Postwar Political and Social Changes

The Changing Class Structure• Rapid economic growth helped create a new, more mobile and more democratic society in Europe after WWII • Due to rapid industrial and technological expans

Postwar Political and

Social Changes

Science and Technology

• After 1940, theoretical science and practical or applied science were effectively

joined on a massive scale

– University scientists worked on top-secret projects to help fight the war Their efforts produced radar,

electronic computers, and eventually the atomic

bomb

Science and Technology

• The spectacular results of directed research during WWII inspired a new

model of scientific research called “Big Science”

– Big Science combined theoretical work with

sophisticated engineering in a large organization

– Capable of tackling large or difficult problems, but was also very expensive, necessitating large-scale

funding from governments and private corporations

Science and Technology

• Science was not demilitarized after the war, and

scientists remained a critical part of every major

military establishment

– Both the US and the Soviet Union heavily financed science– After 1945, roughly 25% of all men and women trained in science and engineering in the West and the Soviet Union were employed in weapons research

– Big Science, government spending, and military needs all

came together in the Space Race, which led to the first moon landing in June 1969

Science and Technology

• The changes brought by Big Science changed the

scientific community

– The expansion of government-funded research in the US attracted many of Europe’s best scientists in the 1950s and 1960s

– The scientific community became larger than ever before– Scientists became highly specialized, and scientists now

worked as part of a team and as part of large, bureaucratic organizations

– Modern science became brutally competitive

The Changing Class Structure

• Rapid economic growth helped create a new, more

mobile and more democratic society in Europe after

WWII

• Due to rapid industrial and technological expansion, the

middle class grew massively and became less defined

– In the 19th century, the middle class had consisted of

independent, self-employed individuals, and the key to wealth had been family ties and property

– After 1945, the middle class consisted of managers and

technological experts valued for their ability to serve large

organizations

• Often had backgrounds in engineering or accounting

• Increasingly came from all social classes

The Changing Class Structure

• The lower class also became more flexible and open

– Mass exodus from farms and rural areas

– Industrial working class declined as opportunities for white-collar and service jobs increased

– Resembled the new middle class in that the new

working class were also better educated and more

specialized

The Changing Class Structure

• European governments reduced social tensions by

introducing social security reforms

– Some measures, like unemployment benefits and old-age Some measures, like unemployment benefits and old-age pensions, simply strengthened reforms first introduced by Bismarck

– Some were new, like comprehensive national health care, family allowances for the poor, maternity grants, and

inexpensive public housing

• Reforms promoted equality by raising the standard of

living and by taxing the rich to pay for social security measures

The Changing Class Structure

• The rising standard of living and the spread of standardized consumer goods

also helped ease class tensions

– Car ownership became widely available in Western Europe, going from 5 million cars in 1948 to 44

million in 1968

– “Gadget revolution” and the new social security net made people more willing to take on debt to buy consumer goods

– Post-war Europe saw a huge boom in leisure travel

Youth and the Counterculture

• Influenced by economic prosperity and a more democratic class

structure, the generations born after WWII developed a distinct and international youth culture

• Developed first in the United States

• In the 1950s, young people were called the “Silent Generation”

for being quiet and docile, but there was still some youth

rebellion

– Idolized celebrities like Elvis Presley and James Dean

– Beat movement expanded on the theme of revolt and restlessness felt by

young people in the ’50s

– Developed a new subculture that combined radical politics, new artistic

styles, and personal experimentation

Youth and the Counterculture

• This new subculture soon spread to major American

and Western European cities

• Tied together partly by rock music

– Grew out of the music culture of African-Americans,

particularly rhythm and blues

– Musicians like Bob Dylan expressed the radical political and cultural aspirations of the younger generation

– Music expressed the differences between the WWII generations; the new youth were increasingly

pre-and-post-discontent with middle-class conformity, racial injustices and imperialism

• Sexual behavior of young people changed drastically in the 1960s and the

Youth and the Counterculture

• Several factors contributed to the development of an

international youth culture:

– Mass communications and youth travel linked different countries together

– Postwar baby boom meant that young people were an

unusually large part of the population

– Post-war prosperity gave young people the necessary

purchasing power to set their own trends and mass fads– Availability of good jobs meant young people didn’t fear punishment for unconventional behavior

Youth and the Counterculture

• Youth culture and counterculture fused together in the

1960s

– Student protestors embraced romanticism and revolutionary idealism and condemned materialism and imperialism

• The Vietnam War – many students believed it to be immoral war, and

student opposition intensified as the war went on

• In Western Europe, students also demonstrated against

problems with higher education

– The rapid expansion of higher education after WWII caused problems of overcrowding and fierce competition for grades– Many students felt that they were not getting the kind of

education they needed and that university reforms were

necessary

Youth and the Counterculture

• May 1968

– The tensions within the university system exploded in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when European university students challenged both their universities and their governments

– The revolt with the most far-reaching consequences was the one that occurred in France in 1968

• Students occupied buildings which led to violent clashes with the

police

• Students demanded to have a say in the running of their schools

• Appealed to industrial workers for help; in May 1968 the workers

responded with spontaneous strike across France

Youth and the Counterculture

• De Gaulle’s response

– Moved troops to Paris and called for new elections – Fearful of a revolution and communist takeover, the masses of France voted in favor of de Gaulle’s party – Workers ended the strike and the revolt collapsed

– De Gaulle resigned within the year

The United States and Vietnam

• US involvement in Vietnam was driven by the Cold War and the

ideology of containment

• Toward the beginning of the 1950s, efforts to contain

communism shifted to Asia

– The Korean War (1950-1953) ended in a stalemate and the establishing

the states of North and South Korea

– After the French defeat in Vietnam in 1954, Eisenhower supported South

Vietnam with military aid and Kennedy greatly increased the number of military advisors

– In 1964, Johnson greatly expanded the role of America in the Vietnam

conflict, hoping to escalate the war but not to the point it alarmed the Communist bloc

• South Vietnam received military aid, American forces in Vietnam reached a

• The US strategy backfired, and divided the nation

– Nightly television brought the war into people’s

homes

– Anti-war movement developed on college campuses and joined forces with socialists, New Left

intellectuals, and pacifists to protest the war

– The Tet Offensive (Jan 1968), while technically a

failure for the Vietcong, convinced many that a quick victory was nowhere in sight

The United States and Vietnam

The United States and Vietnam

• Richard Nixon, elected in 1968, attempted to disengage

America from Vietnam

– Nixon increased bombardment while pursuing peace talks with North Vietnam

– Suspended the draft

– Cut American forces from 550,000 to 24,000 in the next four years

– Journeyed to China in 1972 and reached a limited

reconciliation

• Elected again in 1972, Nixon reached a peace

agreement with N Vietnam

The United States and Vietnam

• Watergate undermined Nixon’s successes

– Forced to resign in 1974

– Caused a major shift of power away from the

Presidency to Congress in foreign affairs

• Congress refused a military response to the

invasion of South Vietnam by the North in 1974– Vietnam was reunited as harsh dictorial state

• Left America divided and uncertain about its role

in world affairs

Détente or Cold War?

• Détente: the progressive relaxation of cold war tensions

• West Germany took the lead in creating genuine peace

in Europe, led by Chancellor Willy Brandt (1913-1992)

– Became Chancellor in 1969

– Reconciled with Poland

– Negotiated treaties with the Soviet Union, Poland, and

Czechoslovakia that formally accepted existing state

boundaries in return for a mutual renunciation of force

– Entered into direct relations with East Germany

Détente or Cold War?

• High point of détente was the Helsinki Conference in

1975

– Signed by Canada, the US, and all European nations except Albania

– Agreed that Europe’s existing political boundaries could not

be changed by force and accepted numerous provisions on human rights and political freedoms

– Confidence in the agreement eroded as the Soviet Union continued to ignore the human rights provisions and East-West competition remained outside of Europe

Détente or Cold War?

• Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 further flamed fears that

the oil-rich states of the Middle East might be next

– During Jimmy Carter’s presidency, the Atlantic alliance was not able to act

together and decisively against the Soviet Union

– They again failed to act when the Solidarity movement arose in Poland

• The swing toward conservatism in the 1980s brought Ronald

Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, and Helmut Kohl to office in the

US, Britain, and W Germany

– Thatcher and Reagan were forceful advocates for a stronger Atlantic

alliance, and the pro-American Kohl effectively co-coordinated military and political policy with the US

The Troubled Economy

• On top of political and social changes and instability,

the economic crisis of the early 1970s brought the most serious challenges to the average person

– The postwar monetary system was based on the American dollar

– Due to the billions sent overseas by the American

government because of wars and foreign aid, the US had only

$11 billion worth of gold, compared to Europe, which had

$50 billion

– When people rushed to exchange their dollars for gold,

Nixon halted the sale of American gold

– The value of the dollar dropped sharply, causing inflation

world-wide

The Troubled Economy

• Even more damaging to the economy was the dramatic

reversal in the price and availability of energy

– The postwar boom had been fueled by cheap oil from the

Middle East, especially in Western Europe

– By 1971, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) decided to reverse the trend of declining oil prices

by presenting a united front against oil companies

– During the fourth Arab-Israeli war in October 1973, OPEC declared an embargo on oil shipments to the US, causing the price of crude oil to quadruple

– The US was all but immobilized by Watergate, and the Soviet

The Troubled Economy

• Combined with the upheavals in the international

monetary system, the oil shock plunged the world into the worst economic decline since the 1930s

– Energy-intensive industries that had once led the economy forward now dragged it down, and unemployment rose as standards of living dropped

– The 1979 revolution in Iran created another oil shock as oil production in the country collapsed, causing unemployment and inflation to rise dramatically

The Troubled Economy

• Throughout the ’70s and ’80s, observers worried that

the Common Market would collapse and halt steps to European unity

• However, the European Economic Community

continued to attract new members

– 1973 – Denmark, Britain and Iceland

– 1981 – Greece

– 1986 – Spain and Portugal

• The EEC also began cooperating more closely on

international undertakings

Society in a Time of Economic

Uncertainty

• The most pervasive consequences of the economic stagnation in the 1970s

and early ’80s were psychological, as optimism and romanticism gave way to pessimism and realism

• On the whole, however, the welfare system prevented mass suffering and

Society in a Time of Economic

Uncertainty

• The government’s response to social needs explains the sharp increase in total

government spending in most countries during this time

– People in general were willing to see their

governments spend more, but not raise taxes

– Led to the rapid growth of budget deficits, national debts, and inflation

– Western governments had to introduce austerity

measures to slow down the growth of public

spending

Society in a Time of Economic

Uncertainty

• Scientific projects were often singled out for cuts in government spending

• These reductions helped spur the growth of the computer revolution

– This revolution thrived on the diffusion of ever

cheaper computational and informational capacity to small research groups

Society in a Time of Economic

Uncertainty

• Individuals felt the impact of austerity early and in both

Europe and North America the result was a leaner,

tougher lifestyle

– People paid more attention to health, nutrition, and exercise– Economic troubles strengthened existing family trends:

• Both men and women in Western countries postponed marriage until

they had stable careers

• More women entered or remained in the workforce after marriage;

poor and middle-class wives had to work outside the home out of necessity

• Students of the 1980s were serious and practical

because of the fear of unemployment or

underemployment

The Changing Lives of Women

• The growing emancipation of women in Europe and North

America is one of the significant changes of the entire cold war era

• The struggle for women’s rights goes back to the French

Revolution, but it wasn’t until the latter half of the 19th century did the first wave of organized women’s movements win some rights

• Two important factors led to the rise of a strong and effective

women’s movement:

– Long-term changes in motherhood and work outside the home

– A new wave of feminist thinkers and organizers demanded gender

equality and mobilized a militant women’s movement

Motherhood and Work Outside the

Home

• Before the Industrial Revolution, most men and women married late or not at

all

• With the growth of industry and urban society, people began to marry earlier

and as industrial development resulted in higher standards of living, more children lived to adulthood

• This trend continued in the 20th century; in the 1950s and ’60s, women in the West married early and had children quickly