Happy+Days



That's a great question, don't you think? We will answer it in class on Thursday in a (hopefully) fun activity, but to prepare, we should do a little background reading and watching. R**ead "The Fifties" in __Creating America__ (28-3, pp. 800-803), read over the ABC-CLIO links posted below, and w****atch the videos below.** 
 * FOR HOMEWORK, CREATE A LIST (IN YOUR ONLINE NOTEBOOK) OF POSITIVES AND NEGATIVES CONCERNING LIFE IN THE FIFTIES FOR CLASS ON THURSDAY. WE WILL USE IT TO WRITE SOME DIALOGUE ...**

[|The Cold War at Home] / [|The Economy Booms] / [|The Sky is the Limit] / [|Boom-Time for Babies and Houses] **Positive:**
 * Many people lived in suburbs and was a community.
 * Bracero developed, they are people that are temporary worker. They found job working on farm in the Southwest and Midwest.
 * Eisenhower was elected president; he did did many thing that helped the US. Examples- Kept most of the New Deal, expanded Social Security, increased the minimum wage for worker, created Department of Health/ Education/ Welfare, Highway Act of 1956.
 * People felt prosperous.
 * Baby Boom; many people got married and had babies. Population gained 30 million people.
 * More people moving to warmer states because of population.
 * People where happy with living in suburbs; as long kids went to good schools and were safe, malls had p[[image:319659w.jpg width="159" height="115" align="right"]]arking lots that were easy to find and free.
 * Mid-1950s, American industry was churning out goods for consumers to buy.
 * Economy was booming. People buying and stores selling.
 * Hollywood was active.
 * Rock`n`roll began to grow and kids watched TV shows.
 * President debates were on TV.
 * Doctors began to use antibiotics more often in the treatment of disease. This made many previously life-threatening conditions relatively easy to treat. Also, vaccines to prevent such viral illnesses as influenza prevented the epidemics that once devastated populations.
 * People were getting a more interest in space and trying to get things up there.
 * November 1958 the United States got the von Braun's Explorer into space.

**Negative:**
 * I n 1957, nearly one out of every five Americans lived in poverty. Most of it was in the cities.
 * Taxes raised in the cities.
 * Many African American and Latinos could not afford homes in the suburbs.
 * More illegal Mexican began to come to the US.
 * Bracero developed, they are people that are temporary worker. They found job working on farm in the Southwest and Midwest.
 * People where forced to fit into the suburban life.
 * People were pressured to agree with the beliefs and ideas of the majority.
 * Women were limited to their choices and could not get many jobs.
 * Less people went to movies theater because of TV.
 * Less people read because of TV.
 * The war industries were declining, but the returning soldiers had to be clothed and fed. And these now-grown young men, whether married or not, needed places to live. The whole country experienced a severe housing shortage.
 * Separate but equal was still the standard in schools and public facilities, but separate was emphasized more than equal
 * Crime, substandard housing, and race riots afflicted the African Americans and other minorities who remained in the cities, while white families lived more serene lives in the suburbs.