The Making of Modern America The Nation from 1945 to the Present

by Donaldson, Gary A.

• ISBN13: 9780742548206
• ISBN10: 0742548201
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-04-16
• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Summary

When World War II ended in 1945, America emerged as the only superpower. It had defeated Germany and Japan, it was the only nation with the bomb, and much of the rest of the world lay in ruins as a result of the war. In addition, the wartime economy had dragged the nation out of the worst depression in modern history. The United States seemed on the verge of its greatest age, and from that starting point, its people embarked on a journey through the next several decades of change. The Making of Modern America is the story of that journey.

Author Biography

Gary A. Donaldson is the Keller Foundation Chair in American History at Xavier University of Louisiana in New Orleans.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. xi
Postwar Adjustments	p. 1
Enter Harry Truman, the "Little Man from Missouri"	p. 2
The Postwar Economy and Its Impact	p. 4
The American Family	p. 6
The Changing Place of Women	p. 7
Truman, the Economy, and Organized Labor	p. 9
Origins of the Modern Civil Rights Movement	p. 11
Truman, the Eightieth Congress, and the Election of 1948	p. 14
The Fair Deal and Truman's Second Term	p. 19
Conclusion	p. 22
Reading: A. Philip Randolph	p. 22
The Early Cold War	p. 25
Yalta and the End of the War	p. 25
Harry Truman and the Growth of Conflict	p. 29
The Architects of Containment	p. 34
Berlin Crisis and NATO	p. 36
Cold War in Asia and the Origins of the Korea Conflict	p. 38
NSC-68 and the Redirection of American Foreign Policy	p. 40
The Cold War Comes Home	p. 40
Korea, "The Forgotten War"	p. 44
The 1952 Campaign and the End of an Era	p. 48
Conclusion	p. 50
Reading: Truman and Israel	p. 51
Affluence and Anxiety: America in the 1950s	p. 53
The Family	p. 53
It Was All on TV	p. 55
Cinema in the Fifties	p. 58
Cool Culture	p. 60
The Beats	p. 63
Advances in Medical and Biological Science	p. 64
Literary Genres	p. 66
Drama and Theater	p. 67
The New American Religion	p. 68
Conclusion	p. 70
Reading: A Little Bit of Rock 'n' Roll	p. 70
The Eisenhower Presidency	p. 73
Eisenhower and Domestic Policy	p. 74
A "New Look" at Foreign Policy	p. 76
Covert Operations in Iran and Guatemala	p. 79
The Suez Crisis and America's Postwar Involvement in the Middle East	p. 80
The Hungarian Crisis	p. 83
Early Involvement in Southeast Asia	p. 83
Problems in Cuba	p. 85
McCarthyism, Anti-Communist Hysteria, and Conformity at Home	p. 86
Second Reconstruction: Civil Rights in the Fifties	p. 89
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas	p. 90
Montgomery and King	p. 92
Little Rock	p. 94
The Politics of Civil Rights and the Civil Rights Act of 1957	p. 95
Conclusion	p. 97
Reading: Sputnik and the Space Race	p. 97
Kennedy at Home and Abroad	p. 99
Election of 1960	p. 99
The Best and the Brightest	p. 103
The New Frontier	p. 105
The Second Reconstruction-Continued	p. 107
Freedom Rides	p. 108
Birmingham/Bombingham	p. 109
A Most Dangerous Time	p. 110
Cuba and the Bay of Pigs	p. 113
Berlin and the Wall	p. 114
The Cuban Missile Crisis	p. 116
JFK and Vietnam	p. 120
Tragedy in Dallas	p. 122
Conclusion	p. 124
Reading: Lee Harvey Oswald	p. 125
"We Shall Continue"	p. 129
Lyndon Johnson and the Kennedy Legacy	p. 131
The Election of 1964 and the Liberal Mandate	p. 133
Great Society	p. 135
The Second Reconstruction-Continued	p. 140
Freedom Summer	p. 142
Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party	p. 143
Selma and Voting Rights	p. 144
Lyndon Johnson's War	p. 147
Conclusion	p. 151
Reading: Lyndon Johnson, "Promises to Keep," Johns Hopkins University Speech, April 7, 1965	p. 152
The Nation in the 1960s	p. 155
Youth Culture: From Birth to Fad	p. 155
The Americanization of the War	p. 159
The Antiwar Movement and the New Left	p. 166
"I Will Not Accept": The Tragedy of Lyndon Johnson	p. 167
The 1968 Campaign	p. 168
Black Power and the Radicalization of the Civil Rights Movement	p. 171
Urban Riots	p. 173
Backlash	p. 175
A Call for Social Change and Recognition	p. 176
The New American Feminism	p. 179
On "The Pill"	p. 181
Conclusion	p. 182
Reading: Space, the Final Frontier	p. 183
Out of the 1960s and into the 1970s: The Agony of Change	p. 185
Nixon in the White House	p. 186
Nixon Looks at the World	p. 188
The Legacy of Vietnam	p. 193
Détente	p. 194
Nixon and China	p. 195
Watergate and the Resignation of a President	p. 196
Conclusion	p. 199
Reading: A Golden Age: Sports from the Mid-1960s to the Mid-1970s	p. 200
America in the 1970s: The Post-Watergate Years	p. 203
Taking Stock: A Statistical Analysis	p. 204
The Accession of Gerald Ford	p. 204
Politics, War, and the Oil Shock	p. 206
Rise of the Computer	p. 211
Foreign Affairs under Ford	p. 212
The New Environmentalism	p. 214
Election of 1976	p. 216
The Carter Presidency: The Domestic Front	p. 217
The Carter Presidency: Foreign Affairs	p. 219
Debacle in the Middle East	p. 220
Presidential Campaign of 1980	p. 222
Conclusion	p. 225
Reading: Jonestown	p. 225
The Reagan Years	p. 229
Reagan the Man	p. 230
Reaganomics	p. 232
The New Cold War	p. 233
Central America	p. 234
Reagan in the Middle East-and Lebanon	p. 236
SDI and U.S.-Soviet Relations	p. 236
Culture and Society of the 1980s and the Rise of the Religious Right	p. 237
War on Drugs	p. 239
AIDS, "The Gay Epidemic"	p. 240
Education in the Reagan Years	p. 241
The "Me" Generation and the Culture of Narcissism	p. 242
Reagan in His Second Administration	p. 244
Iran-Contra	p. 245
The Eighties Character	p. 247
The 1988 Campaign	p. 249
Conclusion	p. 251
Reading: Ronald Reagan's Farewell Address, January 11, 1989	p. 251
The Kinder, Gentler Conservatism of George H. W. Bush	p. 255
The First President Bush and the Making of an American Dynasty	p. 256
Bush and the World	p. 257
The Collapse of the Soviet Union	p. 258
The First Gulf War	p. 261
America at Home	p. 263
The Continued AIDS Crisis	p. 264
The Environment and George Bush	p. 265
The New Court	p. 266
The New Diversity	p. 267
A Divided Black America	p. 269
1992 Campaign	p. 271
Conclusion	p. 273
Reading: America's New Feminism	p. 274
Bill Clinton's America	p. 277
Partisanship Reborn	p. 279
An Economic Focus out of the Box	p. 281
Health Care	p. 281
The "New Clinton"	p. 282
Republican Ascension	p. 283
The Go-Go 1990s	p. 284
Foreign Policy in the Clinton Administration	p. 285
Terrorism, Foreign and Domestic	p. 288
The 1996 Campaign and More Moderation	p. 289
Kosovo	p. 291
Scandal and "Monicagate"	p. 292
Bush versus Gore: Election of 2000	p. 294
Conclusion	p. 297
Reading: O.J.	p. 298
Taking Stock: America at the New Millennium	p. 301
African Americans at the End of the Twentieth Century	p. 302
Affirmative Action	p. 303
Immigration and Multiculturalism	p. 304
The Abortion Debate	p. 306
Gay Rights	p. 307
Stem Cell Research, Intelligent Design, and Terry Schiavo	p. 307
The Graying of America	p. 310
The Environment and Global Warming	p. 311
The New Economy	p. 314
The Origins of the Internet and the Computer Culture	p. 316
Medical Science: The Human Genome Project	p. 317
Conclusion	p. 317
Reading: Bill Gates	p. 318
The Life and Times of George W. Bush	p. 321
George W. Bush	p. 322
The War on Terror	p. 323
The End of the Boom Economy	p. 328
The 2004 Election	p. 331
The Growing Problems in Iraq	p. 334
The New Nuclear Threat	p. 336
Disaster at Home	p. 338
A Statistician's View	p. 339
Conclusion	p. 339
Reading: George W. Bush, "Axis of Evil" Speech, State of the Union, January 2002	p. 340
Epilogue: The Obama Election: A Defining Moment?	p. 345
Selected Bibliography	p. 349
Index	p. 355
About the Author	p. 365
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