G.I. Bill & Home Life
This 1944 act transformed life for veterans by providing tuition, home loans, and unemployment benefits.
What is the G.I. Bill
The general term for the widespread anti-communist paranoia and suspicion within the United States during the Cold War.
What is the Red Scare?
The name of the Soviet satellite launched in 1957 that shocked the U.S. and intensified the Space Race.
What is Sputnik?
The term for the military theory where a full-scale use of nuclear weapons by two opposing sides would result in the destruction of both.
What is Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD)?
The two leading world superpowers after World War II, whose competition defined the Cold War.
Who are the United States and the Soviet Union (USSR)?
The demographic trend from 1946-1964 characterized by a significant increase in births, leading to a large generation.
What is the Baby Boom?
This senator gained notoriety for his aggressive campaign to expose alleged communists in government and other institutions.
Who is Joe McCarthy?
This U.S. agency was created in 1958 to lead America's efforts in space exploration and research.
What is NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration)?
This event in 1962 was the closest the world came to a full-scale nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union.
What is the Cuban Missile Crisis?
This president issued executive orders in 1948 to desegregate the armed forces and ensure fair employment practices in the federal government.
Who is President Truman?
A common discriminatory practice that limited where African American veterans could buy homes, often in conjunction with "restrictive covenants.
What is redlining?
This congressional committee was primarily tasked with investigating alleged disloyalty and communist ties, famously targeting Hollywood.
What is the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC)?
This was President Kennedy's major promise regarding space exploration in 1961, fulfilled by the end of the decade.
What is to land a man on the Moon and return him safely to Earth?
One way the "fear of atomic destruction" manifested in American daily life and popular culture.
What are the construction of fallout shelters, civil defense drills, or themes in movies and literature?
How the experiences of African American WWII veterans, facing discrimination at home, impacted the Civil Rights Movement.
What is it served as a powerful catalyst, highlighting hypocrisy and galvanizing the movement?
This factor, along with affordable housing and the G.I. Bill, was a primary reason for the widespread move from cities to suburbs.
What is the expansion of the highway system (or increased car ownership)?
This couple was accused of spying for the Soviet Union and executed for espionage during the Red Scare.
Who are Julius and Ethel Rosenberg?
This act, passed in response to Sputnik, significantly increased federal funding for science, mathematics, and foreign languages in education.
What is the National Defense Education Act (NDEA)?
The primary reason the Cuban Missile Crisis was triggered.
What is the Soviet Union's attempt to place nuclear missiles in Cuba?
A cultural movement that emerged in the early Cold War era, critiquing materialism and conformity through literature and lifestyle.
What is the Beat Generation?
This describes the societal expectation for women in the 1950s, emphasizing domestic duties and family life.
What is being a homemaker, wife, and mother (or focusing on domesticity)?
The significance of Alger Hiss's conviction during the Red Scare, even though he was charged with perjury.
What is it fueled public fears of communist infiltration at the highest levels of the U.S. government?
This explains why space became a new arena of competition, beyond just scientific curiosity.
What is technological advancements in space demonstrated scientific and military superiority, serving as a powerful propaganda tool?
The specific outcome of the Cuban Missile Crisis regarding the missiles.
What is the Soviets agreed to remove missiles from Cuba in exchange for the U.S. removing missiles from Turkey (and a promise not to invade Cuba)?
This concept explains how the G.I. Bill, despite its universal aims, perpetuated racial and gender inequalities, providing specific examples for each.
What is the discriminatory application of benefits through practices like redlining and steering women into certain roles?