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 Address: 29 million Numbe...
Acronyms
Atomic Energy Commission Central Intelligence Agency House Un-American Activities Committee National Aeronautics and Space Administration North Atlantic Treaty Organization 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...