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CHAPTER 12: POSTWAR AMERICAOUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORYplained, “conservative when it comesto money, liberal when it comes tohuman beings.” A critic counteredthat Eisenhower appeared to arguethat he would “strongly recommendthe building of a great many schools... but not provide the money.”Eisenhower’s first priority wasto balance the budget after years ofdeficits. He wanted to cut spendingand taxes and maintain the value ofthe dollar. Republicans were willingto risk unemployment to keepinflation in check. Reluctant tostimulate the economy too much,they saw the country suffer threeeconomic recessions in the eightyears of the Eisenhower presidency,but none was very severe.In other areas, the administrationtransferred control of offshoreoil lands from the federal governmentto the states. It also favoredprivate development of electricalpower rather than the public approachthe Democrats had initiated.In general, its orientation was sympatheticto business.Compared to Truman, Eisenhowerhad only a modest domesticprogram. When he was active inpromoting a bill, it likely was to trimthe New Deal legacy a bit — as inreducing agricultural subsidies orplacing mild restrictions on laborunions. His disinclination to pushfundamental change in either directionwas in keeping with the spirit ofthe generally prosperous Fifties. Hewas one of the few presidents wholeft office as popular as when heentered it.THE CULTURE OF THE 1950SDuring the 1950s, many culturalcommentators pointed outthat a sense of uniformity pervadedAmerican society. Conformity, theyasserted, was numbingly common.Though men and women had beenforced into new employment patternsduring World War II, once thewar was over, traditional roles werereaffirmed. Men expected to be thebreadwinners in each family; women,even when they worked, assumedtheir proper place was at home. In hisinfluential book, The Lonely Crowd,sociologist David Riesman calledthis new society “other-directed,”characterized by conformity, butalso by stability. Television, still verylimited in the choices it gave its viewers,contributed to the homogenizingcultural trend by providing youngand old with a shared experience reflectingaccepted social patterns.Yet beneath this seeminglybland surface, important segmentsof American society seethed withrebellion. A number of writers,collectively known as the “BeatGeneration,” went out of their wayto challenge the patterns of respectabilityand shock the rest of theculture. Stressing spontaneity andspirituality, they preferred intuitionover reason, Eastern mysticism overWestern institutionalized religion.The literary work of the beatsdisplayed their sense of alienationand quest for self-realization. JackKerouac typed his best-selling novelOn the Road on a 75-meter roll ofpaper. Lacking traditional punctuationand paragraph structure, thebook glorified the possibilities of thefree life. Poet Allen Ginsberg gainedsimilar notoriety for his poem“Howl,” a scathing critique of modern,mechanized civilization. Whenpolice charged that it was obsceneand seized the published version,Ginsberg successfully challenged theruling in court.Musicians and artists rebelled aswell. Tennessee singer Elvis Presleywas the most successful of severalwhite performers who popularizeda sensual and pulsating style of African-Americanmusic, which beganto be called “rock and roll.” At first,he outraged middle-class Americanswith his ducktail haircut and undulatinghips. But in a few years hisperformances would seem relativelytame alongside the antics of laterperformances such as the BritishRolling Stones. Similarly, it was inthe 1950s that painters like JacksonPollock discarded easels and laid outgigantic canvases on the floor, thenapplied paint, sand, and other materialsin wild splashes of color. All ofthese artists and authors, whateverthe medium, provided models forthe wider and more deeply felt socialrevolution of the 1960s.ORIGINS OF THE CIVILRIGHTS MOVEMENTAfrican Americans became increasinglyrestive in the postwaryears. During the war they had challengeddiscrimination in the militaryservices and in the work force,and they had made limited gains.Millions of African Americans hadleft Southern farms for Northerncities, where they hoped to findbetter jobs. They found insteadcrowded conditions in urban slums.Now, African-American servicemenreturned home, many intent on rejectingsecond-class citizenship.Jackie Robinson dramatized theracial question in 1947 when hebroke baseball’s color line and beganplaying in the major leagues. Amember of the Brooklyn Dodgers,he often faced trouble with opponentsand teammates as well. Butan outstanding first season led tohis acceptance and eased the wayfor other African-American players,who now left the Negro leagues towhich they had been confined.Government officials, and manyother Americans, discovered theconnection between racial problemsand Cold War politics. As the leaderof the free world, the United Statessought support in Africa and Asia.Discrimination at home impededthe effort to win friends in otherparts of the world.Harry Truman supported theearly civil rights movement. He personallybelieved in political equality,though not in social equality, andrecognized the growing importanceof the African-American urban vote.When apprised in 1946 of a spate oflynchings and anti-black violencein the South, he appointed a committeeon civil rights to investigatediscrimination. Its report, To Secure270271