
was typically the center of the household in
40:03
American life? The parents. You have the cult
40:08
of domesticity. You have the cult of patriarchy.
40:11
And so here you have... the idea of the child
40:14
-centered family, and so you have women were
40:16
encouraged to quit the jobs that they had taken
40:19
in the war, one, to give room for the men to
40:21
get a job when they got back from the war, and
40:23
two, the idea that this was to return to their
40:27
domestic duties. Now the other thing that was
40:29
kind of interesting is you have with the influx
40:32
of capital, not only do you have women going
40:34
back into the home, but you also have the proliferation
40:37
of labor -saving technologies that were developed
40:40
earlier. So, remember the conveniences of the
40:44
city. The washing machine, the dishwasher, the
40:48
electric dryer, all of these technologies that
40:51
were previously considered high -end items are
40:54
now within reach to these new homeowners. Now,
40:58
what's also interesting is you have, as America
41:03
had become more urban, you also have the rise
41:06
of academic disciplines to quite literally Try
41:10
and turn women into better wives and mothers.
41:12
Now, some of you are in fashion design presently.
41:15
Kayla, you're in fashion design presently, yes?
41:17
What was the old word for fashion design? Fashion
41:20
design used to be part of what discipline? And
41:22
there is a building at UT that still bears the
41:25
name of it. Home what? Home economics. There
41:30
is actually a building at UT that says home economics
41:33
on it. They've since changed what it does, but
41:36
it really is quite reliquary. But yes, home economics
41:40
as an academic discipline emerges to help facilitate
41:44
these women who had kind of scrambled and scraped
41:47
their way through the depression through World
41:48
War II in how to be proper wives and mothers.
41:53
Now, now fashion design is a full -fledged industry
41:56
and not exactly the cult of maternity, is it?
42:01
I mean, you look at the runway models now. Those
42:04
are not people who are breeding stock, are they?
42:08
Actually, they're quite malnourished. Some of
42:10
them probably, if I'm looking at them probably
42:13
quite well, might have trouble conceiving at
42:16
the current body fat percentages. But anyway...
42:21
Alright. 4 .3 million births at peak. That is
42:28
definitely over 9 ,000. Alright. Alright. So,
42:33
influence of Hollywood. We'll get to that in
42:36
a moment. Alright. Actually, I want to get to
42:39
the car culture and then the religious nation.
42:43
Okay. So, one of the things that you have happening
42:49
is you have, with the influence of capital, you
42:54
have more people buying cars, more people buying
42:55
homes, more people buying appliances. They're
42:58
definitely living it up. And also, you have in
43:01
the United States, in the 1950s, a religious
43:04
revival. Why would you have a religious revival
43:08
after, you know, a cataclysmic war? Well... I
43:18
mean, if you think about this for a moment, think
43:20
about this. When you start being able to measure
43:22
explosives in kilotons and megatons, when even
43:25
Oppenheimer himself, when he saw the atomic blast,
43:29
remembered the lines from the Hindu scripture,
43:32
and now I have become death, the destroyer of
43:35
worlds. There is a level of anxiety when possible
43:38
death and annihilation face you. And what was
43:42
the distinguishing feature of American life that
43:45
separates it from the godless communism of the
43:49
East. Religious fervor. Like I said, Christian
43:57
fundamentalism and tobacco use. If I had to sum
44:02
this course up in two words, that's it. Now,
44:05
you actually have... a proliferation of churches
44:10
and places of religious practice. It is in the
44:12
1950s when the Pledge of Allegiance, which was
44:16
written by a socialist in FDR's New Deal coalition,
44:19
adds the word under God to the pledge. The original
44:27
pledge did not feature the words under God. In
44:29
the original manifestations of the pledge, you
44:31
usually had the picture of FDR next to the American
44:34
flag. That was freaking emperor worship. But
44:37
anyway. Alright. We will get to more of the social
44:42
aspects and whatnot on Friday. Questions, problems,
44:47
concerns. Alright.