Changes and paradoxes in the American society

Résumé du document

Franklin Delano Roosevelt had launched as early as 1944 a new pledge to implement a new economic Bill of Rights ("New Deal") for all Americans. Another new trend appeared under Truman with the fate of the "Full Employment Act". The new president delayed submitting his own version of the Bill. It eventually represented a vague statement of principles rather than a plan of action. Liberals felt betrayed by the president. A journalist, Howard Smith, wrote "the effective locus of government seems to have shifted from Washington to some place equidistant between Wall Street and West Point". In the autumn of 1946, the Republicans won control of the representatives and senators (Nixon, McCarthy). Women had participated in the WWII in the WACs (Women Army Corps) and VES (Voluntary Emergency Service) in the Navy, and in ammunition plants, and this had strengthened the image of self reliant women. The Women Advisory Committee urged the establishment of the Family Assistant Program and Child Care Facilities to help women workers.

Extraits

[...] The split between the AFL and the CIO occurred in 1937. They were to be united again as AFL-CIO in 1945. Liberal thinkers could imagine that labour leaders would become joint partners in corporate life, not simply defenders of traditional union interests (like higher wages and better working condition). After WWII, men like Walter Ruther of the United Automobile Workers, and his CIO colleagues continued to agitate for structural change wishing labour to become co-equal with management". The CIO created a Political Action Committee (PAC) with a view to institutionalise a form of social welfare, through the action of the Democratic Party. [...]

[...] Rubin y Beth Rubin (27 September 1995) Investigating Change in American Society: Exploring Social Trends With Us Census Data by William H. [...]

[...] The government used this advertisement campaign to encourage women to leave their domestic spheres to ensure military industrial production. But in 1945, with millions of GIs back home, there was a tremendous social pressure on female workers to return home. Such were the economic constrains partly explaining the baby-boom. Simone de Beauvoir wrote a famous text, the 2nd sex (1949), was soon translated into English. Betty Friedan published later on The Feminine Mystic (1963). Friedan also co-founded the National Organisation of Women (NOW) in 1966. [...]

[...] Accusations had even been launched against the New Deal as a reincarnation of the Red minus. A new degree of hysteria was reached with HUAC (House Un-American Activities Committee). HUAC was a congressional committee established as early as 1938 to investigate on anti-American propaganda, and which was made a permanent standing committee. In the 1940's, the Smith Act had already provided a vehicle for prosecuting anyone who even advocated communism. In an atmosphere of fear and suspicions, their many opportunities to use these act for political intimidation and persecutions as a legitimate enquiry. [...]

[...] Feminists also reject the new social role of the Super-Mom. Feminist Revisionism has also involved changing opinions, on the part of Betty Friedan, that some aspects of feminism had been excessive. II) The black experience and Truman After violence had erupted in Georgia, Tennessee, and South Carolina people marched to the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC, demanding that the KKK was outlawed, and Truman created a Committee on Civil Rights as early as December 1946. In his report, entitled To secure these rights, the committee recommended a series of actions to correct racial inequalities, including the establishment of a permanent Civil Rights division of the Justice Department. [...]