Reed Mueller
p. 4a
5-1-12

The 1950’s (Happy Days)

The 1950’s were called the “Happy Days” for multiple reasons. We were finished with a huge war, and our economy was booming. Social, political and economic policies were popping up everywhere. Many things define why the 1950’s were the “Happy Days” in the U.S. Whether it was the end of the Korean War for the U.S. or the economic boom that helped define what we call the “American Dream” the 1950’s were great times for America. During the 1950’ many public and social booms happened. For instance the Baby Boom was huge in the 1950’s. In 1957 it was estimated that 1 baby was born every 7 seconds. (Silverman 1) Also suburban living was expanding and becoming very common. Starting in …show more content…
Apart from social highs in the 1950’s, many political highs arose throughout the 1950’s. Even though the Korean War started for the U.S. in 1950, it ended for us in all of but 3 years. And it didn’t put a huge toll on us either.(World 1-2) Also Dwight D. Eisenhower was elected as President of the United States in 1952, with future President Richard Nixon as his Vice President.(World 2) Joseph Stalin died on March 5th, 1953.(2) This was a big deal around the World because Stalin was one of the main Communist leaders. In 1956, Eisenhower was reelected for his second term as President of the United States.(World 3) In 1957, the Russians launched the “Sputnik I” into space.(Silverman 7) This led to the craze in aliens and science fiction. Throughout the 1950’s, the United States economy flourished with an “economic boom”. But what led to the United States having an economic boom? Well one of the main reasons was automation.(Silverman 3) Automation is the installment of machines to do the work for people. And even though it made American citizens lose jobs it also improved production speed and efficiency by a lot. But in the process it also created jobs. Even though people got replaced by machines they now