American domestic life after World War II Essay

Assess rough of the important variety shows to take place in the Statesn national life aft(prenominal)(prenominal) dry land struggle II.This essay volition deal with the following changes which took place in American domestic life aft(prenominal) humans warfare II the evolution in race and mobility, suburbanization, the consequences of suburbanization in the cities, the map of women in the post- state of contendfare years and the status of African Americans. The Second existence War brought suffering, conclusion and devastation in Europe and to the ataraxis of the world. Ironicall(a)y, America, for her relatively less sacrifices, gained an unprecedented revealgrowth in the providence which manifested in sound industries in all spheres of America. In the runner two decades subsequently the war, America was transform on much(prenominal) a de eggshell that the symmetricalness of the economic powers could non fit in her in galore(postnominal) decades to come .The American economy had grown during World War II, tho it grew even stronger after the War. The American take in National Product (GNP) change magnitude from $ two hundred one million million million in 1940 to $300 cardinal in 1950 simply it reached$ 500 zillion in 19601. The advances in technical tuition during the war have been transferred to manufacturing cars, televisions, washing machines, refrigerators, vacuum cleaner cleaners and s ever soal other(a) domestic gadgets. As the economy was growing, so the recompense change magnitude which meant that saucily products were make and sell constantly. Television became a major cleave of Americas daily life, which not scarcely provided the entertainment but it in any case exposed the throng to advertisements and commercials.The unsuspecting creation was buying all kind of devices uncommitted whether they were necessary or not. Advertising managers make the power of commercials and huge financial gains wheref ore concent identifyd on improving their invention of enticing the public. Computer technology had replaced the epic and slow machines so the economy prospered rapidly. The step forwardlet was the American set form go up the ladder and became upper meat class and some of the working class whole toneped up towards middle class. In contrast, African Americans and the poor dust coat tribe stayed at the bottom of the pile and were not disposed the same(p) opportunities to share the fruit of the prosperity.The birth-rate increased during the war but it peaked after the war. The cosmos increased by 19 million in the 1940s, which was over double the rise in the 1930s and posterior jumped up to 29 million in the fifties. Although the rising birth rate was the primary(prenominal) reason for the existence growth, so the forwarding in curing the illnesses meant that the death rate decreased. Therefore the average life hope for discolours was 70 years and for blacks 642. As the population grew the pile started travel towards the Pacific states to a greater extent quickly than the other parts of America. The cities in Southwest grew more rapidly, for example Houston, Albuquerque, Tucson, and Phoenix. Los Angeles replaced Philadelphia as the third largest city, and California took over wise York as Americas around populous state.In the 1950s the lily-white middle class population travel out of crowded cities to the suburban areas. They locomote to suburban areas to buy their own main offices with gardens and garages. The frame of reference industry met the growing demand of refreshed-sprung(prenominal) and recrudesce accommodate at scurrying rate than ever. The houses were built by developers such as William Levitt on a extensive scale which were cheap, simple but comfortable. However, many American did not like the overbold housing studys and labelled them,ugly boxes set in circles especially the architect profession. architectural cri tic Lewis Mumford described such suburbs asa multitude of uniform, unidentifiable houses, lined up inflexibly, at uniform distances, on uniform roads, in treeless common wasteland, inhabited by people of the same class, the same income, the same wage company.3The ownership of these houses was helped along through federal official official Housing Administration (FHA) and Veterans Administration (VA) who provided the loans on easy terms. The other factor was the approachability of cars people no long-life depended on public transport. Car production increased from 2 million in 1946 to 8 million in 1955. The government began to build the highways on a large scale and linked them with diffe select parts of the country. In June 1956, Congress authorised $32 billion to build new highways. By creating 56,000 miles of highways, federal government helped industry and commerce to assume outside the cities4. The justification was that it would not barely make peoples journeys easier it would overly make the evacuation quicker in the event of nuclear war.Whatever the motivation was businesses began to realise where their future lay, so they began to survive their businesses to suburbs. New shop centres were built all over the country with entertainment, leisure and sports facilities. As a result, employment was brought to the door step and so people no interminable travelled to cities to spend their money. Instead people from cities came to suburban areas to spend their dollars. The black people, the other minorities, and the poor section of the white population shopped in their localities where quality was decreasing and prices were increasing. For these ever growing mobile customers the franchise ashes was established. The first franchise right was bought from a fast-food establishment by a untested entrepreneur Ray Kroc, and then gradually the franchise system became a bounteous soma in the country.While the Levitt development was satisfying one sectio n of the community, the rest of the construct industry started to cater for a wider range of income groups. These housing developments take ond shopping centres, schools, and churches. The private builders were proving to be successful in providing housing for Americans suburban families. Soon, all over the country the pattern was repeated as moderate-income families settled for trashy prefabricated dwellings in the fringes of the cities. These were in part for the war veterans helped by FHA and VA, but these facilities were not for sale to black war veterans.The wealthier population chose architect-designed houses in suburbia. However, once again this development was mainly for the white population and was not forthcoming to blacks. This meant that separationism and discrimination was systematically continued and deepened the subdivision in the midst of two races. The white population was moving out of crowded cities to better housing and a cleaner environment, and blacks were moving into the cities where the living standard was low, but milling machinery work and other manual jobs were available to them. The result was that as the white population declined in the cities the black population increased. new(prenominal) minorities such as Hispanics and Native Americans did not share in the benefits of the American daydream and like black people were do by as second-class citizens.On the surface, cities were losing out to suburban areas as the races shifted. Indeed, some primitive changes were taking place underneath the American social fabric was changing with meet speed. The gap was not only widening between the living standards of white people, it was congruous more prominent between cultures but it was ignored in the daze of prosperity.The building industry was helped by several congressional laws to build the new houses in suburban areas. By 1972 some 11 million families owned their own houses with the help of the FHA. 22 million people had alter their properties with the maintenance of the VA in owner-occupied units. Some people were paying fewer for their mortgages on their new houses than they would have paid in rent for their rooms in the city. The FHA reinforced the racial segregation policy by refusing to tending the racially mixed cities to build new houses or improve the old ones. harmonise to an administrator, it is a conservative business surgical process rather than a programme of providing housing for all social groups on an tinge bases5.Consequently, the black population was not only deprived from better housing they were losing out from all the other facilities good healthcare, inexpert facilities, and better shopping facilities. The impact of the firms and white population moving out from the cities to suburban areas was that jobs and tax revenue were no longer available to improve the urban areas. In addition, the older and larger manufacturing firms were making losings and declining while tailo r-made factories in suburban areas were growing and extending and creating new jobs. The blacks were expecting that their sacrifices during the war would be recognised and acknowledged by sharing in the economic boom, but or else they were overlooked once again.After the war women were expected to return to their traditional roles, whereas during the war they took over the jobs of servicemen and adjusted to their new roles comfortably. However, on their return from the War, men were given their jobs cover song and the women reluctantly retreated to their homes. Some women carried on working and others got married, stayed at home and looked after their children. Although women adjusted to their shifting roles, doubts and questions were beginning to surface. Women were again pulled back into the job market during the Korean and Vietnam wars. The labour saving devices in the home gave women freedom to work outside the home.Women also found it necessary to work in order to secure the ir newly delimitate identity. The number of working women doubled between 1940 and 1960. Prior to the Second World War, the legal age of employed married woman came from a lower income family, but in the post-war women from middle class joined in as the first group tailored off. During the 1950s and 1960s, the women contributed 15 to 25 percent to their nursing home income6. Women increased their white-collar jobs at a faster rate than men during the 1970s, but by the end of the decade they were hushed at the bottom of wage scale.It is a fact that after World War II, in the first two decades the coupled States economy grew at such a scale that it has changed American society and its rest in the world as a superpower. The wealth generated in those post-war years had been apply in the development of the countrys infrastructure. The advances in living standards, schools, research, training for engineers and scientists and improved farming techniques as well as the network of hig hways meant that America was transformed.The technological advances were not limited to provide consumer goods they also made the American military machine the about advanced force in the world. America won the space race, but it failed to include its black race in their astronomic and earthly achievements. However, the scale of its economic and technological achievements was matched by the disruption in the social fabric of the nation as its inequalities and injustices were magnified. The implications of the divisions created by this skewed economic growth pull up stakes have its effects in the centuries to come, in racial tension, in domestic wickedness and social trends, and internationally as American culture is adopted as an breathing in for a globalise and consumer-centric world.BibliographyBooksChafe, W.H. The Unfinished jaunt America since World War II. fourthly Edition(Oxford University Press 1999).Issel, W. The Contemporary linked States affable Change in the get together States 1945-1983(London Macmillan Publishers LTD1985).Winkler, A.M. late America United States from World War II to the Present.(New York Harper & quarrel Publishers 1985).Boyer, P.at al. The Enduring Vision A muniment of the American People. Concise 4th random variable (Boston, 2002).Brogan, H. The Penguin History of the USA. New edition (London Penguin 2001)1 A.M.Winkler, Modern America United States from World War 11 to present.p.82.2 Ibid.,p.843 W. H. Chafe. The Unfinished Journey America since World War II. p.117.4W. Issel. The Contemporary United States Social change in the United States. p. 92.5 W. Issel. The Contemporary United States Social change in the United States. P. 90.6 A.M. Winkler. Modern America United States from World War 11 to the Present. p.78.