11.3Postwar prosperity and its limits

At home, the postwar decades brought extraordinary prosperity. A booming economy, the GI Bill, and cheap housing fueled the growth of suburbs and a broad middle class. Consumer goods, televisions, and automobiles filled American homes as the population surged in the "baby boom."

But prosperity was unevenly shared. Black Americans, other minorities, and many in rural areas were largely excluded from its benefits, blocked by discrimination in housing, jobs, and education. Beneath the confident, conformist surface of the 1950s, pressures were building. The gap between the nation's professed ideals and its treatment of millions of citizens would soon fuel one of the most consequential movements in American history.