wwii homefront
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by Rick Fair on Nov 02, 2010TRANSCRIPT
The Home Front
Mobilizing the WarWorld War II transformed the role of the
national governmentThe government built housing for war
workers and forced civilian industries to retool for war production
The Home Front
Business and WarFDR offered incentives to business to spur
production○ Low interest loans○ Tax concessions○ Contracts with guaranteed profits
Americans produced an astonishing amount of wartime goods and utilized science and technology
The Home Front
Business and WarThe West Coast emerged as a focus of
military-industrial production○ Nearly 2 million Americans moved to
California for jobs in defense-related industries
The South remained very poor despite the influx of manufacturing
The Home Front
Labor in WartimeOrganized labor entered a three-sided
arrangement with government and business that allowed union membership to soar to unprecedented levels
Unions became firmly established in many sectors of the economy during World War II
The Four Freedoms To FDR, the Four
Freedoms expressed deeply held American values worthy of being spread worldwide
The Four Freedoms
Freedom of SpeechGold standard for the Constitution
(democracy) Freedom of Religion
Gold standard for the critique of the Holocaust
Even though most Americans and politicians at the time considered it a farce and could not believe humans would treat each other so poorly
Freedom of Speech
The Four Freedoms Freedom from Want
The gold standard for economic policies for the rest of the 20th century
Elimination of barriers to international trade○ Protecting the standard of living from falling after the war
Freedom from FearThe gradual disarmament of the entire worldHelp prevent tyranny (Italy, Germany) from happening
again “human security” paradigm the gradual shift from the collective to the individual,
Rockwell’s painting shows this very well
Freedom from Want
Freedom from Fear
The Fifth Freedom
The war witnessed a burst of messages marketing advertisers’ definition of freedomThe emergence of free enterprise
Taxes v. Bonds
Investments in Bonds
Audience Slogans Ideas Energy & Capital
The War Effort and Propaganda
Propaganda
Changes in Wartime Production
Rubber
Gas Rationing
Scrap Metal
Scrap Metal
Sugar
More Sugar Concerns
Christmas 1942
Gum Lingerie Grease Juke Boxes Toasters Blenders Cars Toothpaste
Shoes Coffee Kettles Nylon hose Erasers Glass jars Tin cans Tea
Examples of other random items
A few pessimistic views
Right to work. Right to fair pay. Right to adequate food. Right to security. Right to live in a society of free enterprise. Right to come and go. Right to speak or be silent. Right to equality before the law. Right to rest. Right to an education.
A New Bill of Rights?
Right to work, if you are white. Right to fair pay, if you are male. Right to adequate food, if you register for and comply with food
rationing programs. Right to security, if you were not drafted. Right to live in a society of free enterprise, if one excludes the
government’s price and wage ceilings and orders that halted production on all the common items one needs to live.
Right to come and go, if the person does not need new shoes, more gasoline, decent tires, a new car, or a new bicycle.
Right to speak or be silent, as long as one speaks positively about the war, and is silent about the legitimacy of rationing claims.
Right to equality before the law, if it is “Separate but Equal” before the law.
Right to rest, but only on Christmas Day. And a right to an education, if the cotton is not in bloom and ready
to be picked by child laborers.
Realities
Women at War
Women in 1944 made up over 1/3 of the civilian labor force
New opportunities opened up for married women and mothers
Women’s work during the war was viewed by men and the government as temporary
The advertisers’ “world of tomorrow” rested on a vision of family-centered prosperity
The American Dilemma
Patriotic AssimilationWorld War II created a vast melting pot,
especially for European immigrants and their children○ Roosevelt promoted pluralism as the only
source of harmony in a diverse societyGovernment and private agencies eagerly
promoted group equality as the definition of Americanism and a counterpoint to Nazism
The American Dilemma
Patriotic AssimilationBy the war’s end, racism and nativism had
been stripped of its intellectual respectability○ However, intolerance hardly disappeared from
American life
The American Dilemma
Asian-Americans in WartimeAsian-Americans’ war experience was filled
with paradoxChinese exclusion was abolishedJapanese were viewed by American as a
detested foeThe American government viewed every
person of Japanese ethnicity as a potential spy
The American Dilemma
Japanese-American InternmentThe military persuaded FDR to issue
Executive Order 9066Internment revealed how easily war can
undermine basic freedoms○ Hardly anyone spoke out against internment○ The courts refused to intervene
The government marketed war bonds to the internees and drafted them into the army
Blacks and the War The wartime message of freedom ushered a
major transformation in the status of blacks The war spurred a movement of black
population from the rural South to the cities of the North and WestDetroit race riot
During the war, over 1 million blacks served in the armed forces
Black soldiers sometimes had to give up their seats on railroad cars to accommodate Nazi prisoners of war
Birth of the Civil Rights Movement The war years witnessed the birth of the
modern civil rights movement March on Washington
Black labor leader A. Philip Randolph called for the march in July 1941
Executive Order 8802Prohibited government contractors from
engaging in employment discrimination based on race, color, or national origin
Birth of the Civil Rights Movement The Double V
The double-V meant that victory over Germany and Japan must be accompanied by victory over segregation at home
What the Negro WantsDuring the war, a broad political coalition on the left
called for an end to racial inequality in America○ The status of blacks becomes an issue at the forefront of
enlightened liberalismCIO unions made significant efforts to organize black
workers and win access to skilled positions The South reacts by attempting to preserve white
supremacy
The End of the War
The Atomic BombOne of the most momentous decisions ever
confronted by an American president fell to Harry Truman
The bomb was a practical realization of the theory of relativity
The Manhattan Project developed an atomic bomb
The End of the War The Dawn of the Atomic Age
On 6 August 1945, an American bomber dropped an atomic bomb that detonated over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan
Because of the enormous cost in civilian lives, the use of the bomb remains controversial○ Allied military forces reasoned the use of the bomb
saved roughly half a million Allied soldiers’ livesThe dropping of the atomic bombs was the logical
culmination of the war World War II had been fought○ A total threat requires a total response