MYP Unit Question: How did culture, events and leadership shape and reflect post-WWII America?

 

 

The 1940s

              

 

Business & the Economy

     World War II helped bring the United States out of the depression that had occurred in the 1930s with the stock market crash. In the early 1940s American companies profited greatly from selling war goods to other countries and later when the United States became involved in the war, the U.S government greatly increased demand for military goods. This stimulated the economy by increasing production of goods to meet the increased demand and this in turn helped create more jobs. This helped break the cycle of the depression and start economic growth again.

 

     By the end of the war, Americans were enjoying great prosperity as workers wages increased, farm incomes increased and may workers earned bonuses as well. The war also had a tremendous affect on the diversity of the labor force. For example, more than 1.2 million African Americans were employed, about 60% of women were employed during WWII, and teenagers also worked during the war and their earnings created a new consumer market for music and automobiles, since teenagers now had more money to spend compared to before.

 

1940's Women working

 

   However, after the war the United States was faced with the problem of how they would sustain the prosperity achieved during the war, now that the war was over. The U.S government attempted to reconvert American industries out of the production of war goods and to other goods and services. Another concern was the demobilization of the 17 million U.S troops that people would start a depression if they all entered the labor force. To deal with this issue, the government passed the Serviceman’s Readjustment Act that sent many of the men into college and temporarily delaying their entry back into the labor force. The economy slowed between 1946-1948, but by 1949 the economy was again prospering as a potential confrontation with the Soviet Union was again directing sectors of the economy to war goods and U.S Strade with Western Europe increased.

 

Education

 

     When the US entered World War II, many of the draftees were not accepted due to being illiterate. It was also seen, that the education varied vastly throughout the whole country, thus a new education system which was standardized, scientific and national was needed to keep the American education going. Due to the rapid innovations of technologies seen during the war, such as the atomic bomb, many colleges realized that they needed to improve and increase their science and technical training. Examples of this increased scientific training are the Radiation Laboratory at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Metallurgy Laboratory at the University of Chicago, which were build by the federal government. These new structures and programs increased university revenue quickly.

 

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     The government gave serviceman training and education following the war, by passing the Readjustment Act, or GI Bill of Rights. It paid the college tuition for millions of veterans. The program filled classrooms after the war and put pressure on college resources.

 

     Segregation of schools was also still a problem at schools. The quality of education African-American students receives was often much lower than that of white students at “regular” schools. However court cases such as Sweatt v. Painter, organized by the NAACP would start challenging segregation in the 1940s, and in 1954, the famous case of Brown vs. Board of education would finally bring segregation to an end.

  

Fashion

     American Fashion was altered in the 1940's because we entered World War II, and the textile factories needed more fabric to make the uniforms for the soldiers.  Men's fashion change a lot due to this, the vest that is warn under the coat was taken out, because that fabric was used to make the uniforms.  Now men only had an overcoat and dress pants.  Womens fashion became simpler than that of the mens.   The media created a saying "make do and mend", because many of the women had to do just that, make do and mend the clothes that they had before.  Pillow cases were turned into shorts during the summer, and wedding dresses were borrowed from friends and family.  Women would wear laced pillow cases as blouses, and even the milk top caps were used, they were made into accessories and handbags.

 

     Even make- up was scarce during the war.  Munitions workers were required to wear make - up because of the dangerous grit and chemicals they were working with.  Max Factor officials in America went to munition factories and handed out make - up such as  the new pancake make - up and lipstick.  They also gave out Vaseline and Vitapointe for hair.  Hair was very important to women back then as it is today, so they did their best in this tough time to look their best.  During the day, they would hide it in a turban or just a regular up do, to keep it from getting it caught up in the machinery, and let it back down during the night.  

 

     Although the war ended in 1947 the rationing was still in place.  The war had ruined much of Europe's textile industry and the United States was sending a lot of textiles and similar things to Europe instead of the U.S..  Many Americans became impatient and angry at the government because the rationing was still in place.  Many designers such as Christian Dior were creating exceptional clothing but it was frowned upon by the U.S. and European governments because it used too much cloth.   

 

Film and Theater

     Hollywood reached its peak in the 1940’s and the eight largest studios, Warner’s Brothers, Twentieth Century Fox, Universal Studios, etc. created one movie per week. Hollywood monitored the films created by the studios very closely making sure that the good guy’s always one and that sexuality is suggested but not openly mentioned. This strict censorship slowly started to loosen up as soon as Hollywood decided to support the war, in 1941. Although these movies mentioned the war, they really had nothing to do with the war; most of the films were playful romps. Many Americans went to the movies in the 1940-1945. In 1946-1949 numbers slowly started to decrease because more and more people stayed at home to watch TV on their new television sets.

 

     Another form of entertainment that many Americans enjoyed during the 1940’s was Broadway extravaganzas. Eleven million people attended musicals in 1943.  Most of the shows that were performed had to do with the war, singing soldiers or hiking women. Although many Americans enjoyed Broadway, dramatic theater suffered tremendously because it lacked in an audience and the result was that these theaters had to be moved into smaller ones.

 

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Food &  Drink

     The increasing popularity of automobiles in the 1940s caught brothers Mac and Dick’s attention that led them to start a chain of fast-food restaurants known as McDonalds with “carhops” known today as a drive-through. They wanted to provide customers with a fast way to get food and created a self-service system with a nine item menu. It included very popular foods such as hamburgers, french fries and milkshakes. McDonalds became increasingly a major part of Americans everyday lives and American culture as well as the fast food system in the United States.

 

     The popular candy M & M’s was invented in 1941 by Forrst Mars and William Murrie. The candy’s name comes from the first letter of both the founder’s names. M & M’s became very popular among soldiers fighting in WWII. Soldiers received M & M’s as part of their food rations and they easily carry the candy in paper tubes with them. The candy later spread to the general public, not just soldiers, and gained much popularity. In fact, M & M’s grew to be the most popular product of the Mars company, even outweighing other candies such as Milky Ways and Mars Bars.

 

     Another significant event  relating to food and drink in the 1940s was the popularity of pizza. During WWII American soldiers fighting in Europe enjoyed the pizza they tasted in Naples, Italy. When they returned home after the war they wanted the same pizza they had tasted abroad and pizzerias were opened across the country to meet this demand.  Americans loved the pizzerias and soon even started having “pizza parties” during social gatherings. Eating pizza became an enormous trend in the 1940s and it has continued to present day as a very integrated part of American society.

 

Print Culture 

     As America entered World War II, many people relied on newspapers, magazines, and the radio for information on the troops.  Magazines such as TIME and Newsweek, were many of the famous ones that people got a lot of their information from.  Not only did the American society rely on these pieces for news and information, so did the troops.  They wanted to know how the society was changing with out them, how much it has progressed.  There were also pictures of women in there that were for the troops.  Stories from the front and pictures of the soldiers and battles filled up most of the papers’ pages.

 

            Even though the Americans thought that news of the war were most important, the comic book became very popular.  Captain America is one of the oldest and most supported super hero, he was sent, in the 1940’s, to fight the Nazis.   There were other superheroes as well, such as Superman, Batman and Wonder women.  All of these super heroes were created  by DC Comics and its sister company All American Comics. 

 

Sports &  Games

     During the 1940’s, the sport culture underwent a change it had not seen before. While the major league sports passed through a time of hardship during the war due to the lack of players, women became more famous in the sporting industry. As able-bodied men were drafted for war, women filled in their spots. Branch Rickey, the marginal manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, created the All-American Girls Baseball League, which, for the first time, included women athletes in national sports. It attracted a surprising amount of attention, yet it was only for a brief period of time. The black population also experienced an era of improving rights. More and more blacks joined competitive sport teams even though there was a lot of resistance in the South. Capitalism slowly began to take over the sporting industry, starting with baseball, the nations most popular sport. In the beginning of the 1940’s, the average salary for a professional league baseball player was 50$ an hour. By the end of the decade, salaries had risen to some of the highest in the nation. Saint Louis Cardinal Star Stan Musial was making $50,000 per year 1949 (sports 1)

 

 

Music

 

     The 1940s music style laid the foundation for Rock and Roll music in the 1950s and later. Blues could be sold cheaply and easily with the newly invented magnetic tape recorders. It also underwent rhythmic changes and started to develop into R&B (Rhythm and Blues), and boogie-woogie as well as “jump blues.” Jazz clubs in the big cities also helped developed new musical styles. The most prominent example of this is “bebop” which gave very talented musicians such as trumpet players Miles Davis and Dizzy Gillespie, a chance to get their music out.

 

     Another big influence to 1940s music besides World War II was the New Deal program from Franklin D. Roosevelt’s presidency in the 1930s. Country music, through the introduction of electric guitars, was mostly affected by this and was received majorly through the popular radio shows, by most of Americans. Country music was mostly listened to by people who had moved out of the cities into rural areas, but serviceman also enjoyed the music from time to time.  

 

          

Charlie Parker’s “Now’s the Time” from 1949

Frank Sinatra’s song “All of Me” from 1946

 

 

 

"The Way We Lived"

     Due to the Great Depression many Americans were living in poverty. Therefore the people that lived threw it had deep impressions about the past. Their constant suffering from not having food, clothing, or other items needed for living effected their personality and the way they lived. Families had there own “victory gardens” were they grew their own vegetables. The depression also held back couples from getting married because of the deprivations. As soon as the US declared the war many couples wanted to get married. Once the soldiers got back from war, many then started moving into ranch houses in suburbs to have children. This was the baby boom were many babies were born. In the mid 1940's the economy started to grow again. People could find many jobs and started spending money luxuries. Many families went on vacation to sunny places or went to Las Vegas to gamble away there money.

 

     After the war the world was divided into to sides, the communist and democrats. The United States informed the people of this situation and people became paranoid of who might be a communist. This started the Cold War and families started to build cement bunkers in their backyards. People began to distrust each other and fear was present of who might be a communist.  Being communist meant that you were an outcast to society, no one trusted you with anything.  Even being accused of being communist, or supporting communism, could lead to several threats, and some assassination attempts.  

 

 

Government & Politics 

 

     In 1940 the majority of American did not want to get involved in the war while some “interventionists”  urged the government to become directly involved in the war with direct military action. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt attempted to maintain neutral on the issue because it was reelection year. In his campaigns he promised he would not send young boys overseas to fight in the war in order to please the general public and get reelected. However, he favored getting involved in the war. And after he was elected he called up the National Guard and the United States provided arms to England.  The majority of the U.S citizens still had a very isolationist attitude and did not want to get involved in the war. However, on December 7th, 1941the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and this dramatically changed many American's views about the war. Four days later Germany declared war on the United States, and in turn Congress decared war as well.

 

     Great political change continued to occur as the United States and other countries were swept into World War II. The Prime Minister of England, Winston Churchill, wanted the United States to help save the British Empire. However, President Roosevelt knew the war would severely weaken the British Empire and hoped the United States would take Britain’s place. In addition, the United States let the Soviet Union bear most of the force in defeating Nazi Germany that severely impacted the country’s infrastructure and left 25 million people dead that left the Soviet Union without much power to challenge the United States. Yet, Roosevelt’s reputation was damaged somewhat as his opponents argued that the presence of the Soviet Union endangered the United States.

 

 

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Leadership

     The two US-Presidents during the 1940s were Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933-1945) and Harry S. Truman (1945-1953), who was Roosevelt’s Vice President and became President after Roosevelt’s death in 1945. Franklin D. Roosevelt was the only president to serve three whole terms and be elected four times. He had to face the decision whether to enter World War II against Germany and Japan, however his decision was made easier after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Harry S. Truman was left with the decision regarding the usage of the atomic bomb on Japan after Roosevelt’s death.

 

 

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Harry S. Truman

 

 

     Harry S. Truman, who was the son of farmers, had to help on the farm and do chores from early on. He is often said to be the last President with whom ordinary people could truly identify and often called himself a President of the common folk. He is best known for ordering the atomic bomb droppings on the Japan’s cities Hiroshima and Nagasaki. One of his other accomplishments was the Presidential Libraries Act of 1955, which he believed would make libraries the property of all Americans, thus they would have access to magazines and books at all times. Harry S. Truman also entered the Korean war when communist nations tried to take over the country.

 

Law &  Justice

     World War Two brought to light some of the injustices of the United States actions. For example, in the early 1940s a U.S army general told the United States government that the Japanese Americans living in the West Coast could possibly be a threat to national security. As a result, the United States government forcibly removed a total of 110,000 Japanese Americans from their homes and they were sent to internment camps. Later on this injustice was acknowledged, as one Supreme Court justice later said the camps were “ a legalization of racism”.

 

     The United Nations was founded in the late 1940s after WW II and the United States emerged as one of its leaders. The United Nations was much more successful in setting this international law compared to the League of the Nations that was founded after WWI with the hopes of avoiding future wars. Among the main responsibilities of the new United Nations organization was to set a regulation of international law to avoid another war if the disputes could be settled more peacefully and ackwledging the importance of peace and the entire world become increasingly inter-reliant with one another. 

 

 

 

 

Picture of Japanese American in internment camp during 1940s

 

Religion

     In the years after the war, the number of people attending churches increased rapidly. Before the war only around 40% of Americans attended church, while in the years after the war about 55% of Americans attended church. In the years from 1945 to 1949, three hundred thousand people joined the Southern Baptist and about one million infants were baptized and joined the Catholic Church.

 

     During the 1940s Protestantism was the main religion in the US, with some of its sub-bodies such as the Methodist Church, having up to 8 million members and about 40,000 churches in the US. Southern Baptist even had 300 missions in 22 different countries, outside the US, spreading their word all over the world. The other major religions during the 40s were Catholicism and Judaism, with 25 million and 5 million members respectively. Some unorthodox sects, such as the Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses, had up to one million members during the 40s.

 

     Although the war had a big impact on the religion of the time other influences to the change were major religious and theological reforms, in all three of the major religions: Protestantism, Catholicism and Judaism. These radical changes adjusted the religions to more modern society as well as innovative intellectual concepts.

    

Positive Political Cartoon

  

 

     The United States wanted to encourage and persuade everyone in the American public to help with the war efforts, including women and children as illustrated in this propganda from the 1940s. The women in the picture that is wearing clothes with the United States flag is lady Columbia. She is shown as looking very exxhausted and worn out to help send the message across to the viewer that the United States needs its citizens help in order to win World War II. In addition it is implying that it is every woman and child's duty to help their nation in times of need and that is is a very patriotic act. When the men left for war, many women were needed to work in the factories and they took over many jobs that had been traditionally done by men. Women and children were given the opportunity to work outside the home and get involved in the war efforts. Moroever, the United States is positively encouraging them to help their country in any way they can because "civilization calls" as the United States is fighting in the war.

 

Negative Political Cartoon   

  This political cartoon by Dr. Seuss depicts the voltures in the background as nazi Germany that are pecking down and killing  all of the trees in the forest that represent individual Eurpean countries such as France, Poland, Norway and Greece. England is the last remaining tree, besides the U.S that is in danger of falling. While this is occuring the United States is depicted as calmly and happily watching all this happening without intervening to help the countries and does not appear to be concerned. In addition the quote " Ho hum! When he's finished pecking down that last tree he'll quite likely be tired" helps send the message across that the United States is waiting for Germany to run out of resources beofre the U.S will decide to intervene as part of a war strategy, despite what happens to others. IFurthermore, the political cartoom sheds a negative light on the United States as only being interested in its own well-being, and not caring about the welfar of other countries.

 

MYP Unit Question: How did culture, events and leadership shape and reflect post-WWII America?  

 

     Especially the 1940’s decade was impacted by the effects of World War II. Many able-bodied men were drafted and left back a country in need of workers, sport, and men. Women and African Americans were left to fill these spots. This helped both the civil rights movement and the feminism movement because women and African Americans were able to move into positions that were usually occupied by white men. It not only gave them opportunities to work in the labor force, but also opportunities to become involved in other areas of social life such as sports.Women began forming their own sports leagues paying in public. In addition, the war caused a shortage of foods, spices, and other goods that were usually imported from foreign countries tha also shaped the culture of post WWII America. This shortage of spices and other goods caused the food variety to decrease significantly. Meat was scarce and distributed with food stamps. This scarcity increased the popularity of thinning down food, or creating as many servings with as little as possible meat. The food and drink changed significantly after WWII that impacted the lives of many Americans as its legacies are still an enormous part of American culture: from fast food like McDonalds that reflects our changing society from the homecooked meals that stay at home women would prepare to the fast paced society and lifestyle as women becam increasingly involved in the workforce.

     

     Events such as Japanese Americans being sent to internment camps across the United States also helped shape post Worl War II America. The internment camps created a lot of  American resentment towards Japanese Americans. Even after they were allowed to leave the camps, many did not want to leave for fear of the hostility they would receive when they went back home. After WWII ended a lot of this resentment still remained and it was only in 1977 that the federal government aknowledged the internment camps were not justified and formally appologized. Another event that helped shape the U.S was the baby boom. As soldiers returned home from the war, many married and had children and the new generation is referred to as the baby boom. This generation represented many economic opportunities as they grew their was increased demand for products such as diapers and toys, to later school materials and as they grew the increased the demand for other products such as records and automobiles. As they became adults there was a great demand for housing and it lead to many communities in the subarbs being created. The baby boomers also helped spread "consumer culture" because they had not lived through events such as the Great Depression and spent more feely compared to older generations.

 

     Many leaders during World War II changed the culture of post - war America.  American leaders such as Franklin D. Roosevelt declared war on Axis of Power, which in turn got rid of most of the Great Depression, allowed women and African Americans to work in factories where only white men could work, and liberated France.  There were also Adolf Hitler, and Hirohito, the Japanese Emperor, who scared the U.S. into sending thousands of Japanese Americans into internment camps.  There was also Joseph Stalin who started the Red Scare in the United States.  This event lead to a very dramatic change in society, because if one was suspected of being a communists u would be out of trial by the House Un-American Comity.  It would also make one an outcast of society, which sometimes lead to suicide.

 

 

 

Works Cited

 

"Annual Message to the Congress on the State of the Union.." The American Presidency Project. 2009. University of

     California. Web. 17 Jun. 2009 .

 

Bowling, Beatniks, and Bell-Bottoms: Pop Culture of 20th-Century America. Eds. Sara Pendergast and Tom Pendergast. Vol. 3: 1940s-1950s. Detroit: U*X*L, 2002. Print.

 

Cooke, Jacob E. "Washington, George." Presidents: A Reference History. Ed. Henry F. Graff. 3^rd ed. Detroit: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2002. 1- 21. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Farmington Hills: Gale. Web. 30 Apr. 2008.

 

"Europe Divided on Familiar Lines To Two Speeches." Prescott Evening Courier 54(1948): 6. Print.

 

“Harry S. Truman." American Decades. Gale Research, 1998. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale, 2010. <http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/BioRC>.