Truman Presidency Exhibit - Harry S. Truman Presidential Museum & Library

POSTWAR AMERICA

In August 1945, Americans celebrated the end of the most destructive war in history. But, their joy was mixed with concern. Many feared peace would bring the return of the Depression as defense factories closed and millions of ex-soldiers flooded the nation's labor market. The postwar years did bring strife to the nation, but it took a different form. The pent-up consumer demands of years of depression and war soon ended concerns about joblessness. Instead, the chief problems of the postwar period because shortages, inflation and labor unrest as the difficult process of converting the American economy from war to peace began. President Truman soon had his hands full trying to balance the often-clashing interests of consumers, labor and business.

Postwar America This area is divided into two sections.

The first details the challenges of converting from a wartime to the peacetime economy. The exhibit includes a red background to signify to the visitor that it was a period of uncertainty. Photographs showing the GI's returning home, the housing and job shortages, the rising consumer prices, and various labor strikes are included. A video monitor shows a loop of period newsreels illustrating the theme of postwar reconversion. The second area in the center of the room is devoted to President Truman's attempts to guide the nation through the difficult period of reconversion.

Boom Period The second section focuses on the postwar economic boom that the nation began to experience after 1947 and which continued for years thereafter. America's standard of living soared, suburbia was born, and new appliances, televisions, and a host of other material goods entered the consumer culture. A refrigerator, stuffed with food and supplies, dominates this area, while a 1950 vintage television set displays a video loop of television shows, commercials, weather forecasts, and other television images from the early 1950s.

Two sets of soundsticks allow visitors to listen to the voices of Americans who experienced the hardships of reconversion and the beginnings of the postwar prosperity.

Two flipbooks also appear in this area. An "In His Own Words" flipbook features a series of Truman's letters and diary entries dealing with the problems of economic reconversion, his declining popularity, and the success of the Republican Party in the 1946 elections. A "Dissenting Views" flipbook features the opinions of critics of the domestic economy. Also displayed in this area are newspaper and magazine articles about the postwar economic challenges along with press accounts and advertisements describing the expansion of the American economy and the vast growth of the consumer culture during the late 1940s and early 1950s.

Featured documents in this section of the exhibit: