Post-War America

After World War II, America changed radically again. Prosperity was common, and families moved to the suburbs and produced the "baby-boom" generation. One historian writes, "From World War II to the middle of the 1960's, the United States made extraordinary economic progress. Gross national product rose from $100.6 billion in 1940 to $681.2 billion in 1965" (Woodward, 1997, p. 329). Domestically, things were good for most people, but internationally, there were still many problems to deal with that created some of the biggest changes in American society.

After World War II, the Soviet Union began a gradual takeover of many European countries, spreading their influence. When they created their own nuclear weapons, this created the "Cold War" between the Soviet Union and the United States, each country fearing the other would attack first with their nuclear weapons. Americans feared both Communist China and the Soviet Union. One historian said, "Two forces had combined to all but close it: Russian and Chinese industrial and nuclear power and potential" (Williams, 1961, p. 484). There was a "war" in North Korea, and later a war in Vietnam over Communism. This fear of Communism and the Cold War created great defense spending for the United States, and led to development of technologies such as rocketry, space flight and exploration, and even nuclear power. The country was put on the defense, and created many important developments because of it. That is one reason the Cold War and the resulting scare was the most important change in post-war society. The scare over Communism created things like the McCarthy hearings that banned people from Hollywood because of "Communist" tendencies, and people began to be afraid of spies and spy satellites like "Sputnik." Certainly, there were many issues at home that were extremely important, such as equal rights and the blacks fight for free speech and ending segregation, but what happened around the world affected America even more, and led to great changes in technology and society.

References

Lamb, Brian. (2001). Booknotes: Stories from American history. New York: Public Affairs.

Williams, W.A. (1961). The contours of American history (1st ed.). Cleveland, OH: World Pub. Co.

Woodward, C. Vann, ed. (1997). The Comparative approach to American history. New York: Oxford U.S., 1997.