APUSH Chapter 26 Triumph of the Middle Class

National Interstate and Defense Highways Act

1956 act that provided funds for construction of 42,500 miles of roads throughout the US

collective bargaining

Negotiations between representatives of labor unions and management to determine pay and acceptable working conditions.

International Monetary Fund (IMF)

Oversees a pool of capital created by member countries. Initially set up to provide liquidity and tries to prevent large changes in exchange rates. Functions as last resort lender to countries.

National Defense Education Act

Passed in response to Sputnik, it provided an oppurtunity and stimulus for college education for many Americans. It allocated funds for upgrading funds in the sciences, foreign language, guidance services, and teaching innovation.

Dwight D. Eisenhower

President during the 1950's, started the Interstate Highway Act, desegregated Little Rock's Central HS

Shelley v. Kraemer

SC rules that courts cannot enforce covenants that prevent blacks from living in certain residential neighborhoods.

Dr. Benjamin Spock

wrote "Baby and Child Care". His approach to raising babies was child centered as opposed to parent centered. Imagined minor role of fathers in child rearing, although he later changed that.

Beats

young people, many of whom were writers and artists, who discussed their dissatisfaction with the American society of the 1950s

The Affluent Society

Written by economist John Galbraith and described the private sectors wealth after WW2 and the growing income disparities due to the underdeveloped public sector.

World Bank

a United Nations agency created to assist developing nations by loans guaranteed by member governments

William J. Levitt

built new communities in the suburbs after wwII using mass production techniques (Levittown)

Bretton Woods

Created International Monetary Fund (IMF) to stabilize currency and the World Bank to invest in projects globally to stimulate economic growth

Billy Graham

Evangelical preacher famous as a mass evangelist and as a presidential adviser. Bailed MLK out of jail.

Sputnik

First artificial Earth satellite, it was launched by Moscow in 1957 and sparked U.S. fears of Soviet dominance in technology and outer space. It led to the creation of NASA and the space race.

kitchen debate

Impromptu debate between Nixon and Khrushchev in 1955, debating each country's technological accomplishments.

Veterans Administration

Helped former soldiers purchase new homes without down payment, sparked a building boom that created construction jobs and an increase in consumer spending in automobiles and appliances.

baby boom

A cohort of individuals born in the Unite States between 1946 and 1964, which was just after World War 2 in a time of relative peace and prosperity. These conditions allowed for better education and job opportunities, encouraging high rates of both marriage and fertility.

Kerner Commission

A group that was appointed by President Johnson to study the causes of urban violence and that recommended the elimination of de facto segregation in American society.

Jack Kerouac

A key author of the Beat movement whose best selling novel, On the Road helped define the movement with it's featured frenzied prose and plotless ramblings.

Allen Ginsberg

A leading member of the Beat movement whose writings featured existential mania for intense experience and frantic motion. "I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked"

military-industrial complex

A term often used to describe the economic and political ties between the military establishment and the defense-aerospace industry. Criticized by Eisenhower.

Miles Davis

Most commercially successful jazz musician, Merged jazz and rock to create fusion

The Other America

This novel was an influential study of the poverty in the U.S., published by Michael Harrington & it was the driving force behind the "war on poverty." 1/5 of the U.S. was living below the poverty line.

Sunbelt

VA to FL, extending to CA; saw a large population increase after WWII and rise of key industries