The 1950s Facts

Brain Snacks

Eisenhower's nickname, "Ike," was a shortening of his last name, not his first. When he was a child he was called "Little Ike," since his brother Edgar was "Big Ike." America's birth rate in the 19...

Quotes

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed." "Against the...

Statistics

Rank of Eisenhower, in a 1962 poll of historians asked to rank the best presidents: 22 Rank in 1982: 9 Rank in 2009: 8 Number of viewers who watched Eisenhower's Inaugural: 29 million Number who wa...

Acronyms

House Un-American Activities Committee Strategic Air Command

Glossary

Affluent Society The prosperous American economy of the 1950s. The term was coined by economist John Kenneth Galbraith in 1958, but he was in fact critical of what he called "private opulence and p...