Andrew Needham
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691139067
- eISBN:
- 9781400852406
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691139067.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
This chapter focuses on the Valley of the Sun. “The Valley of the Sun” was not only an idealized place. It was also a political project, the result of two of the most powerful forces in the postwar ...
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This chapter focuses on the Valley of the Sun. “The Valley of the Sun” was not only an idealized place. It was also a political project, the result of two of the most powerful forces in the postwar American political economy. The first was the ongoing legacy of New Deal policies that sought to fuel the national economy through debt-driven personal consumption. Part of the general postwar economic philosophy historians have labeled “growth liberalism” offered federal loan guarantees to a select population of white Americans choosing suburban living. The resulting “landscape of mass consumption” was plainly evident in Phoenix, both in the huge numbers of homes built after World War II and in the increasing numbers of electrical appliances that filled them. Local efforts to attract these consumers, and the potential capital they embodied, was the second force that created the Valley of the Sun.Less
This chapter focuses on the Valley of the Sun. “The Valley of the Sun” was not only an idealized place. It was also a political project, the result of two of the most powerful forces in the postwar American political economy. The first was the ongoing legacy of New Deal policies that sought to fuel the national economy through debt-driven personal consumption. Part of the general postwar economic philosophy historians have labeled “growth liberalism” offered federal loan guarantees to a select population of white Americans choosing suburban living. The resulting “landscape of mass consumption” was plainly evident in Phoenix, both in the huge numbers of homes built after World War II and in the increasing numbers of electrical appliances that filled them. Local efforts to attract these consumers, and the potential capital they embodied, was the second force that created the Valley of the Sun.
Tula A. Connell
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- April 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780252039904
- eISBN:
- 9780252098062
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252039904.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Political History
In the 1950s, Milwaukee's strong union movement and socialist mayor seemed to embody a dominant liberal consensus that sought to continue and expand the New Deal. This book explores how business ...
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In the 1950s, Milwaukee's strong union movement and socialist mayor seemed to embody a dominant liberal consensus that sought to continue and expand the New Deal. This book explores how business interests and political conservatives arose to undo that consensus, and how the resulting clash both shaped a city and helped redefine postwar American politics. The book focuses on Frank Zeidler, the city's socialist mayor. Zeidler's broad concept of the public interest at times defied even liberal expectations. At the same time, a resurgence of conservatism with roots presaging twentieth-century politics challenged his initiatives in public housing, integration, and other areas. As the book shows, conservatives created an anti-progressive game plan that included a well-funded media and public relations push; an anti-union assault essential to the larger project of delegitimizing any government action; opposition to civil rights; and support from a suburban silent majority. In the end, the campaign undermined notions of the common good essential to the New Deal order. It also sowed the seeds for grassroots conservatism's more extreme and far-reaching future success.Less
In the 1950s, Milwaukee's strong union movement and socialist mayor seemed to embody a dominant liberal consensus that sought to continue and expand the New Deal. This book explores how business interests and political conservatives arose to undo that consensus, and how the resulting clash both shaped a city and helped redefine postwar American politics. The book focuses on Frank Zeidler, the city's socialist mayor. Zeidler's broad concept of the public interest at times defied even liberal expectations. At the same time, a resurgence of conservatism with roots presaging twentieth-century politics challenged his initiatives in public housing, integration, and other areas. As the book shows, conservatives created an anti-progressive game plan that included a well-funded media and public relations push; an anti-union assault essential to the larger project of delegitimizing any government action; opposition to civil rights; and support from a suburban silent majority. In the end, the campaign undermined notions of the common good essential to the New Deal order. It also sowed the seeds for grassroots conservatism's more extreme and far-reaching future success.
Patrick Q. Mason (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- January 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781501716737
- eISBN:
- 9781501716744
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9781501716737.003.0014
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History
This chapter talks about Ezra Taft Benson who commenced work as secretary of agriculture in the Dwight D. Eisenhower administration in 1953, while serving as one of the twelve apostles of the Church ...
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This chapter talks about Ezra Taft Benson who commenced work as secretary of agriculture in the Dwight D. Eisenhower administration in 1953, while serving as one of the twelve apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It describes Benson as a central figure in postwar American politics who represented the confluence and conflict between the various stripes of Mormon and American conservatism. It also discusses how Benson was the subject of national media interest and scrutiny in the 1950s and 1960. The chapter points out how Benson often took clear and controversially conservative positions on many of the historic conflicts of the twentieth century, such as anticommunism, the women's movement, international and domestic conflicts, and the culture wars. It traces American public representations of Mormonism by looking at Benson as a media filter.Less
This chapter talks about Ezra Taft Benson who commenced work as secretary of agriculture in the Dwight D. Eisenhower administration in 1953, while serving as one of the twelve apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It describes Benson as a central figure in postwar American politics who represented the confluence and conflict between the various stripes of Mormon and American conservatism. It also discusses how Benson was the subject of national media interest and scrutiny in the 1950s and 1960. The chapter points out how Benson often took clear and controversially conservative positions on many of the historic conflicts of the twentieth century, such as anticommunism, the women's movement, international and domestic conflicts, and the culture wars. It traces American public representations of Mormonism by looking at Benson as a media filter.
