kitchen debate
A 1959 debate over the merits of their rival systems between US vice president Richard Nixon and Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev at the opening of an American exhibition in Moscow
Bretton Woods
An international conference in New Hampshire in July 1944 that established the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF)
World Bank
An international bank created to provide loans for the reconstruction of war-torn Europe as well as for the development of former colonized nations in the developing world
International Monetary Fund (IMF)
A fund established to stabilize currencies and provide a predictable monetary environment for trade, with the US dollar serving as the benchmark
military-industrial complex
a term President Eisenhower used to refer to the military establishment and defense contractors who, he warned, exercised undue influence over the national government
Sputnik
The world's first satellite, launched by the Soviet Union in 1957. After its launch, the US funded research and education to catch up in the Cold War space competition
National Defense Education Act
A 1958 act, passed in response to the Soviet launching of the Sputnik satellite, that funneled millions of dollars into American universities, helping institutions become the leading research centers in the world
The Affluent Society
A 1958 book by John Kenneth Galbraith that analyzed the nation's successful middle class and argued that the poor were only an "afterthought" in the minds of economists and politicians
The Other America
A 1962 book by left wing social critic Michael Harrington, chronicling "the economic underworld of American life." His study made it clear that in economic terms the bottom class remained far behind
Veterans Administration
A federal agency that assists former soldiers. Following WWII, the VA helped veterans purchase new homes with no down payment, sparking a building boom that created jobs in the construction industry and fueling consumer spending in home appliances and automobiles
Collective bargaining
A process of negotiation between labor unions and employers, which after WWII translated into rising wages, expanding benefits, and an increasing rate of home ownership.
teenager
a term for a young adult. American youth culture, focused on the spending power of the "teenager", emerged as a cultural phenomenon in the post war decades
Beats
A small group of literary figures based in NYC and San Francisco in the 1950s who rejected mainstream culture and instead celebrated personal freedom, which often included drug consumption and casual sex
baby boom
The surge in American birthrate between 1945 and 1965, which peaked in 1957 with 4.3 million births
Shelley v. Kraemer
A 1948 supreme court decision that outlawed restrictive covenants on the occupancy of housing developments by African Americans, Asian Americans, and other minorities. Because the Court decision did not actually prohibit racial discrimination in housing, unfair practices against minority groups continued until passage of the Fair Housing Act in 1968
National Interstate and Defense Highways Act
A 1956 law authorizing the construction of a national highway system
Sunbelt
Name applied to the southwest and south, which grew rapidly after WWII as a center of defense industries and non-unionized labor
Kerner Commission
Informal name for the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, formed by the president to investigate the causes of the 1967 urban riots. Its 1968 report warned that "our nation is moving toward two societies, one black, one white, separate and unequal"
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Miles Davis
Allen Ginsberg
Jack Kerouac
Billy Graham
Dr. Benjamin Spock
William J. Levitt