APUSH WORKSHEET
CHAPTER 36
QUESTIONS
1. The post-war economy initially failed. Explain.
There was fear of another Great Depression that would follow the wartime like it did in the past, an example being. WWI. There was a slight recession as the nation's economy transitioned from a wartime economy, producing vast amount of goods for war, to peacetime economy producing only consumer goods. Also, during the war there were price controls which would be eliminated after and the prices would greatly inflate due to customers flocking the market for goods. Strikes appeared throughout the country and there were not many workers to finish productions of cars and other goods.
2. What role did the G. I. Bill play in helping America's heroes to succeed?
The GI Bill was intended to solve the initial postwar years of WWII in that returning veterans were welcomed with unemployment as the nation experienced an economic downturn while transitioning from a wartime economy to a peacetime economy. The GI Bill sent millions of veterans to advance their education in technical and vocational schools, colleges, and universities. Their education was paid for with taxpayers' money and the Veterans Administration guaranteed loans for veterans to buy homes, businesses, and farms.
3. The text writes that prosperity underwrote social mobility. Explain. How did women benefit from the economic boom?
The text states that prosperity underwrote social nobility because it paved the way for the success of civil rights movements, funded new welfare programs, and gave confidence in the leadership internationally in the Cold War period. Women benefitted from the economic boom by gaining more opportunities where the jobs opportunities were higher than ever for women.
4. Discuss how each of the following helped allow the economic boom of 1950 – 1970.
• defense spending: The economic upturn of 1950 was fueled by massive appropriations for the Korean War and defense spending accounted for some 10% of the GNP throughout the decade. Pentagon dollars primed the pumps of high technology industries such as aerospaces, plastics, and electronics-- areas in which the US reigned supreme over all foreign competitors. The military budget financed much scientific research and development.
• cheap energy: American and European companies controlled the flow of abundant petroleum from the sandy expanded of the Middle East and they kept the prices low. Americans doubled their consumption of inexpensive and seemingly inexhaustible oil in the quarter century after the war. Anticipating limitless future of low cost fuels, they built endless highways, installed air conditioning in their homes, and engineered a sixfold increase in the country's electricity generating capacity.
• educated workforce: Education increased productivity in the workforce. By 1970 nearly 90% of the school age population was enrolled in educational institutions which made American workers more productive and in 1970, they could produce nearly twice as much in an hours labor as they had in 1950.
• agriculture: Mechanization and rich new fertilizers-- along with government subsidies and price supports-- one farm worker by the century's end could produce food for over 50 people. Farmers plowed their fields in air conditioned tractor cabs and by the end of WWII farmers made up a slim 2% of the American population by the 1990s yet they fed much of the world.
5. Describe America's population shift in the years following the war.
The population increased massively. First, there was the baby boom era when the soldiers first got back and reunited with their wives and loved ones. Many gaps were filled as an estimated 50 million babies were born until the end of the 50s where things started to cool down. Even though people were slowing down their birth rate there was still a large immigration that further increased the already growing population. With immigration the population grew over 264 million people.
