1946 (Essay)

1946

The year 1946 was quite eventful and consisted of numerous marks in history. Within this year, the Baby Boom, as well as the first US rocket to leave Earth's atmosphere in a private manned spaceflight occurred. Also, the American Dream in this time period is both similar and different from the American Dream portrayed in The Great Gatsby.

The definition of the Baby Boom was a temporary marked increase in the birth rate, which in this case, is the one following World War II. The baby boom generation is the large group of about 80 million people that were born in the United States from 1946 to 1964. After World War II ended, young men (war veterans) returned to the United States, Canada, and Australia. Once reunited with their loved ones, they decided to start families. This soon became a problem, and we are still affected by it today. For the numbers of babies being born, a lot more jobs were going to be needed, as well as government services. The demand for health care and social security are greatly increasing as we speak. Since 2010, the number of Americans over 65 have reached about 40 million, and estimated to be 72 million by 2030.

On March 22nd of the year 1946, history was made. We had built a rocket, the V-2, and it successfully left the Earth's atmosphere. After a couple months of building this fine aircraft and having it successfully launch, the United States Army started to build some of their own. Two V-2's were programmed to take on the task that the first V-2 had completed. On October 24th, one of the two had launched and successfully made it 65 miles above our planet.

In the year of 1946, the American Dream wasn't much different as the one portrayed in The Great Gatsby. In The Great Gatsby, the American Dream was portrayed in terms of good health, hard-working, wealth, and romance, or love. In 1946, the Baby Boom strongly represented the American Dream in its time period. The ideal dream was to have a happy, successful family. The Baby Boom portrays this idea since it was the act of getting married and having children, as well as being financially well and happy. Cars also played an important part of the American Dream at the time. If one had a car, it showed that he was wealthy and if he had a family, he was 'the man'. The American Dream in Gatsby mainly revolves around the fame and fortune and falling in love. The American Dream in 1946 moreover revolved around admiring America- a land of bounty, beauty, and unlimited promise.

Rocket plane leaves Earth's atmosphere in history's first private manned spaceflight

In January, the U.S. outer space research program was started with captured V-2 rockets. A V-2 panel of representatives of interested agencies was formed, and more than 60 rockets were fired before the supply was finally exhausted. On March 15, the first American built V-2 rocket was static-fired at the White Sands Proving Grounds.

The first American-built rocket to leave the earth's atmosphere (the WAC) was launched on March 22nd. It was launched from White Sands, and attained 50 miles of altitude.

The U.S. Army began a program to develop two stage rockets. This resulted in the WAC Corporal as the 2nd stage of a V-2. On October 24th, a V-2 with a motion picture camera was launched. It recorded images from 65 miles above the earth, covering 40,000 square miles. On December 17th, the first night-flight of a V-2 occurred. It achieved a record making 116 miles of altitude, and velocity of 3600 mph.

German rocket engineers arrived in Russia to begin work with Soviet rocket research groups. Sergei Korolev built rockets using technology from the V-2.

The Baby Boom

THE BABY BOOM

What explains this baby boom? Some historians have argued that it was a part of a desire for normalcy after 16 years of depression and war. Others have argued that it was a part of a Cold War campaign to fight communism by outnumbering communists.

Did You Know?

In 1966, Time magazine declared that “the Generation Twenty-Five and Under” would be its “Persons of the Year.”

Most likely, however, the postwar baby boom happened for more quotidian reasons. Older Americans, who had postponed marriage and childbirth during the Great Depression and World War II, were joined in the nation’s maternity wards by young adults who were eager to start families. (In 1940, the average American woman got married when she was almost 22 years old; in 1956, the average American woman got married when she was just 20. And just 8 percent of married women in the 1940s opted not to have children, compared to 15 percent in the 1930s.)

Many people in the postwar era looked forward to having children because they were confident that the future would be one of comfort and prosperity. In many ways, they were right: Corporations grew larger and more profitable, labor unions promised generous wages and benefits to their members, and consumer goods were more plentiful and affordable than ever before. As a result, many Americans felt certain that they could give their families all the material things that they themselves had done without.

MOVING TO THE SUBURBS

The baby boom and the suburban boom went hand in hand. Almost as soon as World War II ended, developers such as William Levitt (whose “Levittowns” in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania would become the most famous symbols of suburban life in the 1950s) began to buy land on the outskirts of cities and use mass-production techniques to build modest, inexpensive tract houses there. The G.I. Bill subsidized low-cost mortgages for returning soldiers, which meant that it was often cheaper to buy one of these suburban houses than it was to rent an apartment in the city.

These houses were perfect for young families–they had informal “family rooms,” open floor plans and backyards–and so suburban developments earned nicknames like “Fertility Valley” and “The Rabbit Hutch.” By 1960, suburban baby boomers and their parents comprised one-third of the population of the United States.

THE BABY BOOM & THE “FEMININE MYSTIQUE”

The suburban baby boom had a particularly confining effect on women. Advice books and magazine articles (“Don’t Be Afraid to Marry Young,” “Cooking To Me Is Poetry,” “Femininity Begins At Home”) urged women to leave the workforce and embrace their roles as wives and mothers. The idea that a woman’s most important job was to bear and rear children was hardly a new one, but it took on a new significance in the postwar era. First, it placed the baby boomers squarely at the center of the suburban universe. Second, it generated a great deal of dissatisfaction among women who yearned for a more fulfilling life. (In her 1963 book “The Feminine Mystique,” women’s-rights advocate Betty Friedan argued that the suburbs were “burying women alive.”) This dissatisfaction, in turn, contributed to the rebirth of the feminist movement in the 1960s.

THE BOOMER MARKET

Consumer goods played an important role in middle-class life during the postwar era. Adults participated eagerly in the consumer economy, using new-fangled credit cards and charge accounts to buy things like televisions, hi-fi systems and new cars. But manufacturers and marketers had their eyes on another group of shoppers as well: the millions of relatively affluent boomer children, many of whom could be persuaded to participate in all kinds of consumer crazes. Baby boomers bought mouse-ear hats to wear while they watched “The Mickey Mouse Club” and coonskin caps to wear while they watched Walt Disney’s TV specials about Davy Crockett. They bought rock and roll records, danced along with “American Bandstand” and swooned over Elvis Presley. They collected hula hoops, Frisbees and Barbie dolls. A 1958 story in Life magazine declared that “kids” were a “built-in recession cure.” (“4,000,000 a Year Make Millions in Business,” the article’s headline read.)

THE BOOMER COUNTERCULTURE

As they grew older, some baby boomers began to resist this consumerist suburban ethos. They began to fight instead for social, economic and political equality and justice for many disadvantaged groups: African-Americans, young people, women, gays and lesbians, American Indians and Hispanics, for example. Student activists took over college campuses, organized massive demonstrations against the war in Vietnam and occupied parks and other public places. Young people also participated in the wave of uprisings that shook American cities from Newark to Los Angeles in the 1960s.

Other baby boomers “dropped out” of political life altogether. These “hippies” grew their hair long, experimented with drugs, and–thanks to the newly-accessible birth-control pill–practiced “free love.” Some even moved to communes, as far away from Levittown as they could get.

BABY BOOMERS TODAY

Today, the oldest baby boomers are already in their 60s. By 2030, about one in five Americans will be older than 65, and some experts believe that the aging of the population will place a strain on social welfare systems.