• Discuss the impact of the Korean War on American society, including its effect on scientific research and development, domestic anti-Communism, the economy, and U.S. foreign policy.

• Describe Eisenhower’s political philosophy and style, as well as his major domestic accomplishments and failures.

• Understand Eisenhower’s approach to national security with regard to both the Soviet Union and the Third World, and outline the key foreign policy decisions he faced.

• Describe the impact of both prosperity and the Cold War on the lifestyles of middle-class, white Americans in the late 1950s, and identify those left behind by the culture of affluence.

• Account for the resurgence of civil rights activism in the mid-to-late 1950s.

1946 Dr. Spock’s Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care published.

1948 Bell Telephone Labs develops the transistor.

Levittown opens on Long Island.

1950 McCarthy’s Wheeling, West Virginia, speech.

Internal Security Act.

Diner’s Club introduces the credit card.

1950–53 The Korean War.

1951 Truman sacks MacArthur.

1952 First U.S. H-bomb test.

McCarran-Walter Act.

Publication of Ralph Ellison’s The Invisible Man.

1953–60 Dwight Eisenhower’s presidency.

1953 Execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.

Stalin’s death.

CIA aids Iranian coup.

1954 Dulles announces Eisenhower’s "New Look" strategy.

The Suez Crisis.

French garrison at Dien Bien Phu surrenders.

Geneva peace conference.

Congress adds "Under God" to Pledge of Allegiance.

Supreme Court rules in Brown v. Board of Education.

Army-McCarthy Hearings..136

1955 United States begins U-2 surveillance flights.

Khruschev rejects DDE’s "Open Skies" initiative.

AFL and CIO merge.

Emmett Till’s murder.

1955–56 Montgomery Bus Boycott.

1956 Eisenhower wins reelection.

Hungarian uprising.

Interstate Highway Act.

1957 Formation of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC).

1958 Test ban talks begin in Geneva.