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Development of the system of highways after World War II coupled with the growth of automobile sales. As the income of families grew they could buy a new automobile thus stimulating an automobile industry. Easily affordable automobiles created new pattern of living – thousands of well-to-do Americans moved from dirty and crowded downtown areas to the suburbs. This movement was provided by cheap housing, which gave an opportunity to raise children in a safe and friendly environment.
Raising standards of living (Americans were becoming the "affluent society") gave way to the baby boom, which began in the 1940s and lasted up to early 1960s. During this period more than 63,5 million babies were born, more than 80 % of children were born in the families that had already had at least one child. During the 1950s there was 19 % increase in the US population. The baby boom, in its turn, gave way to the growth of the building industry (large families needed bigger houses), manufactures (companies producing baby foods, clothing, toys, and diapers), and school systems. Office buildings, shopping centers, factories, airports, and stadiums also sprang up across the country.
The growth of birth rates was coupled with the growth of suburbs – the so-called post-war suburbanization of America. Housing developers like William J. Levitt built new communities using techniques of mass production (see Cultural Focus). These were quite modest houses that looked alike, but they allowed thousands of new families have a private housing to raise children there.
American government that supported housing boom, refused to guarantee suburban home loans to the poor, nonwhites, Jews, and other "inharmonious racial and ethnic groups".
The proponents of suburban life emphasized "family togetherness" – the term coined in 1954 by McCall's magazine to show the ideal couple: the man and woman who married young and centered their lives on home and children. In general, people in the 1950s married younger and had more children than their parents in the 1930s.
"Family togetherness" included such activities as family TV-watching, picnics in the parks, outings to the beaches and quiet comfort at home. The role of a man as a bread maker and a woman as a helpmate to her husband and a full-time mother to her children was emphasized by television and advertisements. Suburban life and focus on family encouraged competition in the homogeneous neighborhoods. Many people tried "to keep up with the Joneses" by buying new cars and appliances.
Parents of baby-boomers were often preoccupied with education, joining the parent-teacher associations to have a voice in the educational process. In 1957, when the Russians launched Sputnik, education became a matter of national security. More and more schools were needed. In the 1950s, California opened a new school every week throughout the decade and still faced a classroom shortage.
While education was seen as essential for the nation's security, religion became a synonym of patriotism. "Everybody should have a religious faith", President Eisenhower declared, "and I don't care what it is". His other speech insisted that "recognition of the Supreme Being is the first, the most basic expression of Americanism".
In the Cold War with the godless Soviet Union, American ministers and priests became soldiers in the battle for souls. Religious leaders emphasized family togetherness and TV advertisement proclaimed that "the family that prays together stays together". The Bible topped the best-seller lists and millions of Americans became "born-again" Christians as they joined evangelical churches.
Task 1. Explain the following proverb and phrases:
—family togetherness;
—to keep up with the Joneses;
—born-again Christian.
Cultural Focus: Levittown
Housing boom of the 1950s was caused by a combination of factors, one of them – new housing production on a massive scale. Mass-production technologies for constructing large, inexpensive housing was first used by Arthur and William Levitt, who built planned communities (Levittowns) in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.
After World War II "Levitt & Sons" bought fifteen hundred acres of potato fields thirty miles from midtown Manhattan. They built there 2,000 homes, nearly identical in form providing comfortable living space for the family. The houses were rented for just 65 dollars a month to married war veterans, who had families.
To erect other houses, the Levitts established their own lumber mill, nail factory, and electrical-supply company. They mostly employed unskilled laborers, each of whom was trained to perform one task. For example, one man did nothing but moved from house to house and bolted Bendix washing machines to the floor.
All homes looked alike; each had two bedrooms, a bath, a kitchen, a living room and an attic. All the streets in Levittowns curved at the same angle and a tree was planted every twenty-eight feet.
There were regulations each family had to follow – fences were prohibited, lawns had to be mowed, the wash could be hung dry in the backyard only on weekdays. To supply the new communities supermarkets, gas stations, shopping centers and malls were built.
There were many critics of suburban life, who pointed tasteless suburban conformity and planned orderliness of Levittowns. They said that the suburban emphasis on family togetherness tended to isolate families, who now preferred the stay-at-home lifestyle.
However, young married couples gladly purchased the Levitts houses. Levittowns were mostly white communities – not until the mid 1960s, blacks were allowed to purchase a home there. The Levittown communities reflected the all-nation tendencies towards white suburbs and nonwhite cities.
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