Chapter 34: The Great Depression and the New Deal, 1933-1939
The Great Depression wasn't actually that great; in fact, it was pretty terrible. Almost everyone who lived through it can tell you that. Unemployment peaked at 25% at one point, and it was closer to 33% if you included the agricultural sector. Things were bad, and in 1932, Herbert Hoover halfheartedly ran for reelection on the campaign slogan "It Could Have Been Worse."
My... so inspiring. But the 1932 election was monumental, for it game the United States Franklin Delano Roosevelt as its President. FDR was the right man at the right time, and he believed that bold government action was the only way to reverse the tide of economic woe that was the Great Depression. (He was right... but John Maynard Keynes wasn't influential enough to demonstrate this just yet.) FDR's New Deal programs put millions of Americans back to work and helped rebuild the economy. However, the New Deal has faced lasting criticism as too evocative of "big government." The legacy of this program is somewhat cloudy: while Social Security provided a safety net for all Americans, especially those most at risk of being economic marginalized, it is also completely financially untenable unless drastic changes are made in the next few years. Perhaps most importantly, though, the New Deal demonstrated that the federal government could achieve unity of purpose and drastically alter the direction in which the United States was heading-- a very important ability with World War II on the horizon. |
Chapter 35: Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Shadow of War, 1933-1941
The 1930s was a dangerous time for the world, particularly if you happened to be a democracy. Though the United States remained a free and open society, a great number of European countries fell under the popular sway of Fascism and totalitarian governments. Then, in September of 1939, after continually poking and prodding and getting as much territory as he could, Adolf Hitler kicked off World War II by invading Poland. Though the United States did not join the war until over two years later, they tacitly provided aid to the Allies, through programs like the "Destroyer Deal" and the Lend-Lease Act.
And then, when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941, the United States kicked their war production into high gear and began the long slog through World War II. |
Chapter 36: America in World War II, 1941-1945
World War II gave us many things (not least of which is the stellar propaganda poster at right). It helped to unite the country in ways that had never happened during World War I. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, millions of Americans mobilized to put the nation on a war footing. A year earlier, President Roosevelt had ordered the first peacetime draft in American history, but that was a drop in the bucket compared to what was going to happen in the ensuing four years. By the end of the war in 1945, 15 millions American men and women were under arms.
World War II also gave us the rise of the Fascist dictators. Hitler and Mussolini, of Germany and Italy, respectively, were first among this band of awful despots, but Hideki Tojo of Japan was no saint, either. Many, many people believed the messages that these men, particularly Hitler, were spewing. Hitler, himself a veteran of the First World War, crafted a finely-tuned message that it was the Jews who were at fault for all of Germany's ills. It was the Jews, he claimed, who had stabbed Germany in the back and knocked them out of the war in 1918. He also claimed that the Jews were hoarding money in Germany, and that this was the reason that the country was going through an economic recession in the 1920s and then suffered the ill effects of the Great Depression in the 1930s.
Unfortunately, antisemitism in Europe is nothing new. It's been present since at least the Middle Ages. Sadly, Hitler took it one step further: the Holocaust. The Holocaust was Adolf Hitler's systematic attempt to wipe out the entirety of the Jewish people. Before the war, over 8 million Jews resided in Europe. Over six million of them were killed in Hitler's concentration camps. The hatred, cruelty, and utter inhumanity of the Nazi regime is the lasting legacy of the Third Reich.
World War II also gave us the rise of the Fascist dictators. Hitler and Mussolini, of Germany and Italy, respectively, were first among this band of awful despots, but Hideki Tojo of Japan was no saint, either. Many, many people believed the messages that these men, particularly Hitler, were spewing. Hitler, himself a veteran of the First World War, crafted a finely-tuned message that it was the Jews who were at fault for all of Germany's ills. It was the Jews, he claimed, who had stabbed Germany in the back and knocked them out of the war in 1918. He also claimed that the Jews were hoarding money in Germany, and that this was the reason that the country was going through an economic recession in the 1920s and then suffered the ill effects of the Great Depression in the 1930s.
Unfortunately, antisemitism in Europe is nothing new. It's been present since at least the Middle Ages. Sadly, Hitler took it one step further: the Holocaust. The Holocaust was Adolf Hitler's systematic attempt to wipe out the entirety of the Jewish people. Before the war, over 8 million Jews resided in Europe. Over six million of them were killed in Hitler's concentration camps. The hatred, cruelty, and utter inhumanity of the Nazi regime is the lasting legacy of the Third Reich.
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The war in the Pacific was vastly different from the European War. In the Pacific, fanatical Japanese troops resisted American offensives on several major island campaigns, including the Marianas, Tarawa, Saipan, and the Philippines. Then, the battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa caused such heavy casualties, as well as the appearance of the dreaded kamikaze suicide planes, that some Americans began to wonder just how many people would be killed by a full-scale invasion of Japan.
The video at left examines the decision made by Harry Truman to drop the atomic bomb on Japan. As you watch it, think about what you would have done if you had been in President Truman's shoes. Also, consider whether or not you believe that there are good guys in war. |
Chapter 37: The Cold War Begins, 1945-1952
Very rarely do you have a historical bookend as definite as the start of the Cold War. From the moment that the mushroom cloud first appeared over Nagasaki, the Cold War, and its accompanying arms race, was on. The United States had the bomb; the Soviets were going to do everything in their power to get it. Although the Cold War did have its share of military conflicts, namely in Korea and Vietnam, there was plenty on "non-military" wrangling going on. For example, the Marshall Plan gave billions of dollars in aid to the ruined countries of Western Europe; these nations experienced an economic miracle and were soon producing more goods than they had been prior to the war. The Soviets, meanwhile, installed friendly Communist puppets in the places that the Red Army had liberated, such as Hungary, Poland, East Germany, Bulgaria, and Czechoslovakia.
Domestically, though, America was doing very well. Aside from the ever-present specter of nuclear annihilation (what would life be without such risks?), the United States enjoyed an unparalleled period of prosperity in the post-war years. Much of this can be attributed to the GI Bill of Rights, which paved the way for returning military members (over 15 million in 1945) to attend college, buy a house, or start a business. This piece of legislation massively increased the number of college-educated Americans, and greatly expanded the middle class.
Also during this period, Richard Nixon and Joe McCarthy chased Communists, Arthur Miller reflected popular American fears of witch-hunting in The Crucible, the Korean War happened, and, unlike after World War I, the United States exhibited a strong internationalist streak by first helping to found NATO, and then signing or observing several international mutual-security treaties. Take that, Henry Cabot Lodge!
Domestically, though, America was doing very well. Aside from the ever-present specter of nuclear annihilation (what would life be without such risks?), the United States enjoyed an unparalleled period of prosperity in the post-war years. Much of this can be attributed to the GI Bill of Rights, which paved the way for returning military members (over 15 million in 1945) to attend college, buy a house, or start a business. This piece of legislation massively increased the number of college-educated Americans, and greatly expanded the middle class.
Also during this period, Richard Nixon and Joe McCarthy chased Communists, Arthur Miller reflected popular American fears of witch-hunting in The Crucible, the Korean War happened, and, unlike after World War I, the United States exhibited a strong internationalist streak by first helping to found NATO, and then signing or observing several international mutual-security treaties. Take that, Henry Cabot Lodge!
Chapter 38: The Eisenhower Era, 1952-1960
With that adorable grin and the aura of a revered grandfather (not to mention a proven track record of whipping the Nazis during World War II), Dwight D. Eisenhower, or "Ike" for short, catapulted the Republicans back into the White House in 1952. Both parties had attempted to recruit Eisenhower, who had never displayed political leanings one way or another. He essentially allowed himself to be drafted, and because of the sheer popularity of the man, he crushed Adlai Stevenson, his Democratic challenger. Stevenson took much of the South; Ike took everything else.
Under Eisenhower, Americans got interstates and the 101st Airborne was sent to allow African-American children to go to school in Little Rock, Arkansas. The world also became a scarier place, as the US and the USSR expanded their nuclear arsenal and John Foster Dulles gave us "Mutual Assured Destruction." Duck and Cover, Children! |
Chapter 39: The Stormy Sixties, 1960-1968
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The 1960s was one of the most turbulent decades in American history. There was a societal revolution of sorts, as Americans, disillusioned with the Vietnam War and the stagnation of American domestic politics, turned their backs on the patriarchal conservatism of the 1950s and and sought new avenues of expression: the creation of a counter-cultural movement, immortalized today as "hippies."
John F. Kennedy, the first President of this decade, encapsulates the changes that the Sixties brought. Unlike every president before him, he wasn't a WASP: he was a Roman Catholic, to date the only one who has ever held the Oval Office. He was young and glamorous and had a beautiful wife and two adorable children, a complete shift from the stodgy old men who had preceded him. He surrounded himself with brilliant young minds-- the "Whiz Kids" in his cabinet, rather than ancient functionaries, as had been the custom. And, alas, it all came to an end one tragic day in November 1963, when JFK was shot in the head while riding in an open motorcade in Dallas. Though his successor, Lyndon Johnson, achieved much success domestically, with things like the "Great Society" programs, he also expanded the Vietnam War, a Sisyphean conflict that eventually led to almost 58,000 American deaths, and countless more wounded. |