Happy+Days?

=Were the 1950s Really Happy Days?=

-  By 1952, the United States was supplying 65% of the world's manufactured goods -college education and home ownership to more Americans than ever before -air conditioners, dishwashers, and especially televisions -plastics, frozen foods, and jet engines -huge population boom -changes in the law and in government regulations increased wages for many workers -increase in office jobs -increase in service jobs -Many more Americans joined the middle class -biggest period of retail spending the United States had yet seen -Technological advances - Optimism and a "can-do" attitude -American sciences of many kinds blossomed -space program -doctors began to use antibiotics more often in the treatment of disease -vaccines -U.S. got ahead in Space Race -number of marriages and the birth rate increased for several years -housing boom -suburbs began to expand -
 * __Positives__

__Negatives__ - troubling foreign policy issues blamed on communism and communist spies -communist forces in the world were, after all, gaining ground -China underwent a revolution in 1949, resulting in a communist regime -Soviet Union tested its first atomic bomb -blacklist -Sputnik - **global embarrassment of running second to the Soviets -Most minority families remained in the cities and were largely unwelcome in the suburbs -separate was emphasized more than equal -crime, substandard housing, and race riots afflicted the African Americans -public schools struggled with record attendance levels