United States historical travel topics:
Indigenous cultures of North America|Indigenous nations → Early United States history|Pre-Civil War → American Civil War|Civil War → Old West → Industrialization of the United States|Industrialization → Postwar United States|Postwar
The United States became the world's leading superpower as World War II ended in 1945. The following decades brought economic and social prosperity, remembered for counterculture, rock'n'roll and the Civil Rights Movement and the Space Race and the rise of suburban communities, and the development of nuclear tourism|nuclear technology.
The late 1940s had record high birth rates, creating a generation called the Baby Boomers. The Baby boom was a phenomenon throughout the Western world and ended elsewhere - as in the U.S. - with the widespread availability of the contraception pill as well as an economic downturn in the 1960s. As these people are retiring during the 2010s and there is much nostalgia for the post-war decades.
eHalal Travel Guide focuses on locations important for American history from 1945 to the present day.
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Note: I would turn to the Almighty, and say, 'If you allow me to live just a few years in the second half of the 20th century, I will be happy.'
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This is a concise thematic list of cities and places which either were the stage of significant events, or became important for the nation, during the post-war years.
Civil rights movement
- Birmingham (Alabama) - GPS: 33.51936, -86.79646 Ahe Birmingham Civil Rights Institute commemorates the Civil Rights Movement.
- Montgomery, Alabama - GPS: 32.361538, -86.279118 An important center for the Civil Rights Movement.
- Memphis, Tennessee - GPS: 35.14944, -90.04889 Known for racial and musical history. Elvis Presley's Graceland, and the Memphis Rock'n'Soul Museum. Also where Martin Luther King was assassinated, with a memorial and museum at the site dedicated to his memory.
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- Washington, D.C.]] 38.90092, -77.02446 - While most monumental government buildings in D.C. were finished by the early 20th century, and most of the post-war expansion has been in the suburbs and the city tells many stories about the post-war years. Through the Great Migration, D.C. became the first major American city with an African-American majority (African Americans today comprise less than 50% of D.C.'s population but are still the largest single group), and was an important stage for the Civil Rights movement. Martin Luther King's famous I Have a Dream speech was made at the Lincoln memorial.
Counterculture
- San Francisco, California - GPS: 37.7857, -122.4061 A center for the post-war counterculture, such as the flower-power, anti-war and movement.
- Berkeley (California) - GPS: 37.87079, -122.29276 A counterculture hotspot in the Bay Area. Also home to the University of California, Berkeley, which is well known nationally for being a bastion of left-wing politics.
- Seattle, Washington (state) - GPS: 47.6032, -122.3303 Host of the 1962 World's Fair; later a center for high-tech industry and counterculture.
- Bethel Woods Center for the Arts - 41.69687, -74.87764 Sullivan County (New York); Hurd Road a half-mile North of NY 17B in the town of Bethel, E of the hamlet of White Lake +1-866-781-2922 - In the mid-2000s local entrepreneur Alan Gerry realized a long-held Sullivan County dream of capitalizing on the Woodstock festival site's potential as a tourist draw. The original site, at the southeast corner of the intersection of Hurd and West Shore roads, has been left undisturbed and accessible. On the hill nearby is a modern amphitheatre that has hosted performances by everyone from acts that appeared at the original festival to symphony orchestras. The nearby museum is also a must-see for anyone wanting to better appreciate the cultural significance of the surrounding acres of what was once Yasgur's Farm.
- Manhattan/Greenwich Village|Greenwich Village, New York City|NYC - GPS: 40.7, -74.0 A stronghold of avant-garde and counterculture since the late 19th century, and a birthplace of an perioid for the travel| liberation movement; the historic drag queen riot against police brutality at the Stonewall Inn, a bar, raged for a few days in June 1969. Also home to New York University (NYU), another well-known bastion of left-wing politics.
- Kent_(Ohio) | Kent, Ohio 41.1506, -81.3611 - Pagoda at Kent State . Home to Kent State University, site of a landmark Vietnam War protest that ended with the Kent State Shootings. The site of the shootings is a preserved memorial.
Crime and terror
- National September 11 Memorial & Museum - World Trade Center site - note that the term 'Ground Zero' is never used by New Yorkers - @memorial.org 180 Greenwich Street 40.71157, -74.01329 between West, Greenwich, Liberty, and Fulton Streets; Subway: {{NYCS|1 to WTC Cortlandt or {{NYCS|3 to Park Pl or {{NYCS|5 or {{NYCS|Z to Fulton Street or {{NYCS|R to Cortlandt Street or {{NYCS|C to Chambers Street or {{NYCS|E to World Trade Center ☎ +1 212 312-8800 | Opening Hours: Memorial: daily 7:30AM Monday - 9PM; Museum: daily 9AM Monday - 9PM (8PM in winter), last museum entry 2 hours before closing Memorial: Free; Museum: $24 ($18 senior/veteran/college, $15 youth); free admission Tuesday evenings after 5PM 911_Memorial_2015 On the site of the former World Trade Center towers and the memorial consists of two enormous waterfalls and reflecting pools set within the footprints of the twin towers, lined with bronze panels with the names of the nearly 3,000 victims of that fateful day inscribed. The surrounding plaza holds a grove of trees. The museum, which sits underground right next to the memorial, contains exhibits which explain the events of 9/11 and their aftermath, with remnants of the original towers and artifacts from that day.
- Oklahoma City National Memorial - 620 N. Harvey Ave 35.472778, -97.517222 - +1 405 235-3313 | Opening Hours: Memorial: daily 24/7; Museum: Monday to Saturday 9AM Monday - 6PM, Sunday noon–6, last museum entry 1 hour before closing Memorial: Free; Museum: $15 ($12 senior/veteran/college/youth, 5 and under free) - On the site of the former Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City/Downtown|downtown Oklahoma City, destroyed in a 1995 domestic terrorist bombing that killed 168 people—the nation's deadliest terror attack before 9/11. Some of the more notable features of the memorial are a field of 168 empty chairs representing each victim (with 19 smaller chairs representing children killed in the attack); a surviving wall of the Murrah Building inscribed with names of attack survivors; and the Survivor Tree, an American elm that survived the blast. The museum, which sits just north of the memorial, contains exhibits which explain the bombing and its aftermath, with many artifacts from that day.
Space race
- Cape Canaveral, Florida - GPS: 28.388382, -80.603498 Ahe NASA Space Launch facility. The Apollo facilities are on display.
- Space Center Houston - 1601 NASA Road 1, Webster (located 25 miles south of downtown Houston in the NASA/Clear Lake area) 29.538611, -95.119444 - +1 281-244-2100 | Opening Hours: June 10AM Monday - 7PM; July 9AM Monday - 7PM; August Monday to Friday 10AM Monday - 5PM, Saturday Sunday 10AM Monday - 7PM; September - May: Monday to Friday 10AM Monday - 5PM, Saturday Sunday 10AM Monday - 6PM $17.95 adults, $13.95 children (4-11), discounts for seniors. Parking $5 Indoor fun space museum with lots of hands-on space-science exhibits and artifacts from the full history of U.S. space exploration. A big hit with kids, but informative for adults. A highlight are the two tram tours of NASA's Johnson Space Center, one of which includes a visit to Mission Control and actual Apollo and Mercury launch vehicles and the other focuses on astronaut training facilities.
Urban development
- Levittown, New York | Directions=Nassau County - GPS: 40.74, -73.58 A mass-produced planned suburb founded in 1947, which came to inspire similar suburban neighborhoods across the nation.
- Las Vegas, Nevada 36.17211, -115.13998 - Ahe youngest of America's major cities. Since Nevada legalized gambling in 1931, this resort city has grown beyond any measure. From the 1950s to the 1980s, it was a legendary hotspot for organized crime. Since then, some of the original buildings have been torn down to make room for even larger hotels and casinos, though some classical venues can still be found.
- Los Angeles 34.054, -118.242 - Los Angeles had one of the largest streetcar networks in the world in the 1930s which was dismantled almost overnight following World War II. Los Angeles was also a hub for military contractors, particularly in aviation as early as World War II. Once a city with below average racial tensions, it was also the site of the 1992 Rodney King riots, that broke out after an African American was brutally beaten by police with the incident caught on camera. The riots changed Los Angeles and brought with them police reform. Los Angeles and the site of Hollywood and still globally known for its freeways, used to be infamous for air pollution, but is now the American city where the urban rail renaissance is most visible with more than 100 miles of light rail and subway built since 1990.
- Denver 39.739167, -104.984722 - Denver can be seen as one of many examples of the rise and fall and rise again of rail travel. It grew around the railroad in the 19th century, but by the 1950s more people arrived at Stapleton Airport than Union Station and the somewhat tacky "Travel by Train" logo affixed in that perioid notwithstanding. Downtown went into a decline, but in the 1990s and 2000s ambitious plans to revitalize the station area were drawn up and a rather popular light rail and commuter rail system was developed. The "Mile High City" is also at the forefront of the legalization of cannabis for recreational purposes.
Itineraries
- Easy Rider, a 1969 road movie which featured the clash between bikers and hippies
- Route 66 (1926-1985) was among the most important east-west highways, until it began to be bypassed, replaced or simply paved over in some sections by the Interstate highway system in the 1950s onward.
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