“Economic growth was indeed the most decisive force in the…
“Economic growth was indeed the most decisive force in the shaping of attitudes and expectations in the postwar era. The prosperity of the period broadened gradually in the late 1940s, accelerated in the 1950s, and soared to unimaginable heights in the 1960s. By then it was a boom that astonished observers. One economist, writing about the twenty-five years following World War II, put it simply by saying that this was a ‘quarter century of sustained growth at the highest rates in recorded history.’ Former Prime Minister Edward Heath of Great Britain agreed, observing that the United States at the time was enjoying ‘the greatest prosperity the world has ever known.’” — James T. Patterson, historian, Grand Expectations: The United States, 1945–1974, published in 1996. One significant result of the economic trend described in the excerpt was the