The GI bill of Rights
- Also known as the Serviceman's Readjustment Act
The Baby Boom
- Enabled 8 million returning veterans to go to school/ acquire a technical skill
- Following the end of WWII there was a surge in births
- 79 million americans were born
- Provided government benefits to veterans like;
- Low cost mortgages/ loans
- Tuition
- Living expenses/ housing
- Couples could afford to have families now that the Great Depression was over
- The country was more optimistic
- Birth rates rose to previous pre-depression numbers
What events of the 1950s contributed to the american dream?
The Interstate Highway System
- Created by president Dwight D. Eisenhower
- Construction was started in 1956 and completed 35 years later
- Individual people began striving toward independence
- Total length of 47,714 miles
- The second largest road network in the world
- Soldiers began starting families
- Our way of life today was shaped by the trends of the time
- A 'normal' outlook on life was create
The Space Race
- A competition during the cold war between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R.
- Each country was striving for technological supremacy
- Every advancement was seen as a gain of national security
- Some advancements created were;
- Human spaceflight
- Unmanned probes to other planets
- Travel to the moon
The 1950's American Dream
By: Stephen Sackett