The home front of the United States in World
War II supported the war effort in many ways,
including a wide range of volunteer efforts
and submitting to government-managed rationing
and price controls. There was a general feeling
of agreement that the sacrifices were for
the national good "for the duration [of the
war]."
The labor market changed radically. Peacetime
conflicts with respect to race and labor took
on a special dimension because of the pressure
for national unity. The Hollywood film industry
was important for propaganda. Every aspect
of life from politics to personal savings
changed when put on a wartime footing. This
was achieved by tens of millions of workers
moving from low to high productivity jobs
in industrial centers. Millions of students,
retirees, housewives, and unemployed moved
into the active labor force. Hours worked
increased as leisure activities declined sharply.
Gasoline, meat, and clothing were tightly
rationed. Most families were allocated 3 US
gallons (11 l; 2.5 imp gal) of gasoline a
week, which sharply curtailed driving for
any purpose. Production of most durable goods,
like cars, new housing, vacuum cleaners, and
kitchen appliances, was banned until the war
ended. In industrial areas housing was in
short supply as people doubled up and lived
in cramped quarters. Prices and wages were
controlled. Americans saved a high portion
of their incomes, which led to renewed growth
after the war.
== Controls and taxes ==
Federal tax policy was highly contentious
during the war, with President Franklin D.
Roosevelt battling a conservative Congress.
However, both sides agreed on the need for
high taxes (along with heavy borrowing) to
pay for the war: top marginal tax rates ranged
from 81%-94% for the duration of the war,
and the income level subject to the highest
rate was lowered from $5,000,000 to $200,000.
Roosevelt tried unsuccessfully, by executive
order 9250, to impose a 100% surtax on after-tax
incomes over $25,000 (equal to roughly $353,558
today). However, Roosevelt did manage to impose
this cap on executive pay in corporations
with government contracts. Congress also enlarged
the tax base by lowering the minimum income
to pay taxes, and by reducing personal exemptions
and deductions. By 1944 nearly every employed
person was paying federal income taxes (compared
to 10% in 1940).Many controls were put on
the economy. The most important were price
controls, imposed on most products and monitored
by the Office of Price Administration. Wages
were also controlled. Corporations dealt with
numerous agencies, especially the War Production
Board (WPB), and the War and Navy departments,
which had the purchasing power and priorities
that largely reshaped and expanded industrial
production.
In 1942 a rationing system was begun to guarantee
minimum amounts of necessities to everyone
(especially poor people) and prevent inflation.
Tires were the first item to be rationed in
January 1942 because supplies of natural rubber
were interrupted. Gasoline rationing proved
an even better way to allocate scarce rubber.
In June 1942 the Combined Food Board was set
up to coordinate the worldwide supply of food
to the Allies, with special attention to flows
from the U.S. and Canada to Britain. By 1943
one needed government issued ration coupons
to purchase coffee, sugar, meat, cheese, butter,
lard, margarine, canned foods, dried fruits,
jam, gasoline, bicycles, fuel oil, clothing,
silk or nylon stockings, shoes, and many other
items. Some items, like automobiles and home
appliances, were no longer made. The rationing
system did not apply to used goods like clothes
or cars, but they became more expensive since
they were not subject to price controls.
To get a classification and a book of rationing
stamps, one had to appear before a local rationing
board. Each person in a household received
a ration book, including babies and children.
When purchasing gasoline, a driver had to
present a gas card along with a ration book
and cash. Ration stamps were valid only for
a set period to forestall hoarding. All forms
of automobile racing were banned, including
the Indianapolis 500 which was cancelled from
1942 to 1945. Sightseeing driving was banned.
== Personal savings ==
Personal income was at an all-time high, and
more dollars were chasing fewer goods to purchase.
This was a recipe for economic disaster that
was largely avoided because Americans—cajoled
daily by their government to do so—were
also saving money at an all-time high rate,
mostly in War Bonds but also in private savings
accounts and insurance policies. Consumer
saving was strongly encouraged through investment
in war bonds that would mature after the war.
Most workers had an automatic payroll deduction;
children collected savings stamps until they
had enough to buy a bond. Bond rallies were
held throughout the U.S. with famous celebrities,
usually Hollywood film stars, to enhance the
bond advertising effectiveness. Several stars
were responsible for personal appearance tours
that netted multiple millions of dollars in
bond pledges—an astonishing amount in 1943.
The public paid ¾ of the face value of a
war bond, and received the full face value
back after a set number of years. This shifted
their consumption from the war to postwar,
and allowed over 40% of GDP to go to military
spending, with moderate inflation. Americans
were challenged to put "at least 10% of every
paycheck into Bonds". Compliance was very
high, with entire factories of workers earning
a special "Minuteman" flag to fly over their
plant if all workers belonged to the "Ten
Percent Club". There were seven major War
Loan drives, all of which exceeded their goals.
== Labor ==
The unemployment problem ended with the mobilization
for war. Out of a labor force of 54 million,
unemployment fell in half from 7.7 million
in spring 1940 (when the first accurate statistics
were compiled) to 3.4 million in fall 1941
and fell in half again to 1.5 million in fall
1942, hitting an all-time low of 700,000 in
fall 1944. There was a growing labor shortage
in war centers, with sound trucks going street
by street begging for people to apply for
war jobs.
Greater wartime production created millions
of new jobs, while the draft reduced the number
of young men available for civilian jobs.
So great was the demand for labor that millions
of retired people, housewives, and students
entered the labor force, lured by patriotism
and wages. The shortage of grocery clerks
caused retailers to convert from service at
the counter to self-service. With new shorter
women clerks replacing taller men, some stores
lowered shelves to 5 feet 8 inches (1.73 m).
Before the war most groceries, dry cleaners,
drugstores, and department stores offered
home delivery service. The labor shortage
and gasoline and tire rationing caused most
retailers to stop delivery. They found that
requiring customers to buy their products
in person increased sales.
=== Women ===
Women also joined the workforce to replace
men who had joined the forces, though in fewer
numbers. Roosevelt stated that the efforts
of civilians at home to support the war through
personal sacrifice was as critical to winning
the war as the efforts of the soldiers themselves.
"Rosie the Riveter" became the symbol of women
laboring in manufacturing. The war effort
brought about significant changes in the role
of women in society as a whole. When the male
breadwinner returned, wives could stop working.
At the end of the war, most of the munitions-making
jobs ended. Many factories were closed; others
retooled for civilian production. In some
jobs women were replaced by returning veterans
who did not lose seniority because they were
in service. However the number of women at
work in 1946 was 87% of the number in 1944,
leaving 13% who lost or quit their jobs. Many
women working in machinery factories and more
were taken out of the work force. Many of
these former factory workers found other work
at kitchens, being teachers, etc.
The table shows the development of the United
States labor force by sex during the war years.
Women also took on new roles in sport and
entertainment, which opened to them as more
and more men were drafted. The All-American
Girls Professional Baseball League [AAGPBL]
was the creation of Chicago Cubs owner Philip
Wrigley, who sought alternative ways to expand
his baseball franchise as top male players
left for military service. In 1943, he created
an eight team League in small industrial cities
around the Great Lakes; team names included
the Kenosha Comets, the Rockford Peaches,
and the Fort Wayne Daisies. Night games offered
affordable, patriotic entertainment to working
Americans who had flocked to wartime jobs
in the Midwest hubs of Chicago and Detroit
(although better paid than in the prewar Depression,
most industrial war workers were on gas and
tire rationing, limiting them to local recreation
options.) The League provided a novelty entertainment
of girls who played hardball as well as men,
executing traditional baseball skills of sliding
and double-plays while wearing short, feminine
uniform skirts. Players as young as fifteen
were recruited from farm families and urban
industrial teams, chaperoned on the road and
subject to strict rules of behavior that included
mandatory makeup and feminine hair styling,
no drinking or smoking, no swearing, no fraternization
with men, and no wearing pants in public;
moreover, the League only recruited white
players. Fans supported the League to the
extent that it continued well past the conclusion
of the war, lasting through 1953. During the
1980s, the League was formally inducted into
the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown,
New York, and became the subject of a popular
mainstream film called A League of Their Own.
=== Farming ===
Labor shortages were felt in agriculture,
even though most farmers were given an exemption
and few were drafted. Large numbers volunteered
or moved to cities for factory jobs. At the
same time many agricultural commodities were
in greater demand by the military and for
the civilian populations of Allies. Production
was encouraged and prices and markets were
under tight federal control. Civilians were
encouraged to create "victory gardens", farms
that were often started in backyards and lots.
Children were encouraged to help with these
farms, too.The Bracero Program, a bi-national
labor agreement between Mexico and the U.S.,
started in 1942. Some 290,000 braceros ("strong
arms," in Spanish) were recruited and contracted
to work in the agriculture fields. Half went
to Texas, and 20% to the Pacific Northwest.Between
1942 and 1946 some 425,000 Italian and German
prisoners of war were used as farm laborers,
loggers, and cannery workers. In Michigan,
for example, the POWs accounted for more than
one-third of the state's agricultural production
and food processing in 1944.
=== Children ===
To help with the need for a larger source
of food, the nation looked to school-aged
children to help on farms. Schools often had
a victory garden in vacant parking lots and
on roofs. Children would help on these farms
to help with the war effort. The slogan, "Grow
your own, can your own", also influenced children
to help at home.
=== Teenagers ===
With the war's ever increasing need for able
bodied men consuming America's labor force
in the early 1940s, industry turned to teen-aged
boys and girls to fill in as replacements.
Consequently, many states had to change their
child-labor laws to allow these teenagers
to work. The lures of patriotism, adulthood,
and money led many youth to drop out of school
and take a defense job. Between 1940 and 1944,
the number of teenage workers increased by
1.9 million, and the number of students in
public high schools dropped from 6.6 million
in 1940 to 5.6 million in 1944, as a million
students—and many teachers—took jobs.
=== Labor unions ===
The war mobilization changed the relationship
of the Congress of Industrial Organizations
(CIO) with both employers and the national
government. Both the CIO and the larger American
Federation of Labor (AFL) grew rapidly in
the war years.Nearly all the unions that belonged
to the CIO were fully supportive of both the
war effort and of the Roosevelt administration.
However the United Mine Workers, who had taken
an isolationist stand in the years leading
up to the war and had opposed Roosevelt's
reelection in 1940, left the CIO in 1942.
The major unions supported a wartime no-strike
pledge that aimed to eliminate not only major
strikes for new contracts, but also the innumerable
small strikes called by shop stewards and
local union leadership to protest particular
grievances. In return for labor's no-strike
pledge, the government offered arbitration
to determine the wages and other terms of
new contracts. Those procedures produced modest
wage increases during the first few years
of the war but not enough to keep up with
inflation, particularly when combined with
the slowness of the arbitration machinery.Even
though the complaints from union members about
the no-strike pledge became louder and more
bitter, the CIO did not abandon it. The Mine
Workers, by contrast, who did not belong to
either the AFL or the CIO for much of the
war, threatened numerous strikes including
a successful twelve-day strike in 1943. The
strikes and threats made mine leader John
L. Lewis a much hated man and led to legislation
hostile to unions.All the major unions grew
stronger during the war. The government put
pressure on employers to recognize unions
to avoid the sort of turbulent struggles over
union recognition of the 1930s, while unions
were generally able to obtain maintenance
of membership clauses, a form of union security,
through arbitration and negotiation. Employers
gave workers new untaxed benefits (such as
vacation time, pensions, and health insurance),
which increased real incomes even when wage
rates were frozen. The wage differential between
higher skilled and less skilled workers narrowed,
and with the enormous increase in overtime
for blue collar wage workers (at time and
a half pay), incomes in working class households
shot up, while the salaried middle class lost
ground.
The experience of bargaining on a national
basis, while restraining local unions from
striking, also tended to accelerate the trend
toward bureaucracy within the larger CIO unions.
Some, such as the Steelworkers, had always
been centralized organizations in which authority
for major decisions resided at the top. The
UAW, by contrast, had always been a more grassroots
organization, but it also started to try to
rein in its maverick local leadership during
these years. The CIO also had to confront
deep racial divides in its own membership,
particularly in the UAW plants in Detroit
where white workers sometimes struck to protest
the promotion of black workers to production
jobs, but also in shipyards in Alabama, mass
transit in Philadelphia, and steel plants
in Baltimore. The CIO leadership, particularly
those in further left unions such as the Packinghouse
Workers, the UAW, the NMU, and the Transport
Workers, undertook serious efforts to suppress
hate strikes, to educate their membership,
and to support the Roosevelt Administration's
tentative efforts to remedy racial discrimination
in war industries through the Fair Employment
Practices Commission. Those unions contrasted
their relatively bold attack on the problem
with the timidity and racism of the AFL.The
CIO unions were progressive in dealing with
gender discrimination in wartime industry,
which now employed many more women workers
in nontraditional jobs. Unions that had represented
large numbers of women workers before the
war, such as the UE (electrical workers) and
the Food and Tobacco Workers, had fairly good
records of fighting discrimination against
women. Most union leaders saw women as temporary
wartime replacements for the men in the armed
forces. It was important that the wages of
these women be kept high so that the veterans
would get high wages.
== Civilian support for war effort ==
Early in the war, it became apparent that
German U-boats were using the backlighting
of coastal cities in the Eastern Seaboard
and the South to destroy ships exiting harbors.
It became the first duties of civilians recruited
for local civilian defense to ensure that
lights were either off or thick curtains drawn
over all windows at night.
State Guards were reformed for internal security
duties to replace the National Guardsmen who
were federalized and sent overseas. The Civil
Air Patrol was established, which enrolled
civilian spotters in air reconnaissance, search-and-rescue,
and transport. Its Coast Guard counterpart,
the Coast Guard Auxiliary, used civilian boats
and crews in similar rescue roles. Towers
were built in coastal and border towns, and
spotters were trained to recognize enemy aircraft.
Blackouts were practiced in every city, even
those far from the coast. All exterior lighting
had to be extinguished, and black-out curtains
placed over windows. The main purpose was
to remind people that there was a war on and
to provide activities that would engage the
civil spirit of millions of people not otherwise
involved in the war effort. In large part,
this effort was successful, sometimes almost
to a fault, such as the Plains states where
many dedicated aircraft spotters took up their
posts night after night watching the skies
in an area of the country that no enemy aircraft
of that time could possibly hope to reach.The
United Service Organizations (USO) was founded
in 1941 in response to a request from President
Franklin D. Roosevelt to provide morale and
recreation services to uniformed military
personnel. The USO brought together six civilian
agencies: the Salvation Army, Young Men's
Christian Association, Young Women's Christian
Association, National Catholic Community Service,
National Travelers Aid Association, and the
National Jewish Welfare Board.Women volunteered
to work for the Red Cross, the USO and other
agencies. Other women previously employed
only in the home, or in traditionally female
work, took jobs in factories that directly
supported the war effort, or filled jobs vacated
by men who had entered military service. Enrollment
in high schools and colleges plunged as many
high school and college students dropped out
to take war jobs.Various items, previously
discarded, were saved after use for what was
called "recycling" years later. Families were
requested to save fat drippings from cooking
for use in soap making. Neighborhood "scrap
drives" collected scrap copper and brass for
use in artillery shells. Milkweed was harvested
by children ostensibly for lifejackets.
=== Draft ===
In 1940, Congress passed the first peace-time
draft legislation. It was renewed (by one
vote) in summer 1941. It involved questions
as to who should control the draft, the size
of the army, and the need for deferments.
The system worked through local draft boards
comprising community leaders who were given
quotas and then decided how to fill them.
There was very little draft resistance.The
nation went from a surplus manpower pool with
high unemployment and relief in 1940 to a
severe manpower shortage by 1943. Industry
realized that the Army urgently desired production
of essential war materials and foodstuffs
more than soldiers. (Large numbers of soldiers
were not used until the invasion of Europe
in summer 1944.) In 1940–43 the Army often
transferred soldiers to civilian status in
the Enlisted Reserve Corps in order to increase
production. Those transferred would return
to work in essential industry, although they
could be recalled to active duty if the Army
needed them. Others were discharged if their
civilian work was deemed essential. There
were instances of mass releases of men to
increase production in various industries.
Working men who had been classified 4F or
otherwise ineligible for the draft took second
jobs.In the figure below an overview of the
development of the United States labor force,
the armed forces and unemployment during the
war years.
One contentious issue involved the drafting
of fathers, which was avoided as much as possible.
The drafting of 18-year-olds was desired by
the military but vetoed by public opinion.
Racial minorities were drafted at the same
rate as Whites, and were paid the same, but
blacks were kept in all-black units. The experience
of World War I regarding men needed by industry
was particularly unsatisfactory—too many
skilled mechanics and engineers became privates
(there is a possibly apocryphal story of a
banker assigned as a baker due to a clerical
error, noted by historian Lee Kennett in his
book "G.I.") Farmers demanded and were generally
given occupational deferments (many volunteered
anyway, but those who stayed at home lost
postwar veteran's benefits.)
Later in the war, in light of the tremendous
amount of manpower that would be necessary
for the invasion of France in 1944, many earlier
deferment categories became draft eligible.
=== Pacifism ===
The churches showed much less pacifism than
in 1914. The Church of God, based in Anderson,
Indiana, had a strong pacifist element, reaching
a high point in the late 1930s. The Church
regarded World War II as a just war because
America was attacked. Likewise the Quakers
generally regarded World War II as a just
war and about 90% served, although there were
some conscientious objectors. The Mennonites
and Brethren continued their pacifism, but
the federal government was much less hostile
than in the previous war. These churches helped
their young men to both become conscientious
objectors and to provide valuable service
to the nation. Goshen College set up a training
program for unpaid Civilian Public Service
jobs. Although the young women pacifists were
not liable to the draft, they volunteered
for unpaid Civilian Public Service jobs to
demonstrate their patriotism; many worked
in mental hospitals. The Jehovah Witness denomination,
however, refused to participate in any forms
of service, and thousands of its young men
refused to register and went to prison.
=== Suspected disloyalty ===
Civilian support for the war was widespread,
with isolated cases of draft resistance. The
F.B.I. was already tracking elements that
were suspected of loyalty to Germany, Japan,
or Italy, and many were arrested in the weeks
after the attack on Pearl Harbor. 7,000 German
and Italian aliens (who were not U.S. citizens)
were moved back from the West Coast, along
with some 100,000 of Japanese descent. Some
enemy aliens were held without trial during
the entire war. The U.S. citizens accused
of supporting Germany were given public trials,
and often were freed.
== Population movements ==
There was large-scale migration to industrial
centers, especially on the West Coast. Millions
of wives followed their husbands to military
camps; for many families, especially from
farms, the moves were permanent. One 1944
survey of migrants in Portland, Oregon and
San Diego found that three quarters wanted
to stay after the war. Many new military training
bases were established or enlarged, especially
in the South. Large numbers of African Americans
left the cotton fields and headed for the
cities. Housing was increasingly difficult
to find in industrial centers, as there was
no new non-military construction. Commuting
by car was limited by gasoline rationing.
People car pooled or took public transportation,
which was severely overcrowded. Trains were
heavily booked, with uniformed military personnel
taking priority, so people limited vacation
and long-distance travel.
=== Racial tensions ===
The large-scale movement of blacks from the
rural South to defense centers in the North
(and some in the South) led to small-scale
local confrontations over jobs and housing
shortages. Washington feared a major race
war. The cities were relatively peaceful;
much-feared large-scale race riots did not
happen, but there was small-scale violence,
as in the 1943 race riot in Detroit and the
anti-Mexican Zoot Suit Riots in Los Angeles
in 1943. The "zoot suit" was a highly conspicuous
costume worn by Mexican American teenagers
in Los Angeles. As historian Roger Bruns notes,
"the Zoot suit also represented a stark visual
expression of culture for Mexican Americans,
about making a statement—a mark of defiance
against the place in society in which they
found themselves." They gained admiration
from their in group, and "disgust and ridicule
from others, especially the Anglos."
== Role of women ==
Standlee (2010) argues that during the war
the traditional gender division of labor changed
somewhat, as the "home" or domestic female
sphere expanded to include the "home front".
Meanwhile, the public sphere—the male domain—was
redefined as the international stage of military
action.
=== Employment ===
Wartime mobilization drastically changed the
sexual divisions of labor for women, as young
able-bodied men were sent overseas and war
time manufacturing production increased. Throughout
the war, according to Susan Hartmann (1982),
an estimated 6.5 million women entered the
labor force. Women, many of whom were married,
took a variety of paid jobs in a multitude
of vocational jobs, many of which were previously
exclusive to men. The greatest wartime gain
in female employment was in the manufacturing
industry, where more than 2.5 million additional
women represented an increase of 140 percent
by 1944. This was catalyzed by the "Rosie
the Riveter" phenomenon.
The composition of the marital status of women
who went to work changed considerably over
the course of the war. One in every ten married
women entered the labor force during the war,
and they represented more than three million
of the new female workers, while 2.89 million
were single and the rest widowed or divorced.
For the first time in the nation's history
there were more married women than single
women in the female labor force. In 1944,
thirty-seven percent of all adult women were
reported in the labor force, but nearly fifty
percent of all women were actually employed
at some time during that year at the height
of wartime production. In the same year the
unemployment rate hit an all-time historical
low of 1.2%.According to Hartmann (1982),
the women who sought employment, based on
various surveys and public opinion reports
at the time suggests that financial reasoning
was the justification for entering the labor
force; however, patriotic motives made up
another large portion of women's desires to
enter. Women whose husbands were at war were
more than twice as likely to seek jobs.Fundamentally,
women were thought to be taking work defined
as "men's work;" however, the work women did
was typically catered to specific skill sets
management thought women could handle. Management
would also advertise women's work as an extension
of domesticity. For example, in a Sperry Corporation
recruitment pamphlet the company stated, "Note
the similarity between squeezing orange juice
and the operation of a small drill press."
A Ford Motor Company at Willow Run bomber
plant publication proclaimed, "The ladies
have shown they can operate drill presses
as well as egg beaters." One manager was even
stated saying, "Why should men, who from childhood
on never so much as sewed on buttons be expected
to handle delicate instruments better than
women who have plied embroidery needles, knitting
needles and darning needs all their lives?"
In these instances, women were thought of
and hired to do jobs management thought they
could perform based on sex-typing.
Following the war, many women left their jobs
voluntarily. One Twin Cities Army Ammunition
Plant (formally Twin Cities Ordnance Plant)
worker in New Brighton, Minnesota confessed,
"I will gladly get back into the apron. I
did not go into war work with the idea of
working all my life. It was just to help out
during the war." Other women were laid off
by employers to make way for returning veterans
who did not lose their seniority due to the
war.
By the end of the war, many men who entered
into the service did not return. This left
women to take up sole responsibility of the
household and provide economically for the
family.
=== Nursing ===
Nursing became a highly prestigious occupation
for young women. A majority of female civilian
nurses volunteered for the Army Nurse Corps
or the Navy Nurse Corps. These women automatically
became officers. Teenaged girls enlisted in
the Cadet Nurse Corps. To cope with the growing
shortage on the homefront, thousands of retired
nurses volunteered to help out in local hospitals.
=== Volunteer activities ===
Women staffed millions of jobs in community
service roles, such as nursing, the USO, and
the Red Cross. Unorganized women were encouraged
to collect and turn in materials that were
needed by the war effort. Women collected
fats rendered during cooking, children formed
balls of aluminum foil they peeled from chewing
gum wrappers and also created rubber band
balls, which they contributed to the war effort.
Hundreds of thousands of men joined civil
defense units to prepare for disasters, such
as enemy bombing.
The Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) mobilized
1,000 civilian women to fly new warplanes
from the factories to airfields located on
the east coast of the U.S. This was historically
significant because flying a warplane had
always been a male role. No American women
flew warplanes in combat.
=== Baby boom ===
Marriage and motherhood came back as prosperity
empowered couples who had postponed marriage.
The birth rate started shooting up in 1941,
paused in 1944–45 as 12 million men were
in uniform, then continued to soar until reaching
a peak in the late 1950s. This was the "Baby
Boom."
In a New Deal-like move, the federal government
set up the "EMIC" program that provided free
prenatal and natal care for the wives of servicemen
below the rank of sergeant.
Housing shortages, especially in the munitions
centers, forced millions of couples to live
with parents or in makeshift facilities. Little
housing had been built in the Depression years,
so the shortages grew steadily worse until
about 1949, when a massive housing boom finally
caught up with demand. (After 1944 much of
the new housing was supported by the G.I.
Bill.)
Federal law made it difficult to divorce absent
servicemen, so the number of divorces peaked
when they returned in 1946. In long-range
terms, divorce rates changed little.
=== Housewives ===
Juggling their roles as mothers due to the
Baby Boom and the jobs they filled while the
men were at war, women strained to complete
all tasks set before them. The war caused
cutbacks in automobile and bus service, and
migration from farms and towns to munitions
centers. Those housewives who worked found
the dual role difficult to handle.
Stress came when sons, husbands, fathers,
brothers, and fiancés were drafted and sent
to faraway training camps, preparing for a
war in which nobody knew how many would be
killed. Millions of wives tried to relocate
near their husbands' training camps.
== Racial politics of the war ==
=== 
Immigration policies during and after World
War II ===
During World War II the trend in immigration
policies were both more and less restrictive.
The United States immigration policies focused
more on national security and were driven
by foreign policy imperatives. Legislation
such as the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882
was finally repealed. This Act was the first
law in the United States that excluded a specific
group- the Chinese from migrating to the United
States. But during World War II, with the
Chinese as allies, the United States passed
the Magnuson Act, also known as the Chinese
Exclusion Repeal Act of 1943. There was also
the Nationality Act of 1940, which clarified
how to become and remain a citizen. Specifically,
it allowed immigrants who were not citizens,
like the Filipinos or those in the outside
territories to gain citizenship by enlisting
in the army. In contrast, the Japanese and
Japanese-Americans were subject to internment
in the U.S. There was also legislation like
the Smith Act, also known as the Alien Registration
Act of 1940, which required indicted communists,
anarchists and fascists. Another program was
the Bracero Program, which allowed over two
decades, nearly 5 million Mexican workers
to come and work in the United States.After
World War II, there was also the Truman Directive
of 1945, which did not allow more people to
migrate, but did use the immigration quotas
to let in more displaced people after the
war. There was also the War Brides Act of
1945, which allowed spouses of US soldiers
to get an expedited path towards citizenship.
In contrast, the 1952 Immigration and Nationality
Act, also known as the McCarran-Walter Act,
turned away migrants based not on their country
of origin but rather whether they are moral
or diseased.
=== Internment ===
In 1942 the War Department demanded that all
enemy nationals be removed from war zones
on the West Coast. The question became how
to evacuate the estimated 120,000 people of
Japanese ancestry living in California. Roosevelt
looked at the secret evidence available to
him: the Japanese in the Philippines had collaborated
with the Japanese invasion troops; most of
the adult Japanese in California had been
strong supporters of Japan in the war against
China. There was evidence of espionage compiled
by code-breakers that decrypted messages to
Japan from agents in North America and Hawaii
before and after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
These MAGIC cables were kept secret from all
but those with the highest clearance, such
as Roosevelt. On February 19, 1942, Roosevelt
signed Executive Order 9066 which set up designated
military areas "from which any or all persons
may be excluded." The most controversial part
of the order included American born children
and youth who had dual U.S. and Japanese citizenship.
Germans and Italians were not interned, as
shown from the Korematsu v. United States
case.
In February 1943, when activating the 442nd
Regimental Combat Team—a unit composed mostly
of American-born American citizens of Japanese
descent living in Hawaii—Roosevelt said,
"No loyal citizen of the United States should
be denied the democratic right to exercise
the responsibilities of his citizenship, regardless
of his ancestry. The principle on which this
country was founded and by which it has always
been governed is that Americanism is a matter
of the mind and heart; Americanism is not,
and never was, a matter of race or ancestry."
In 1944, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the
legality of the executive order in the Korematsu
v. United States case. The executive order
remained in force until December when Roosevelt
released the Japanese internees, except for
those who announced their intention to return
to Japan.
Fascist Italy was an official enemy, and citizens
of Italy were also forced away from "strategic"
coastal areas in California. Altogether, 58,000
Italians were forced to relocate. They relocated
on their own and were not put in camps. Known
spokesmen for Benito Mussolini were arrested
and held in prison. The restrictions were
dropped in October 1942, and Italy switched
sides in 1943 and became an American ally.
In the east, however, the large Italian populations
of the northeast, especially in munitions-producing
centers such as Bridgeport and New Haven,
faced no restrictions and contributed just
as much to the war effort as other Americans.
=== FEPC ===
The Fair Employment Practices Commission (FEPC)
was a federal executive order requiring companies
with government contracts not to discriminate
on the basis of race or religion. It assisted
African Americans in obtaining jobs in industry.
Under pressure from A. Philip Randolph's growing
March on Washington Movement, on June 25,
1941, President Roosevelt created the Fair
Employment Practices Committee (FEPC) by signing
Executive Order 8802. It said "there shall
be no discrimination in the employment of
workers in defense industries or government
because of race, creed, color, or national
origin". In 1943 Roosevelt greatly strengthened
FEPC with a new executive order, #9346. It
required that all government contracts have
a non-discrimination clause. FEPC was the
most significant breakthrough ever for Blacks
and women on the job front. During the war
the federal government operated airfields,
shipyards, supply centers, ammunition plants,
and other facilities that employed millions.
FEPC rules applied and guaranteed equality
of employment rights. These facilities shut
down when the war ended. In the private sector
the FEPC was generally successful in enforcing
non-discrimination in the North, it did not
attempt to challenge segregation in the South,
and in the border region its intervention
led to hate strikes by angry white workers.
=== African Americans and the Double V campaign
===
The African American community in the United
States resolved on a Double V campaign: victory
over fascism abroad, and victory over discrimination
at home. Large numbers migrated from poor
Southern farms to munitions centers. Racial
tensions were high in overcrowded cities like
Chicago; Detroit and New York experienced
race riots in 1943. Black newspapers created
the Double V campaign to build black morale
and head off radical action.Most Black women
had been farm laborers or domestics before
the war. Despite discrimination and segregated
facilities throughout the South, many left
agricultural work, migrated north and west,
and took blue-collar jobs in the cities. Working
with the federal Fair Employment Practices
Committee, the NAACP, and CIO unions, these
Black women fought a "Double V" campaign—against
the Axis abroad and against restrictive hiring
practices at home. Their efforts redefined
citizenship, equating their patriotism with
war work, and seeking equal employment opportunities,
government entitlements, and better working
conditions as conditions appropriate for full
citizens. In the South black women worked
in segregated jobs; in the West and most of
the North they were integrated, but wildcat
strikes erupted in Detroit, Baltimore, and
Evansville, Indiana where white migrants from
the South refused to work alongside black
women.
=== Racism in Propaganda ===
As propaganda has a tendency to do, media
with a pro-American twist during the war tended
to portray the Axis powers in an incredibly
negative light.
Germans tended to be shown as being either
weak or barbaric, but also stupid, and obsessed
with Nazism and Nazi imagery. This could be
seen in comic books such as Captain America
No. 1, who cover features the superhero punching
out Hitler, while a number of menacing and
feral looking officers shoot at Captain America.
This existed in cartoons as well. The Popeye
cartoon, Seein' Red, White, 'N' Blue (aired
on February 19, 1943), ends with a distinctly
American Uncle Sam fist punching a sickly
looking Hitler. Perhaps nowhere is this unattractive
portrayal of Germans better known than in
the somewhat controversial Donald Duck cartoon,
Der Fuehrer's Face (aired on January 1, 1943).
Best known for portraying Donald Duck as a
Nazi living in Germany, the cartoon also features
caricatures of Benito Mussolini, Joseph Goebbels,
Heinrich Himmler, and Herman Göring performing
in an oompa-band marching past swastika clouds,
bushes, windmills, fire hydrants, and telephone
lines, among other things. Donald Duck, living
in a house with a striking resemblance to
Hitler, is shown to a swastika fence surrounding
it, and swastika wallpaper, an alarm clock
that gives the Nazi salute and with each number
replaced by a swastika, a cuckoo clock with
the same number pattern, and a Hitler cuckoo,
and numerous pictures of Hitler and the other
Axis leaders decorating the walls. Donald
Duck then is forced to his job at a munitions
factory (appropriately decorated with even
more swastikas) where he must "work 48 hours
a day for the Führer" under heavy guard.
While screwing in shells on a conveyor belt,
pictures of Hitler occasionally pass him which
he must salute, all while a loudspeaker extols
the glory of Hitler: "Is this not wonderful?
Is not the Führer glorious?"Even worse is
the portrayal of the Japanese in American
Propaganda. Though the way the Germans are
shown to be might be considered offensive,
the attacks are generally focused on Nazi
officials such as Hitler, Himmler, Goebbels,
and Göring. On the other hand, the Japanese
are targeted on a much broader level. These
range from showing the Japanese as being vicious
and feral, as on the cover of Marvel Comic's
Mystery Comics no. 32, to using every horrific
stereotype available. This is the case in
the Loony Tune's cartoon Tokio Jokio (aired
May 13, 1943), in which the Japanese people
are all shown to be incredibly stupid (such
as one man using an incendiary bomb to roast
a hot dog over), obsessed with being polite,
cowardly, and physically short with buckteeth,
big lips, squinty eyes, and glasses. The entire
cartoon is also narrated in broken English,
with the letter "R" often replacing "L" in
pronunciation of words, a common stereotype.
Slurs used against Japanese were common as
well. In the Popeye cartoon Scrap the Japs
(aired November 20, 1942), Popeye at one point
exclaims "I never seen a Jap that wasn't yella!"
In Nip the Nips, a Bugs Bunny cartoon first
aired on April 22, 1944, Bugs passes out explosives
disguised as ice cream to a number of Japanese
soldiers, referring to them individually as,
"bow legs," "monkey face," and "slanty eyes."
These stereotypes are also seen in Theodor
Geisel's comics created during the Second
World War.
== Wartime politics ==
Roosevelt easily won the bitterly contested
1940 election, but the Conservative coalition
maintained a tight grip on Congress regarding
taxes and domestic issues. Wendell Willkie,
the defeated GOP candidate in 1940, became
a roving ambassador for Roosevelt. After Vice
President Henry A. Wallace became emeshed
in a series of squabbles with other high officials,
Roosevelt stripped him of his administrative
responsibilities and dropped him from the
1944 ticket. Roosevelt in cooperation with
big city party leaders, replaced Wallace with
Missouri Senator Harry S. Truman. Truman was
best known for investigating waste, fraud
and inefficiency in wartime programs. In very
light turnout in 1942 the Republicans made
major gains. In the 1944 election, Roosevelt
defeated Tom Dewey in a race that attracted
little attention.
== Propaganda and culture ==
Patriotism became the central theme of advertising
throughout the war, as large scale campaigns
were launched to sell war bonds, promote efficiency
in factories, reduce ugly rumors, and maintain
civilian morale. The war consolidated the
advertising industry's role in American society,
deflecting earlier criticism. The media cooperated
with the federal government in presenting
the official view of the war. All movie scripts
had to be pre-approved. For example, there
were widespread rumors in the Army to the
effect that people on the homefront were slacking
off. A Private SNAFU film cartoon (released
to soldiers only) belied that rumor. Tin Pan
Alley produced patriotic songs to rally the
people.
=== Posters ===
Posters helped to mobilize the nation. Inexpensive,
accessible, and ever-present, the poster was
an ideal agent for making war aims the personal
mission of every citizen. Government agencies,
businesses, and private organizations issued
an array of poster images linking the military
front with the home front—calling upon every
American to boost production at work and at
home. Some resorted to extreme racial and
ethnic caricatures of the enemy, sometimes
as hopelessly bumbling cartoon characters,
sometimes as evil, half-human creatures.
=== Bond drives ===
A strong aspect of American culture then as
now was a fascination with celebrities, and
the government used them in its eight war
bond campaigns that called on people to save
now (and redeem the bonds after the war, when
houses, cars and appliances would again be
available.) The War Bond drives helped finance
the war. Americans were challenged to put
at least 10% of every paycheck into bonds.
Compliance was high, with entire work places
earning a special "Minuteman" flag to fly
over their plant if all workers belonged to
the "Ten Percent Club".
=== Hollywood ===
Hollywood studios also went all-out for the
war effort, as studios encouraged their stars
(such as Clark Gable and James Stewart) to
enlist. Hollywood had military units that
made training films – Ronald Reagan narrated
many of them. Most of all Hollywood made hundreds
of war movies that, in coordination with the
Office of War Information (OWI), taught Americans
what was happening and who the heroes and
the villains were. Ninety million people went
to the movies every week. Some of the most
highly regarded films during this period included
Casablanca, Mrs. Miniver, Going My Way, and
Yankee Doodle Dandy. Even before active American
involvement in the war, the popular Three
Stooges comic trio were lampooning the Nazi
German leadership, and Nazis in general, with
a number of short subject films, starting
with You Nazty Spy! in January 1940, nearly
two years before the United States was drawn
into World War II.
Cartoons and short subjects were a major sign
of the times, as Warner Brothers Studios and
Disney Studios gave unprecedented aid to the
war effort by creating cartoons that were
both patriotic and humorous, and also contributed
to remind movie-goers of wartime activities
such as rationing and scrap drives, war bond
purchases, and the creation of victory gardens.
Warner shorts such as Daffy - The Commando,
Draftee Daffy, Herr Meets Hare, and Russian
Rhapsody are particularly remembered for their
biting wit and unflinching mockery of the
enemy (particularly Adolf Hitler, Hideki Tōjō,
and Hermann Göring). Their cartoons of Private
Snafu, produced for the military as "training
films", served to remind many military men
of the importance of following proper procedure
during wartime, for their own safety. Hanna
Barbara also contributed to the war effort
with slyly pro US short cartoon The Yankee
Doodle Mouse with "Lt." Jerry Mouse as the
hero and Tom Cat as the "enemy".
To heighten the suspense, Hollywood needed
to feature attacks on American soil, and obtained
inspirations for dramatic stories from the
Philippines. Indeed, the Philippines became
a "homefront" that showed the American way
of life threatened by the Japanese enemy.
Especially popular were the films Texas to
Bataan (1942), Corregidor (1943), Bataan (1943),
They Were Expendable (1945), and Back to Bataan
(1945).The OWI had to approve every film before
they could be exported. To facilitate the
process the OWI's Bureau of Motion Pictures
(BMP) worked with producers, directors and
writers before the shooting started to make
sure that the themes reflected patriotic values.
While Hollywood had been generally nonpolitical
before the war, the liberals who controlled
OWI encouraged the expression of New Deal
liberalism, bearing in mind the huge domestic
audience, as well as an international audience
that was equally large.
=== Censorship ===
The Office of Censorship published a code
of conduct for newspapers, magazines, and
broadcasters. The office did not use government
censors to preapprove all articles and radio
programs. It relied on voluntary cooperation
to avoid subjects, such as troop movements,
weather forecasts, and the travels of the
President, that might aid the enemy. Journalists
did not have to publish positive propaganda,
unlike during World War I.
== Local activism ==
One way to enlist everyone in the war effort
was scrap collection (called "recycling" decades
later). Many everyday commodities were vital
to the war effort, and drives were organized
to recycle such products as rubber, tin, waste
kitchen fats (a raw material for explosives),
newspaper, lumber, steel, and many others.
Popular phrases promoted by the government
at the time were "Get into the scrap!" and
"Get some cash for your trash" (a nominal
sum was paid to the donor for many kinds of
scrap items) and Thomas "Fats" Waller even
wrote and recorded a song with the latter
title. Such commodities as rubber and tin
remained highly important as recycled materials
until the end of the war, while others, such
as steel, were critically needed at first.
War propaganda played a prominent role in
many of these drives. Nebraska had perhaps
the most extensive and well-organized drives;
it was mobilized by the Omaha World Herald
newspaper.
== Attacks on U.S. soil ==
Although the Axis powers never launched a
full-scale invasion on the U.S. mainland,
there were attacks and acts of sabotage on
U.S. soil.
December 7, 1941 – Attack on Pearl Harbor,
the reason why the U.S. entered the war.
January–August 1942 – Second Happy Time,
German U-Boats engaged American ships off
the U.S. East Coast.
February 23, 1942 – Bombardment of Ellwood,
a Japanese sabotage act on California.
March 4, 1942 – Operation K, a Japanese
reconnaissance over Pearl Harbor following
the attack on December 7, 1941.
June 3, 1942 – Aleutian Islands Campaign,
the battle for the then Territory of Alaska.
June 21–22, 1942 – Bombardment of Fort
Stevens, the only attack on a U.S. military
base on the U.S. mainland in World War II.
September 9, 1942 and September 29, 1942 – Lookout
Air Raids, the only attack by enemy aircraft
on the U.S. mainland in World War II.
November 1944–April 1945 – Fu-Go balloon
bombs, over 9,300 of them were launched by
Japan across the Pacific Ocean towards the
U.S. mainland with the goal of starting forest
fires. On May 5, 1945, six U.S. civilians
were killed in Oregon when they stumbled upon
a bomb and it exploded, the only wartime deaths
to occur on the U.S. mainland as a result
of enemy action.
== See also ==
Military history of the United States during
World War II
American Minority Groups in World War II
American music during World War II
Greatest Generation
History of Texas#World War II
Home front during World War II, for rest of
world
Japanese occupation of the Philippines
United States home front during World War
I
Woman's Land Army of America
Nazism in the United States
US Government films:
Why We Fight
Black Marketing
Campus on the March
Henry Browne, Farmer
Manpower
Negro Colleges in War Time
The Arm Behind the Army
== Notes ==
== References ==
Brinkley, David. Washington Goes to War Knopf,
1988; memoir
Campbell, D'Ann (1984), Women at War with
America: Private Lives in a Patriotic Era
Harvard University Press.
Cantril, Hadley and Mildred Strunk, eds.;
Public Opinion, 1935-1946 (1951), massive
compilation of many public opinion polls from
USA
Ferguson, Robert G. 'One Thousand Planes a
Day: Ford, Grumman, General Motors and the
Arsenal of Democracy.' History and Technology
2005 21(2): 149-175. ISSN 0734-1512 Fulltext
in Swetswise, Ingenta and Ebsco
Flynn, George Q. The Draft, 1940-1973 (1993)
(ISBN 0-7006-1105-3)
Gallup, George Horace, ed. The Gallup Poll;
Public Opinion, 1935-1971 3 vol (1972) esp
vol 1. summarizes results of each poll as
reported to newspapers
Garfinkel, Herbert . When Negroes March: The
March on Washington and the Organizational
Politics for FEPC (1959).
Koistinen, Paul A. C. Arsenal of World War
II: The Political Economy of American Warfare,
1940–1945 (2004)
Miller, Sally M., and Daniel A. Cornford eds.
American Labor in the Era of World War II
(1995), essays by historians, mostly on California
Lichtenstein, Nelson. Labor's War at Home:
The CIO in World War II (2003)
Wynn, Neil A. The Afro-American and the Second
World War (1977)
Vatter, Howard. The U.S. Economy in World
War II Columbia University Press, 1985. General
survey
Hinshaw, David. The Home Front (1943)
Hoehling, A. A. Home Front, U.S.A. (1966)
== Further reading ==
=== Surveys ===
Adams, Michael C.C. The Best War Ever: America
and World War II (1993); contains detailed
bibliography
Blum, John Morton. V Was for Victory: Politics
and American Culture During World War II (1995);
original edition (1976)
Kennedy, David M. Freedom from Fear: The American
People in Depression and War, 1929-1945. (2001)
excerpt and text search; full text online,
a major scholarly survey of the era
Polenberg, Richard. War and Society: The United
States, 1941-1945 (1980)
Titus, James, ed. The Home Front and War in
the Twentieth Century: The American Experience
in Comparative Perspective (1984) essays by
scholars. online free
Winkler, Allan M. Home Front U.S.A.: America
During World War II (1986). short survey
==== Encyclopedias ====
Ciment, James D. and Thaddeus Russell, eds.
The Home Front Encyclopedia: United States,
Britain, and Canada in World Wars I and II
(3 vol 2006)
Frank, Lisa Tendrich. An Encyclopedia of American
Women at War: From the Home Front to the Battlefields
(2013)
Resch, John Phillips, and D'Ann Campbell eds.
Americans at War: Society, Culture, and the
Homefront (vol 3 2004)
10 Eventful Years: 1937-1946 4 vol. Encyclopædia
Britannica, 1947. Highly detailed encyclopedia
of events
=== Economy and labor ===
Aruga, Natsuki. "'An' Finish School': Child
Labor during World War II" Labor History 29
(1988): 498-530. DOI: 10.1080/00236568800890331.
Campbell, D'Ann. 'Sisterhood versus the Brotherhoods:
Women in Unions' in Campbell, Women at War
with America (1984) pp. 139–62
Dubofsky, Melvyn and Warren Van Time John
L. Lewis (1986). Biography of head of coal
miners' union
Evans Paul. 'The Effects of General Price
Controls in the United States during World
War II.' Journal of Political Economy 90 (1983):
944-66. statistical study in JSTOR
Faue, Elizabeth. Community of Suffering & Struggle:
Women, Men, and the Labor Movement in Minneapolis,
1915-1945 (1991), social history
Feagin, Joe R., and Kelly Riddell. 'The State,
Capitalism and World War II: The U.S. Case.'
Armed Forces and Society (1990) 17#1 pp. 53–79.
in JSTOR
Flynn, George Q. The Mess in Washington: Manpower
Mobilization in World War II (1979) online
Fraser, Steve. Labor Will Rule: Sidney Hillman
and the Rise of American Labor (1993). leader
of CIO
Hall, Martha L. et al., "American Women's
Wartime Dress: Sociocultural Ambiguity Regarding
Women's Roles During World War II," Journal
of American Culture 38 (Sept. 2015), 234–42.
Harrison, Mark. 'Resource Mobilization for
World War II: The U.S.A., UK, U.S.S.R. and
Germany, 1938-1945.' Economic History Review
41 (1988): 171-92. in JSTOR
Herman, Arthur. Freedom's Forge: How American
Business Produced Victory in World War II
(Random House, 2012) 413 pp.
Hyde, Charles K. Arsenal of Democracy: The
American Automobile Industry in World War
II (Wayne State University Press; 2013) 264
pages
Jacobs, Meg. '"How About Some Meat?": The
Office of Price Administration, Consumption
Politics, and State Building from the Bottom
Up, 1941-1946,' Journal of American History
84#3 (1997), pp. 910–941 in JSTOR
Maury Klein. A Call to Arms: Mobilizing America
for World War II (2013).
Maines, Rachel. 'Wartime Allocation of Textiles
and Apparel Resources: Emergency Policy in
the Twentieth Century.' Public Historian (1985)
7#1 pp. 29–51.
Mills, Geofrey, and Hugh Rockoff. "Compliance
with Price Controls in the United States and
the United Kingdom during World War II," Journal
of Economic History 47#1 (1987): 197-213.
in JSTOR
Reagan, Patrick D. 'The Withholding Tax, Beardsley
Ruml, and Modern American Public Policy.'
Prologue 24 (1992): 19-31.
Rockoff, Hugh. "The Response of the Giant
Corporations to Wage and Price Controls in
World War II." Journal of Economic History
(1981) 41#1 pp. 123–28. in JSTOR
Romer, Christina D. 'What Ended the Great
Depression?' Journal of Economic History 52
(1992): 757-84. in JSTOR
Simmons, Dean. Swords into plowshares: Minnesota's
POW camps during World War II. (2000). ISBN
978-0-9669001-0-1.
Tuttle, William M. Jr. 'The Birth of an Industry:
The Synthetic Rubber 'Mess' in World War II.'
Technology and Culture 22 (1981): 35-67. in
JSTOR
Wilcox, Walter W. The Farmer in the Second
World War. 1947 online.
Wilson, Mark R. ;;Destructive Creation: American
Business and the Winning of World War II (2016)
online review.
=== Draft ===
Bennett, Scott H., ed. Army GI, Pacifist CO:
The World War II Letters of Frank and Albert
Dietrich (New York: Fordham Univ. Press, 2005).
Blum, Albert A. Drafted Or Deferred: Practices
Past and Present Ann Arbor: Bureau of Industrial
Relations, Graduate School of Business Administration,
University of Michigan, 1967.
Flynn George Q. 'American Medicine and Selective
Service in World War II.' Journal of the History
of the Behavioral Sciences 42 (1987): 305-26.
Flynn George Q. The Draft, 1940-1973 (1993)
excerpt and text search
=== Family, gender and minorities ===
Bailey, Beth, and David Farber; 'The "Double-V"
Campaign in World War II Hawaii: African Americans,
Racial Ideology, and Federal Power,' Journal
of Social History Volume: 26. Issue: 4. 1993.
pp. 817+.
Campbell, D'Ann. Women at War with America
(1984)
Daniel, Clete. Chicano Workers and the Politics
of Fairness: The FEPC in the Southwest, 1941-1945
University of Texas Press, 1991
Collins, William J. 'Race, Roosevelt, and
Wartime Production: Fair Employment in World
War II Labor Markets,' American Economic Review
91:1 (March 2001), pp. 272–286. in JSTOR
Costello, John. Virtue Under Fire: How World
War II Changed Our Social and Sexual Attitudes
(1986), US and Britain
Escobedo, Elizabeth. From Coveralls to Zoot
Suits: The Lives of Mexican American Women
on the World War II Home Front (2013)
Finkle, Lee. 'The Conservative Aims of Militant
Rhetoric: Black Protest during World War II,'
Journal of American History (1973) 60#3 pp.
692–713 in JSTOR
Hall, Martha L. et al., "American Women's
Wartime Dress: Sociocultural Ambiguity Regarding
Women's Roles During World War II," Journal
of American Culture 38 (Sept. 2015), 234–42.
Hartmann, Susan M. Home Front and Beyond:
American Women in the 40's (1982)
Kryder, Daniel. Divided Arsenal: Race and
the American State During World War II (2001)
Kuhn, Clifford M., "'It Was a Long Way from
Perfect, but It Was Working': The Canning
and Home Production Initiatives in Green County,
Georgia, 1940–1942," Agricultural History
(2012) 86#1 pp. 68–90. on Victory gardens
Lees, Lorraine M. 'National Security and Ethnicity:
Contrasting Views during World War II.' Diplomatic
History 11 (1987): 113-25.
Myrdal, Gunnar. An American Dilemma: The Negro
Problem and Modern Democracy (1944), famous
classic
Ossian, Lisa L. The Forgotten Generation:
American Children and World War II (University
of Missouri Press; 2011) 192 pages; children's
experiences at school, at play, at work, and
in the home.
Tuttle Jr. William M.; Daddy's Gone to War:
The Second World War in the Lives of America's
Children Oxford University Press, 1995 online
edition; online review
Records of the Women's Bureau (1997), short
essay on women at work
Ward, Barbara McLean, ed., Produce and Conserve,
Share and Play Square: The Grocer and the
Consumer on the Home-Front Battlefield during
World War II, Portsmouth, NH: Strawbery Banke
Museum
Pfau, Ann Elizabeth. Miss Yourlovin: GIs,
Gender, and Domesticity during World War II
(Columbia UP. 2008) online
=== 
Politics ===
Burns, James MacGregor. Roosevelt: Soldier
of Freedom (1970), vol 2 covers the war years.
Goodwin, Doris Kearns. No Ordinary Time: Franklin
and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World
War II (1995)
Graham, Otis L. and Meghan Robinson Wander,
eds. Franklin D. Roosevelt: His Life and Times.
(1985). encyclopedia
Hooks Gregory. The Military Industrial Complex:
World War II's Battle of the Potomac University
of Illinois Press, 1991.
Jeffries John W. 'The "New" New Deal: FDR
and American Liberalism, 1937-1945.' Political
Science Quarterly (1990): 397-418. in JSTOR
Leff Mark H. 'The Politics of Sacrifice on
the American Home Front in World War II,'
Journal of American History 77 (1991): 1296-1318.
in JSTOR
Patterson, James T. Mr. Republican: A Biography
of Robert A. Taft (1972)
Steele Richard W. 'The Great Debate: Roosevelt,
the Media, and the Coming of the War, 1940-1941.'
Journal of American History 71 (1994): 69-92.
in JSTOR
Young, Nancy Beck. Why We Fight: Congress
and the Politics of World War II (University
Press of Kansas; 2013) 366 pages; comprehensive
survey
==== Primary sources and teaching materials
====
Dorn, Charles, and Connie Chiang. "Lesson
Plan – National Unity and National Discord:
The Western Homefront during World War II,"
Journal of the West (Summer 2010) 49#3 pp.
41–60. Contains a detailed lesson plan for
11th grade, focused on the social history
of the Homefront in the West (especially California).
Nicholas, H. G. Washington despatches, 1941-1945:
weekly political reports from the British
Embassy (1985) 718 pages; unusually rich secret
reports from British diplomats (especially
Isaiah Berlin) analyzing American government
and politics
Piehler, G. Kurt, ed, The United States in
World War II: A Documentary Reader (2012)
excerpt and text search
=== Propaganda, advertising, media, public
opinion ===
Blanchard, Margaret A. 'Freedom of the Press
in World War II.' American Journalism. Volume
12, Issue 3, 1995. p. 342-358. Published online
on 24 July 2013. DOI: 10.1080/08821127.1995.10731748.
Bredhoff, Stacey (1994), Powers of Persuasion:
Poster Art from World War II, National Archives
Trust Fund Board.
Albert Hadley Cantril; Mildred Strunk (1951).
Public opinion: 1935-1946. Princeton University
Press., summaries of thousands of polls in
US, Canada, Europe
Fauser, Annegret. Sounds of War: Music in
the United States During World War II (Oxford
University Press; 2013) 366 pages; focuses
on classical music in the 1940s, including
work by both American composers and Europeans
in exile.
Fox, Frank W (1975), Madison Avenue Goes to
War: The Strange Military Career of American
Advertising, 1941–45, Brigham Young University
Press.
Fyne, robert (1994), The Hollywood Propaganda
of World War II, Scarecrow Press.
Gregory, G.H. (1993), Posters of World War
II, Gramercy Books.
Gallup, George H. (1972), The Gallup Poll:
Public Opinion 1935- 1971, Vol. 1, 1935–1948,
short summary of every poll
M. Paul Holsinger and Mary Anne Schofield;
Visions of War: World War II in Popular Literature
and Culture (1992) online edition
Terrence H. Witkowski; 'World War II Poster
Campaigns: Preaching Frugality to American
Consumers' Journal of Advertising, Vol. 32,
2003
=== Social, state and local history ===
Brown DeSoto. Hawaii Goes to War. Life in
Hawaii from Pearl Harbor to Peace. 1989.
Cavnes, Max Parvin (1961). The Hoosier community
at war. Indiana University Press., on Indiana
Chandonnet, Fern. Alaska at War, 1941-1945:
The Forgotten War Remembered (2007)
Clive Alan. State of War: Michigan in World
War II University of Michigan Press, 1979.
Daniel Pete. 'Going among Strangers: Southern
Reactions to World War II.' Journal of American
History 77 (1990): 886-911. in JSTOR
Escobedo, Elizabeth. From Coveralls to Zoot
Suits: The Lives of Mexican American Women
on the World War II Home Front (2013)
Gleason Philip. 'Pluralism, Democracy, and
Catholicism in the Era of World War II.' Review
of Politics 49 (1987): 208-30. in JSTOR
Hartzel, Karl Drew. The Empire State At War
(1949), on upstate New York online edition
Hiltner, Aaron. Friendly Invasions: Civilians
and Servicemen on the World War II American
Home Front (2017).
Jaworski, Taylor. "World War II and the Industrialization
of the American South (Paper. No. w23477.
National Bureau of Economic Research, 2017)
online.
Johnson, Charles. 'V for Virginia: The Commonwealth
Goes to War,' Virginia Magazine of History
and Biography 100 (1992): 365–398 in JSTOR
Johnson Marliynn S. 'War as Watershed: The
East Bay and World War II.' Pacific Historical
Review 63 (1994): 315-41, on Northern California
in JSTOR
Lange, Dorothea; Charles Wollenberg (1995).
Photographing the second gold rush: Dorothea
Lange and the East Bay at war, 1941-1945.
Heyday Books. ISBN 978-0-930588-78-6. in Northern
California
LaRossa, Ralph. Of War and Men: World War
II in the Lives of Fathers and Their Families
(2011)
Larson, Thomas A. Wyoming's war years, 1941-1945
(1993)
Lichtenstein Nelson. 'The Making of the Postwar
Working Class: Cultural Pluralism and Social
Structure in World War II.' Historian 51 (1988):
42-63.
Lee James Ward, Carolyn N. Barnes, and Kent
A. Bowman, eds. 1941: Texas Goes to War University
of North Texas Press, 1991.
Lotchin, Roger W. 'The Historians' War or
The Home Front's War?: Some Thoughts for Western
Historians,' Western Historical Quarterly
(1995) 26#2 pp. 185–196 in JSTOR
Marcello, Ronald E. Small Town America in
World War II: War Stories from Wrightsville,
Pennsylvania (University of North Texas Press,
2014) 452 pp.
Miller Marc. The Irony of Victory. World War
II and Lowell, Massachusetts (U of Illinois
Press, 1988).
Nash Gerald D. The American West Transformed.
The Impact of the Second World War Indiana
UP, 1985.
Scranton, Philip. ed. The Second Wave: Southern
Industrialization from the 1940s to the 1970s
(U of Georgia Press, 2001).
Smith C. Calvin. War and Wartime Changes:
The Transformation of Arkansas, 1940–1945
(U of Arkansas Press, 1986).
O'Brien, Kenneth Paul and Lynn Hudson Parsons,
eds. The Home-Front War: World War II and
American Society (1995) online essays by scholars
Spinney, Robert G. World War II in Nashville:
Transformation of the Homefront (1998)
Verge, Arthur C. 'The Impact of the Second
World War on Los Angeles,' Pacific Historical
Review (1994) 63#3 pp. 289–314 in JSTOR
Watters, Mary. Illinois in the Second World
War. 2 vol (1951)
== External links ==
Regional Oral History Office / Rosie the Riveter
/ World War II American Homefront Project
American Anti-Axis Propaganda from World War
II
Academic Data Related to the Roosevelt Administration
FDR Cartoon Archive
National Museum of the Civil Air Patrol (online,
World War II section)
Powers of Persuasion: Poster Art from World
War II, National Archives
Northwestern U Library World War II Poster
Collection
War Ration Book Records and Related Information
(1999) Oxford History of the U.S.
Library of Congress: 1000 Digitized Photos
of World War II Occupations on the Homefront
A Visual History of Victory Gardens curated
by Michigan State University
