History of the United States (191845)

The history of the United States from 1918 through many and Japan in 1945, after massive devastation and
1945 covers the post-World War I era, the Great Depres- loss of life, while the US emerged far richer and with few
sion, and World War II. After World War I, the U.S. re- casualties.
jected the Treaty of Versailles and did not join the League
of Nations.
In 1920, the manufacture, sale, import and export of al- 1 1919: strikes, riots and scares
cohol was prohibited by an amendment to the United
States Constitution. Possession of liquor, and drinking The United States was in turmoil throughout 1919. The
it, was never illegal. The overall level of alcohol con- huge number of returning veterans could not nd work,
sumption did go down, however, state and local govern- something the Wilson administration had given little
ments avoided aggressive enforcement. The federal gov- thought to. After the war, fear of subversion resumed
ernment was overwhelmed with cases, so that bootleg- in the context of the Red Scare, massive strikes in ma-
ging and speakeasies ourished in every city, and well- jor industries (steel, meatpacking) and violent race riots.
organized criminal gangs exploded in numbers, nances, Radicals bombed Wall Street, and workers went on strike
power, and inuence on city politics.[1] in Seattle in February. During 1919, a series of more
During most of the 1920s, the United States enjoyed a than 20 riotous and violent black-white race-related in-
period of sustained prosperity. Agriculture went through cidents occurred. These included the Chicago, Omaha,
a bubble in soaring land prices that collapsed in 1921, and Elaine Race Riots.
and that sector remained depressed. Coal mining was A phenomenon known as the Red Scare took place 1918
shrinking as oil became the main energy source. Other- 1919. With the rise of violent Communist revolutions
wise most sectors prospered. Prices were stable, and the in Europe, leftist radicals were emboldened by the Bol-
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew steadily until 1929, shevik Revolution in Russia and were eager to respond
when the nancial bubble burst. to Lenins call for world revolution. On May 1, 1919, a
In foreign policy the nation never joined the League of parade in Cleveland, Ohio, protesting the imprisonment
Nations, but instead took the initiative to disarm the of the Socialist Party leader, Eugene Debs, erupted into
world, most notably at the Washington Conference in the violent May Day Riots. A series of bombings in
192122. Washington also stabilized the European econ- 1919 and assassination attempts further inamed the sit-
omy through the Dawes Plan and the Young Plan. The uation. Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer conducted
Immigration Act of 1924 was aimed at stabilizing the tra- the Palmer Raids, a series of raids and arrests of non-
ditional ethnic balance and strictly limiting the total in- citizen socialists, anarchists, radical unionists, and immi-
ow. grants. They were charged with planning to overthrow the
government. By 1920, over 10,000 arrests were made,
The Wall Street Crash of 1929 and the ensuing Great De- and the aliens caught up in these raids were deported back
pression led to government eorts to restart the economy to Europe, most notably the anarchist Emma Goldman,
and help its victims. The recovery, however, was very who years before had attempted to assassinate industrial-
slow. The nadir of the Great Depression was 1933, and ist Henry Clay Frick.[2]
recovery was rapid until the recession of 1938 proved
a setback. There were no major new industries in the
1930s that were big enough to drive growth the way au-
tos, electricity and construction had been so powerful in 2 Aftermath of World War I
the 1920s. GDP surpassed 1929 levels in 1940.
A popular Tin Pan Alley song of 1919 asked, concern-
By 1939, isolationist sentiment in America had ebbed,
ing the United States troops returning from World War
and after the stunning fall of France in 1940 to Nazi Ger-
I, "How Ya Gonna Keep 'em Down on the Farm (Af-
many the United States began rearming itself and sent a
ter They've Seen Paree)?". In fact, many did not re-
large stream of money and military supplies to Britain,
main down on the farm"; there was a great migration
China and Russia. After the sudden Japanese Attack on
of youth from farms to nearby towns and smaller cities.[3]
Pearl Harbor, the United States entered the war against
The average distance moved was only 10 miles (16 km).
Imperial Japan, Fascist Italy, and Nazi Germany, known
Few went to the cities with over 100,000 people. How-
as the "Axis Powers". Italy surrendered in 1943, and Ger-
ever, agriculture became increasingly mechanized with

1
2 4 ROARING TWENTIES

and Congressional elections.

Politicians responded to the new electorate by emphasiz-
ing issues of special interest to women, especially prohi-
bition, child health, public schools, and world peace.[5]
Women did respond to these issues, but in terms of gen-
eral voting they shared the same outlook and the same
voting behavior as men.[6]
The surage organization NAWSA became the League
of Women Voters. Alice Pauls National Womans Party
began lobbying for full equality and the Equal Rights
Amendment, which would pass Congress during the sec-
ond wave of the womens movement in 1972, but was
not ratied and never took eect. The main surge of
women voting came in 1928, when the big-city machines
realized they needed the support of women to elect Al
Smith, while rural dry counties mobilized women to sup-
port Prohibition and vote for Republican Herbert Hoover.
Catholic women were reluctant to vote in the early 1920s,
but they registered in very large numbers for the 1928
electionthe rst in which Catholicism was a major
issue.[7] A few women were elected to oce, but none be-
came especially prominent during this time period. Over-
A 1919 sheet music cover, noting that many young veterans had
all, the womens rights movement was dormant in the
served in France and were leaving rural America for the cities
1920s, since Susan B. Anthony and the other prominent
activists had died, and apart from Alice Paul few younger
widespread use of the tractor, other heavy equipment, women came along to replace them.
and superior techniques disseminated through County
Agents, who were employed by state agricultural colleges
and funded by the Federal government. 4 Roaring Twenties
In 1919, Woodrow Wilson campaigned for the U.S. to
join the new League of Nations, which he had been in- Main article: Roaring Twenties
strumental in creating, but he rejected the Republican
compromise on the issue, and it was impossible to gain
a 2/3 majority. During a grueling cross-country tour to In the U.S. presidential election of 1920, the Republican
promote the League, Wilson suered a series of strokes. Party returned to the White House with the landslide vic-
He never recovered physically and lost his leadership tory of Warren G. Harding, who promised a return to
skills and was unable to negotiate or compromise. The normalcy after the years of war, ethnic hatreds, race ri-
Senate rejected entry into the League.[4] ots and exhausting reforms. Harding used new advertis-
ing techniques to lead the GOP to a massive landslide,
Defeat in the Great War left Germany in a state of tur- carrying the major cities as many Irish Catholics and Ger-
moil and heavily in debt for war reparations, payments to mans, feeling betrayed, deserted the Democrats.[8]
the victorious Allies. The Allies in turn owed large sums
to the US Treasury for war loans. The US eectively or-
chestrated payment of reparations; under the Dawes Plan, 4.1 Prosperity
American banks loaned money to Germany to pay the
reparations to countries like Britain and France, which in Except for a recession in 192021, the United States
turn paid o their own war debts to the US. In the 1920s, enjoyed a period of prosperity. Good times were
European and American economies reached new levels widespread for all sectors (except agriculture and coal
of industrial production and prosperity. mining). New industries (especially electric power,
movies, automobiles, gasoline, tourist travel, highway
construction and housing) ourished.
3 Womens surage The business of America is business, proclaimed Pres-
ident Coolidge.[9] Entrepreneurship ourished and was
After a long period of agitation, U.S. women were able widely hailed. Business interests had captured control
in 1920 to obtain the necessary votes from a majority of of the regulatory agencies established before 1915 and
men to obtain the right to vote in all state and federal used progressive rhetoric, emphasizing technological ef-
elections. Women participated in the 1920 Presidential ciency and prosperity as the keys to social improvement.
4.4 Jazz 3

William Allen White, a leading progressive spokesman, The United States became more anti-immigration in out-
supported GOP candidate Herbert Hoover in 1928 as one look during this period. The American Immigration Act
who could spiritualize business prosperity and make it of 1924 limited immigration from countries where 2%
serve progressive ends.[10] of the total U.S. population, per the 1890 census (not
Energy was a key to the economy, especially electricity counting African Americans), were immigrants from that
and oil. As electrication reached all the cities and towns, country. Thus, the massive inux of Europeans that had
consumers demanded new products such as light bulbs, come to America during the rst two decades of the cen-
refrigerators and toasters.[11] Factories installed electric tury slowed to a trickle. Asians and citizens of India were
prohibited from immigrating altogether.[16]
motors and saw productivity surge.[12] With the oil booms
in Texas, Oklahoma, and California, the United States
dominated world petroleum production, now even more
4.4 Jazz
important in an age of automobiles and trucks.[13]
The "Jazz Age" symbolized the popularity of new mu-
sics and dance forms, which attracted younger people in
4.2 Unions all the large cities as the older generation worried about
the threat of looser sexual standards as suggested by the
Labor unions grew very rapidly during the war, emerging uninhibited "apper. In every locality, Hollywood dis-
with a large membership, full treasuries, and a temporary covered an audience for its silent lms. It was an age
government guarantee of the right of collective bargain- of celebrities and heroes, with movie stars, boxers, home
ing. Ination was high during the war, but wages went up run hitters, tennis aces, and football standouts grabbing
even faster. However, unions were weak in heavy indus- widespread attention.[17][18]
try, such as automobiles and steel. Their main strength
was in construction, printing, railroads, and other crafts Black culture, especially in music and literature, our-
where the AFL had a strong system in place. Total union ished in many cities such as New Orleans, Memphis, and
membership had soared from 2.7 million in 1914 to 5 Chicago but nowhere more than in New York City, site
million at its peak in 1919. An aggressive spirit appeared of the Harlem Renaissance. The Cotton Club nightclub
in 1919, as demonstrated by the general strike in Seattle and the Apollo Theater became famous venues for artists
and the police strike in Boston. The larger unions made and writers.[19]
a dramatic move for expansion in 1919 by calling major Radio was a new industry that grew explosively from
strikes in clothing, meatpacking, steel, coal, and railroads. home-made crystal sets, picking up faraway stations to
The corporations fought back, and the strikes failed. The stations in every large city by the mid-decade. By 1927
unions held on to their gains among machinists, textile two national networks had been formed, the NBC Red
workers, and seamen, and in such industries as food and Network and the Blue Network (ABC). The broadcast
clothing, but overall membership fell back to 3.5 million, fare was mostly music, especially by big bands.[20]
where it stagnated until the New Deal passed the Wagner
Act in 1935.[14]
Real earnings (after taking ination, unemployment, and 4.5 Prohibition
short hours into account) of all employees doubled over
191845. Setting 1918 as 100, the index went to 112 Main article: Prohibition in the United States
in 1923, 122 in 1929, 81 in 1933 (the low point of the In 1920, the manufacture, sale, import and export of al-
depression), 116 in 1940, and 198 in 1945.[15]
The bubble of the late 1920s was reected by the exten-
sion of credit to a dangerous degree, including in the stock
market, which rose to record high levels. Government
size had been at low levels, causing major freedom of the
economy and more prosperity. It became apparent in ret-
rospect after the stock market crash of 1929 that credit
levels had become dangerously inated. The stock mar-
ket crash was also caused by the increased government
spending of Herbert Hoover and excessive market spec-
ulation.

4.3 Immigration restriction

Main article: Immigration Act of 1924 Prohibition agents destroying barrels of alcohol.
4 4 ROARING TWENTIES

cohol was prohibited by the Eighteenth Amendment to
the United States Constitution in an attempt to alleviate
high rates of alcoholism and, especially, political corrup-
tion led by saloon-based politicians. It was enforced at
the federal level by the Volstead Act. Most states let the
federals do the enforcing. Drinking or owning liquor was
not illegal, only the manufacture or sale. National Prohi-
bition ended in 1933, although it continued for a while in
some states. Prohibition is considered by most (but not
all) historians to have been a failure because organized
crime was strengthened.[1]
Fundamentalists were widely ridiculed, with writers like
H. L. Mencken poking merciless ridicule at them; their
eorts to pass state laws proved a failure.[22]
4.8 Federal government
Main articles: Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge, and
Herbert Hoover
In retrospect, the 1920s are sometimes seen as the last

4.6 Ku Klux Klan

Ku Klux Klan (KKK) is the name of three entirely dif-
ferent organizations (1860s, 1920s, post 1960) that used
the same nomenclature and costumes but had no direct
connection. The KKK of the 1920s was a purication
movement that rallied against crime, especially violation
of prohibition, and decried the growing inuence of
big-city Catholics and Jews. Its membership was of-
ten exaggerated but possibly reached as many as 4 million
men, but no prominent national gure claimed member-
ship; no daily newspaper endorsed it, and indeed most ac-
tively opposed the Klan. Membership was verily evenly
spread across the nations white Protestants, North and
South, urban and rural. Historians in recent years have
explored the Klan in depth. The KKK of the 1860s and
the current KKK were indeed violent. However, histo-
rians discount lurid tales of a murderous group in the
1920s. Some crimes were probably committed in Deep
South states but were quite uncommon elsewhere. The
local Klans seem to have been poorly organized and were
exploited as money-making devices by organizers more Herbert Hoover
than anything else. (Organizers charged a $10 applica-
tion fee and up to $50 for costumes.) Nonetheless, the gasp of unregulated "robber-baron" capitalism. The fed-
KKK had become prominent enough that it staged a huge eral government took on an increasing role in business
rally in Washington DC in 1925. Soon afterward, the na- aairs. In addition to Prohibition, the government ob-
tional headlines reported rape and murder by the KKK tained new powers and duties such as funding and over-
leader in Indiana, and the group quickly lost its mystique seeing the new U.S. Highway system and the regulation
and nearly all its members.[21] of radio frequencies.[23] The result was a rapid spread of
standardized roads and broadcasts that were welcomed by
most Americans.
4.7 Scopes Monkey Trial
The Harding Administration was rocked by the Teapot
The Scopes Trial of 1925 was a Tennessee court case that Dome scandal, the most famous of a number of episodes
tested a state law which forbade the teaching of any the- involving Hardings cabinet members. The president, ex-
ory that denies the story of the Divine Creation of man as hausted and ill from the news of the scandals, died of an
taught in the Bible, and to teach instead that man has de- apparent heart attack in August 1923 during a cruise to
scended from a lower order of animals. The law was the Alaska. His vice-president, Calvin Coolidge, succeeded
result of a systematic drive by religious Fundamentalists him.
to throw back the onslaught of modern ideas in theology Coolidge could not have been a more dierent personal-
and science. In a spectacular trial that drew national at- ity than his predecessor. Dour, puritanical, and spotlessly
tention thanks to the roles of three-time Democratic pres- honest, his White House stood in sharp contrast to the
idential candidate William Jennings Bryan for the pros- drinking, gambling, and womanizing that went on under
ecution and famed lawyer Clarence Darrow for the de- Harding. In 1924, he was easily elected in his own right
fense, John T. Scopes was convicted of teaching evolu- with the slogan Keep Cool With Coolidge. Overall, the
tion, but the verdict was overturned on a technicality. The Harding and Coolidge administrations marked a return to
5.1 The New Deal
the hands-o style of 19th-century presidents in contrast
to the activism of Roosevelt and Wilson. Coolidge, who
spent the entire summer on vacation during his years in
oce, famously said The business of the American peo-
ple is business.[24]
When Coolidge declined to run again in the 1928 elec-
tion, the Republican Party nominated engineer and
Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover, who was
elected by a wide margin over Al Smith, the rst Catholic
nominee. Hoover was a technocrat who had low regard
for politicians. Instead he was a believer in the ecacy of
individualism and business enterprise, with a little coor-
dination by the government, to cure all problems. He en-
visioned a future of unbounded plenty and the imminent
end of poverty in America. A year after his election, the
stock market crashed, and the nations economy slipped
downward into the Great Depression.[25]
After the crash, Hoover attempted to put in place many
eorts to restore the economy, especially the fast-sinking
agricultural sector. None worked. Hoover believed in
stimulus spending and encouraged state and local govern-
ments, as well as the federal government, to spend heavily
on public buildings, roads, bridgesand, most famously,
the Hoover Dam on the Colorado River. But with tax
revenues falling fast, the states and localities plunged into
their own scal crises. Republicans, following their tra-
ditional mass drums, along with pressure from the farm
bloc, passed the SmootHawley Tari Act, which raised
taris. Canada and other nations retaliated by raising
their taris on American goods and moving their trade in
other directions. American imports and exports plunged
by more than two thirds, but since international trade
was less than 5% of the American economy, the damage
done was limited. The entire world economy, led by the
United States, had fallen into a downward spiral that got
worse and worse, and in 193132 began plunging down-
ward even faster. Hoover had Congress set up a new re-
lief agency, the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, in
1932, but it proved too little too late.[26]
5 Great Depression
Main article: Great Depression in the United States
Historians and economists still have not agreed on the
causes of the Great Depression, but there is general agree-
ment that it began in the United States in late 1929 and
was either started or worsened by "Black Thursday, the
stock market crash of Thursday, October 24, 1929. Sec-
tors of the US economy had been showing some signs
of distress for months before October 1929. Business in-
ventories of all types were three times as large as they had
been a year before (an indication that the public was not
buying products as rapidly as in the past), and other sign- 5.1 The New Deal
posts of economic health-freight carloads, industrial
production, and wholesale prices-were slipping down- Main article: New Deal
ward.
5
GDP in United States January 1929 to January 1941
The events in the United States triggered a world-wide
depression, which led to deation and a great increase in
unemployment. In the United States between 1929 and
1933, unemployment soared from 3% of the workforce
to 25%, while manufacturing output collapsed by one-
third. Local relief was overwhelmed. Unable to support
their families, many unemployed men deserted (often go-
ing to "Hoovervilles") so the meager relief supplies their
families received would stretch further. For many, their
next meal was found at a soup kitchen, if at all.
Adding to the misery of the times, drought arrived in the
Great Plains. Decades of bad farming practices caused
the topsoil to erode, and combined with the weather con-
ditions (the 1930s was the overall warmest decade of the
20th century in North America) caused an ecological dis-
aster. The dry soil was lifted by wind and blown into huge
dust storms that blanketed entire towns, a phenomenon
that continued for several years. Those who had lost their
homes and livelihoods in the Dust Bowl were lured west-
ward by advertisements for work put out by agribusiness
in western states, such as California. The migrants came
to be called Okies, Arkies, and other derogatory names
as they ooded the labor supply of the agricultural elds,
driving down wages, pitting desperate workers against
each other. They came into competition with Mexican
laborers, who were deported en masse back to their home
country.[27]
In the South, the fragile economy collapsed further. To
escape, rural workers and sharecroppers migrated north
by train, both black and white.[28] By 1940 they were at-
tracted by booming munitions factories in plants in the
Great Lakes region Nationwide, farmers had been expe-
riencing depressed market conditions for their crops and
goods since the end of World War I. Many family farms
that had been mortgaged during the 1920s to provide
money to get through until better times were foreclosed
when farmers were unable to make payments.[29]
6 5 GREAT DEPRESSION

In the United States, upon accepting Democratic nom- The immediate banking crisis was over. The Glass
ination for president in 1932, Franklin D. Roosevelt Steagall Act established various provisions designed to
promised a new deal for the American people, a phrase prevent another Great Depression from happening again.
that has endured as a label for his administration and its These included separating investment from savings and
many domestic achievements.[30] loan banks and forbidding the purchase of stock with
The Republicans, blamed for the Depression, or at least no money down. Roosevelt also removed the currency
for lack of an adequate response to it, were easily defeated of the United States from the gold standard, which was
by Roosevelt in 1932.[31] widely blamed for limiting the money supply and caus-
ing deation, although the silver standard remained until
Roosevelt entered oce with no single ideology or plan 1971. Private ownership of gold bullion and certicates
for dealing with the depression. The new deal was of- was banned and would remain so until 1975.
ten contradictory, pragmatic, and experimental. What
some considered incoherence of the New Deals ideology,
however, was the presence of several competing ones, 5.3 Economy Act
based on programs and ideas not without precedents in
the American political tradition.[32] The New Deal con- On the morning after passage of the Emergency Banking
sisted of many dierent eorts to end the Great Depres- Act, Roosevelt sent to Congress the Economy Act, which
sion and reform the American economy. Many of them was designed to convince the public, and moreover the
failed, but there were enough successes to establish it as
business community, that the federal government was in
the most important episode of the 20th century in the cre-
the hands of no radical. The act proposed to balance the
ation of the modern American state.[33] federal budget by cutting the salaries of government em-
The desperate economic situation, combined with the ployees and reducing pensions to veterans by as much as
substantial Democratic victories in the 1932 Congres- 15%.
sional elections, gave Roosevelt unusual inuence over Otherwise, Roosevelt warned, the nation faced a $1 bil-
Congress in the First Hundred Days of his adminis- lion decit. The bill revealed clearly what Roosevelt had
tration. He used his leverage to win rapid passage of a always maintained: that he was as much of a scal conser-
series of measures to create welfare programs and reg- vative at heart as his predecessor was. And like the bank-
ulate the banking system, stock market, industry and ing bill, it passed through Congress almost instantly
agriculture.[34] despite heated protests by some congressional progres-
sives.

5.2 Bank holiday and Emergency Bank-

ing Act 5.4 Farm programs
On March 6, two days after taking oce, Roosevelt is-
sued a proclamation closing all American banks for four
days until Congress could meet in a special session. Ordi-
narily, such an action would cause widespread panic. But
the action created a general sense of relief. First, many
states had already closed down the banks before March 6.
Second, Roosevelt astutely and euphemistically described
it as a bank holiday. And third, the action demonstrated
that the federal government was stepping in to stop the
alarming pattern of bank failures.
Three days later, President Roosevelt sent to Congress
the Emergency Banking Act, a generally conservative bill,
drafted in large part by holdovers from the Hoover admin-
istration, designed primarily to protect large banks from
being dragged down by the failing smaller ones. The bill
provided for United States Treasury Department inspec-
tion of all banks before they would be allowed to reopen,
for federal assistance to tottering large institutions, and
for a thorough reorganization of those in greatest di-
culty. A confused and frightened Congress passed the
bill within four hours of its introduction. Three-quarters
of the banks in the Federal Reserve System reopened
within the next three days, and $1 billion in hoarded cur-
rency and gold owed back into them within a month.
The celebrated First Hundred Days of the new adminis-
tration also produced a federal program to protect Ameri-
can farmers from the uncertainties of the market through
subsidies and production controls, the Agricultural Ad-
justment Act (AAA), which Congress passed in May
1933. The AAA reected the desires of leaders of vari-
ous farm organizations and Roosevelts Secretary of Agri-
culture, Henry A. Wallace.
Relative farm incomes had been falling for decades.
The AAA included reworkings of many long-touted pro-
grams for agrarian relief, which had been demanded for
decades. The most important provision of the AAA was
the provision for crop reductionsthe domestic allot-
ment system, which was intended to raise prices for farm
commodities by preventing surpluses from ooding the
market and depressing prices further. The most contro-
versial component of the system was the destruction in
summer 1933 of growing crops and newborn livestock
that exceeded the allotments. They had to be destroyed
to get the plan working. However, gross farm incomes in-
creased by half in the rst three years of the New Deal and
the relative position of farmers improved signicantly for
the rst time in twenty years. Urban food prices went up
slightly, because the cost of the grains was only a small
5.6 Second New Deal 7

fraction of what the consumer paid. Conditions improved
for the great majority of commercial farmers by 1936.
The income of the farm sector almost doubled from $4.5
billion in 1932 to $8.9 billion in 1941 just before the
war.[35] Meanwhile, food prices rose 22% in nine years
from an index of 31.5 in 1932, to 38.4 in 1941.[36]
Works Administration, and the Federal Emergency Relief
Administration.
The early New Deal also began the Tennessee Valley Au-
thority, an unprecedented experiment in ood control,
public power, and regional planning.

5.6 Second New Deal

The Second New Deal (193536) was the second stage of

the New Deal programs. President Franklin D. Roosevelt
announced his main goals in January 1935: improved use
of national resources, security against old age, unemploy-
ment and illness, and slum clearance, as well as a national
welfare program (the WPA) to replace state relief eorts.
The most important programs included Social Security,
the National Labor Relations Act (Wagner Act), the
Banking Act, rural electrication, and breaking up util-
ity holding companies. Programs that were later ended by
the Supreme Court or the Conservative coalition included
the Works Progress Administration (WPA), the National
Youth Administration (NYA), the Resettlement Admin-
istration, and programs for retail price control, farm res-
cues, coal stabilization, and taxes on the rich and the
Undistributed prots tax. Liberals in Congress passed
the Bonus Bill for World War veterans over FDRs veto.
The Second New Deal proved especially controversial as
it attempted to redistribute wealth, income and power in
favor of the poor, the old, farmers and labor unions. Lib-
erals strongly supported the new direction, and formed
The Farm Security Administration used photography to document the New Deal coalition of union members, big city ma-
poverty in rural America. Dorothea Lange's Migrant Mother, chines, the white South, and ethnic minorities to sup-
depicts destitute pea pickers in California, centering on a mother port it. Conservatives, typied by the American Liberty
of seven children, age thirty-two, in Nipomo, California, March League, were strongly opposed.[37]
1936.

However, rural America contained many isolated farmers 5.7 Labor agitation
scratching out a subsistence income. The new deal set up
programs such as the Resettlement Administration and
the Farm Security Administration to help them, but was
very reluctant to help them buy farms.

5.5 'Alphabet soup'

Main article: Alphabet agencies

Roosevelt also created an alphabet soup of new federal

regulatory agencies such as the U.S. Securities and Ex-
change Commission (SEC) to oversee the stock market
and a reform of the banking system that included the
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) to estab-
lish a system of insurance for deposits.
The most successful initiatives in alleviating the miseries Workers and police battle in Minneapolis in June 1934.
of the Great Depression were a series of relief measures
to aid some of the 15 million unemployed Americans, Roosevelts rst term saw a massive amount of labor up-
among them the Civilian Conservation Corps, the Civil heaval. In 1934 alone, there was the 1934 West Coast
8 5 GREAT DEPRESSION

waterfront strike that brought all of San Francisco into a Deal by ruling many of its programs unconstitutional and
four-day general strike, the Minneapolis Teamsters Strike Roosevelt sought to replace the judges with more sym-
of 1934 that brought the Teamsters and other unions out pathetic ones in his infamous Court Packing. Despite
for a strike causing the governor to declare martial law, that, the New Deal gradually wound down and by 1939
the 1934 textile workers strike that brought hundreds of the president had turned his attention towards foreign pol-
thousands of textile workers on the East Coast out on icy.
strike, as well as other strikes. But the administrations other response to the 1937 down-
The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) and the turn had more tangible results. Ignoring his own Treasury
communists no longer being a force in the labor move- Department, Roosevelt embarked on an antidote to the
ment, the conservative American Federation of La- depression, reluctantly abandoning his eorts to balance
bor, which organized along craft union lines and which the budget and launching a $5 billion spending program in
preached labor/capital cooperation, dominated the U.S. the spring of 1938, an eort to increase mass purchasing
labor movement until the 1930s. In 1935, eight unions power and attack deation. Roosevelt explained his pro-
within the AFL organized the Congress of Industrial Or- gram in a reside chat in which he nally acknowledged
ganizations (CIO) to promote industrial unionism. The that it was up to the government to create an economic
CIO unions were expelled by the AFL in 1936, and in upturn by making additions to the purchasing power of
1938 they formed a rival federation to the AFL. The CIO the nation.
had much success in organizing, with the Steel Workers
Organizing Committee getting a contract with U.S. Steel
in 1937, and winning the Flint Sit-Down Strike and get- 5.9 World War II and the end of the Great
ting General Motors to recognize the United Auto Work- Depression
ers (UAW) as the collective bargainer for GM workers.
Having succeeded with GM, the UAW next turned its at- It was not until the administration expanded Federal
tention to Chrysler, which quickly came to terms. The last spending to support World War II, that the nations econ-
of the Big Three would prove to be a harder nut to crack, omy fully recovered. Between 1939 and 1944 (the peak
as Henry Ford remained absolutely opposed to unions. of wartime production), the nations output almost dou-
His security forces beat several UAW organizers outside bled. Consequently, unemployment plummetedfrom
the companys River Rouge plant in May 1937. Despite 14% in 1940 to less than 2% in 1943, as the labor force
pressure on all fronts, Ford would not budge until a wild- grew by ten million.
cat strike in 1941 convinced him to give in and unionize.
The war economy was not so much a triumph of free en-
terprise as the result of government bankrolling business.
5.8 Recession of 1937 and recovery While unemployment remained high throughout the New
Deal years, consumption, investment, and net exports
The economy eventually recovered from the low point the pillars of economic growthremained low. It was
of the winter of 193233, with sustained improvement World War II, not the New Deal, which nally ended
until 1937, when the Recession of 1937 brought back the crisis. Nor did the New Deal substantially alter the
1934 levels of unemployment. There is a broad con- distribution of power within American society and econ-
sensus among scholars that the New Deal policies did omy; and it had only a small impact on the distribution of
not lengthen and deepen the depression; only 5% of pro- wealth among the population.
fessional historians and 27% of professional economists
believe it served to lengthen and deepen the Great
Depression.[38] Apart from the WPA and CCC, most New 5.10 Legacies of the New Deal
Deal spending programs, such as the PWA and AAA, op-
erated through private rms. Although the New Deal did not end the depression, it in-
The New Deal and Roosevelts leadership were under as- creased the regulatory functions of the federal govern-
sault during Roosevelts second term, which suered new ment in the stock market, the banking system, and others.
economic setbacks in the Recession of 1937. A sharp It also produced a new political coalition that sustained
economic downturn began in the fall of 1937 and con- the Democratic Party as the majority party in national
tinuing through most of 1938. Conservatives said it was politics for more than a generation after its own end.
caused by the labor unions assault on industry through Laying the foundations for the postwar era, Roosevelt and
massive strikes and the way the New Deal discourages the New Deal helped enhance the power of the federal
further investment.[39] Keynesian economists argued it government as a whole. Roosevelt also established the
was a result of a premature eort by FDR to balance the presidency as the preeminent center of authority within
budget by reducing federal spending. The administration the federal government. By creating a large array of pro-
reacted by launching a rhetorical campaign against busi- tections for various groups of citizensworkers, farmers,
ness monopoly power, which was cast as the villain.[40] and otherswho suered from the crisis, enabling them
The Supreme Court began busily dismantling the New to challenge the powers of the corporations, the Roo-
6.2 Homefront 9

Midway (June 1942), then inexorably moved toward total

destruction of the Japanese military. After small-scale
invasions of North Africa (1942) and Italy (1943), the
main American eort was a strategic bombing campaign
that destroyed the German Luftwae, followed by a mas-
sive invasion of France in 1944. American forces met up
with Soviet forces marching into Germany from the east
in May 1945. Overall, the entire nation was turned into a
vast war machine, aecting society more than any other
conict fought by the United States, except perhaps the
Civil War.
After winning re-election to unprecedented third and
national debt/ GNP climbs from 20% to 40% under Hoover; lev- fourth terms, Roosevelts health was rapidly deteriorat-
els o under FDR; soars during WW2 from Historical States US ing; he died on April 12, 1945. Harry S. Truman had not
(1976) been kept informed of major foreign policy and military
decisions, but he continued most of Roosevelts wartime
policies. Truman moved sharply to the right in replacing
sevelt administration generated a set of political ideas FDRs liberal cabinet.
known to later generations as New Deal liberalismthat
With its merchant eet sunk by American submarines,
remained a source of inspiration for decades and that
Japan ran short of aviation gasoline and fuel oil. The
helped shape the next experiment in liberal reform, the
U.S. Navy in June 1944 captured islands within bomb-
Great Society of the 1960s.
ing range of Tokyo. Strategic bombing using the B-
On the other hand, the Roosevelt administration and its 29 destroyed all the major cities in 1945, as the U.S.
liberalism became the source of a vigorous conservative captured Iwo Jima and Okinawa after heavy losses.
reaction. Led in Congress by Senator Robert A. Taft and With conventional and atomic bombs falling, an Al-
the Conservative coalition, they blocked almost all New lied invasion imminent, and an unexpected Soviet at-
Deal proposals after 1936, and shut down the WPA, CCC tack sweeping through Manchuria, the Emperor of Japan
and many other programs by 1943. Eventually in the surrendered. Japan was occupied by the Americans un-
1970s and 1980s, a bipartisan coalition ended most New der Douglas MacArthur; MacArthurs ve year rule trans-
Deal regulations and programs. The most important re- formed Japans government, society and economy along
maining ones in the 21st century are Social Security and American lines into a peaceful democracy and a close ally
the Securities and Exchange Commission. of the U.S.

6 World War II 6.2 Homefront

Main article: United States home front during World

Main article: United States home front during World War II
War II

6.1 Foreign and military policy
Isolationist sentiment with regard to foreign wars in
America had ebbed, but the United States at rst declined
to enter the war, limiting itself to giving supplies and
weapons via Lend Lease to Britain, China, and the Soviet
Union. American feeling changed drastically with the
sudden Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The U.S. enthu-
siastically went to war against Japan, Italy, and Nazi Ger-
many. Italy surrendered in 1943, followed by Germany
and Japan in 1945. The economy doubled and tripled
in size as a massive industrial mobilization was accom-
panied by articial wage and price controls. 16 million
men entered the military (most were drafted), in addi-
tion to 300,000 women volunteers. After a series of de-
feats inicted by Japan, the U.S. Navy turned the tide at
6.2.1 Economics
The main contributions of the U.S. to the Allied
war eort comprised money, industrial output, food,
petroleum, technological innovation, and (especially
194445), soldiers. Much of the focus in Washington
was maximizing the economic output of the nation. The
overall result was a dramatic increase in GDP, the ex-
port of vast quantities of supplies to the Allies and to
American forces overseas, the end of unemployment, and
a rise in civilian consumption even as 40% of the GDP
went to the war eort. This was achieved by tens of mil-
lions of workers moving from low-productivity occupa-
tions to high eciency jobs, improvements in productiv-
ity through better technology and management, and the
move into the active labor force of students, retired peo-
ple, housewives, and the unemployed, and an increase in
10
hours worked. It was exhausting; leisure activities de-
clined sharply. People tolerated the extra work because of
patriotism, the pay, and the condence it was only for the
duration and life would return to normal as soon as the
war was won. Most durable goods became unavailable,
and meat, clothing, and gasoline was tightly rationed. In
industrial areas housing was in short supply as people dou-
bled up and lived in cramped quarters. Prices and wages
were controlled, and Americans saved a high portion of
their incomes, which led to renewed growth after the war
instead of a return to depression.[41][42]
6.2.2 Taxes and controls
Federal tax policy was highly contentious during the
war, with President Franklin D. Roosevelt battling a
conservative Congress. Everyone agreed on the need for
high taxes to pay for the war. Roosevelt tried unsuc-
cessfully to impose a 100% tax on incomes over $25,000
(equal to $346,010 today), while Congress enlarged the
base downward. By 1944 nearly every employed person
was paying federal income taxes (compared to 10% in 6.2.4 Work force
1940).[43]
Many controls were put on the economy. The most im-
portant were price controls, imposed on most products
and monitored by the Oce of Price Administration.
Wages were also controlled.[44] 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.[45]
6.2.3 Rationing
Main article: Rationing United States
In 1942 a rationing system was begun to guarantee mini-
mum amounts of necessities to everyone (especially poor
people) and prevent ination. Tires were the rst item
to be rationed in January 1942 because supplies of nat-
ural rubber were interrupted. Gasoline rationing proved
an even better way to allocate scarce rubber. By 1943
one needed government issued ration coupons to pur-
chase typewriters, sugar, gasoline, bicycles, footwear,
fuel oil, silk, nylon, coee, stoves, shoes, meat, cheese,
butter, margarine, canned foods, dried fruits, jam, and
many other items. Some itemslike new automobiles
and applianceswere no longer made. The rationing sys-
tem did not apply to used goods (like clothes or cars). The
ration system was complex and confusing, but high levels
of patriotism made it acceptable as people helped each
other through the maze of rules.[46]
To get a classication 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
6 WORLD WAR II
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 Indianapolis. Sightseeing driving was
banned, too.[47]
People had more money than they could spend, so they
saved it, especially in government savings bonds. Bond
rallies in many cities featured Hollywood lm stars, who
drew in the crowds needed to make the program a suc-
cess. The buyer paid 3/4 of the face value of a war bond,
and received the full face value back after a set number of
years. Workers were challenged to put at least 10% of
every paycheck into Bonds. Compliance was very high,
with entire factories of workers earning a special Min-
uteman ag to y 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. An added
advantage was that citizens who were putting their money
into War Bonds were not putting it into the home front
wartime economy.[48]
A "Rosie the Riveter", working on an A-31 Vengeance dive
bomber. Tennessee, 1943.
The unemployment problem ended in the United States
with the beginning of World War II, when stepped up
wartime production created millions of new jobs and the
draft pulled young men out.[49]
Women also joined the workforce to replace men who
had joined the forces, though in fewer numbers. Roo-
sevelt stated that the eorts of civilians at home to sup-
port the war through personal sacrice was as critical to
winning the war as the eorts of the soldiers themselves.
"Rosie the Riveter" became the symbol of women la-
boring in manufacturing. The war eort brought about
signicant changes in the role of women in society as a
whole. At the end of the war, many of the munitions fac-
tories closed. Other women were replaced by returning
veterans. However most women who wanted to continue
working did so.
6.2 Homefront
Labor shortages were felt in agriculture, even though most
farmers were given an occupational exemption and few
were drafted. Large numbers volunteered or moved to
cities for factory jobs. At the same time many agricul-
tural commodities were in greater demand by the military
and for the civilian populations of Allies. In some areas
schools were temporarily closed at harvest time to enable
students to work. About 400,000 German prisoners of
war were used as farm laborers both during and immedi-
ately after the war.[50]
With the wars ever increasing need for able bodied men
consuming Americas labor force in the early 1940s,
industry turned to teen-aged boys and girls to ll in
as replacements.[51] Consequently, many states had to
change their child-labor laws to allow these teenagers to
work. By 1943, there were almost three million Amer-
ican teenage boys and girls working in American elds
and factories.[51] In the process of bringing great num-
bers of children into the workforce, the War altered the
lives of many adolescents. Lured by high wartime wages,
they took jobs and forgot about their education. Between
1940 and 1944, the number of teenage workers in Amer-
ica increased by 1.9 million; the number attending school
declined by 1.25 million.[52]
6.2.5 Labor unions
Welder making boilers for a ship, Combustion Engineering Co.,
Chattanooga, Tennessee. June 1942.
The war mobilization changed the relationship of the
Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) with both
employers and the national government.[53] Both the CIO 6.2.7 Japanese American internment
and the larger American Federation of Labor (AFL) grew
rapidly in the war years.[54] Main article: Japanese American internment
Nearly all the unions that belonged to the CIO were fully
supportive of both the war eort 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 Roosevelts reelection in 1940,
left the CIO in 1942. The major unions supported a
wartime no-strike pledge that aimed to eliminate not only
11
major strikes for new contracts, but also the innumerable
small strikes called by shop stewards and local union lead-
ership to protest particular grievances. In return for la-
bors no-strike pledge, the government oered arbitration
to determine the wages and other terms of new contracts.
Those procedures produced modest wage increases dur-
ing the rst few years of the war but not enough to keep
up with ination, particularly when combined with the
slowness of the arbitration machinery.[55]
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 suc-
cessful 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.[56]
All the major unions grew stronger during the war.
The government put pressure on employers to recog-
nize unions to avoid the sort of turbulent struggles over
union recognition of the 1930s, while unions were gener-
ally able to obtain maintenance of membership clauses,
a form of union security, through arbitration and negoti-
ation. Workers also won benets, such as vacation pay,
that had been available only to a few in the past while
wage gaps between higher skilled and less skilled workers
narrowed. 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.[57]
6.2.6 Racial tensions
The cities were relatively peaceful; much-feared large-
scale race riots did not happen, but there were small-
scale confrontations, notably the 1943 race riot in De-
troit[58] and the anti-Mexican Zoot Suit Riots in Los An-
geles in 1943.[59] Some German and Italian individuals
were rounded up and interned as enemy aliens who lacked
U.S. citizenship and were known by the FBI as supporters
of the enemy.
About 100,000 persons of Japanese ancestry on the West
Coast and their children were interned by the U.S. gov-
ernment. They were sent to inland camps. Canada fol-
lowed a similar policy. The 100,000 or more Japanese
Americans in Hawaii were not interned. The American
camps were closed in 1944.[60]
12 9 NOTES

7 End of an era [12] Warren D. Devine, From Shafts to Wires: Historical Per-
spective on Electrication, Journal of Economic History,
June 1983, Vol. 43 Issue 2, pp 34762 in JSTOR
1945 marked the end of an era. In foreign policy the
United Nations was established on October 24, 1945, to [13] Harold F. Williamson, The American Petroleum Industry
serve as a world body to help prevent future world wars. the Age of Energy 18991959 (1963)
By a vote of 65 to 7, the United States Senate, on Decem-
ber 4, 1945, approved the treaty that set full American [14] Melvyn Dubofsky and Foster Rhea Dulles, Labor in
America: A History (Harlan Davidson, 2004) pp 210248
participation in the UN, with a veto in the all-important
Security Council. This marked a turn away from the tra- [15] U. S. Bureau of the Census, Historical Statistics of the
ditional interest in strategic local concerns of the U.S. and United States (1976) series D739
toward more international involvement.
[16] John Higham (1955). Strangers in the Land. pp. 301
Fears of a postwar depression did not materialize, thanks 330.
in part to the large stock of savings that paid for the
pent-up demands for housing, cars, new clothesand ba- [17] Paula Fass; The Damned and the Beautiful: American
bies. The Baby Boom began as the veterans returned, Youth in the 1920s (Oxford University Press, 1977)
many moving to the rapidly expanding suburbs. Opti- [18] George Mowry, ed. The Twenties: Fords, Flappers, and
mism was the hallmark of the new agean age of grand Fanatics (Prentice-Hall, 1963)
expectations.[61]
[19] Steven Watson, The Harlem Renaissance: Hub of African-
American Culture, 19201930 (1995)
8 See also [20] Alexander Russo (2010). Points on the Dial: Golden Age
Radio beyond the Networks. Duke University Press. pp.
History of the United States (194564) 2130.

[21] Rory McVeigh, The Rise of the Ku Klux Klan: Right-Wing

9 Notes
[1] Daniel Okrent, Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition
(2010)
[2] Stanley Coben, A Study in Nativism: The American Red
Scare of 191920, Political Science Quarterly Vol. 79,
No. 1 (Mar., 1964), pp. 5275 in JSTOR
[3] Linda Lobao and Katherine Meyer. The great agricul-
tural transition: Crisis, change, and social consequences
of twentieth century US farming. Annual review of soci-
ology (2001): 103-124.
[4] John Milton Cooper, ''Woodrow Wilson (2009) ch 2324
[5] Lynn Dumenil, The Modern Temper: American Culture
and Society in the 1920s (1995) pp 98144
[6] Kristi Andersen, After Surage: Women in Partisan and
Electoral Politics before the New Deal (1996)
[7] Allan J. Lichtman, Prejudice and the Old Politics: The
Presidential Election of 1928 (1979)
Movements and National Politics (2009)
[22] Bruce B. Lawrence, Defenders of God: The Fundamental-
ist Revolt against the Modern Age (Harper & Row, 1989)
[23] Daniel E. Garvey, Secretary Hoover and the Quest for
Broadcast Regulation, Journalism History (1976) 3#1 pp
:6670
[24] Thomas B. Silver, Coolidge and the historians (1982)
[25] William E. Leuchtenburg, Herbert Hoover: The American
Presidents Series (2009) p 72
[26] Leuchtenburg, Herbert Hoover pp 13133
[27] James N. Gregory, American exodus: The dust bowl mi-
gration and Okie culture in California (Oxford UP, 1991).
[28] Nicholas Lemann, The promised land: The great black mi-
gration and how it changed America (2011).
[29] Lee J. Alston, Farm foreclosures in the United States
during the interwar period. Journal of Economic History
43#4 (1983): 885-903.

[8] John A. Morello, Selling the President, 1920: Albert D.
Lasker, Advertising, and the Election of Warren G. Hard-
ing (2001)
[9] John Steele Gordon, The Business of America (2002) p.
247
[10] Paul W. Glad, Progressives and the Business Culture of
the 1920s, Journal of American History, Vol. 53, No. 1
(Jun., 1966), pp. 7589 in JSTOR
[11] David E. Nye, Electrifying America: Social Meanings of a
New Technology, 18801940 (1992)
[30] William E. Leuchtenburg, Franklin D. Roosevelt and the
New Deal, 1932-1940 (1963).
[31] Martin Carcasson, Herbert Hoover and the presidential
campaign of 1932: The failure of apologia. Presidential
Studies Quarterly 28.2 (1998): 349-365. in JSTOR
[32] Conrad Black, Franklin Delano Roosevelt: Champion of
Freedom (2003).
[33] Michael Hiltzik, The New Deal: A Modern History (2011).
[34] Anthony J. Badger, FDR: The rst hundred days (2009).

[35] Bureau of the Census, Historical Statistics of the United
States (1976) series F43
[36] Historical Statistics of the United States (1976) series E137
[37] William Leuchtenburg, Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New
Deal: 19321940 (1963); Kim Phillips-Fein, Invisible
Hands: The Businessmens Crusade Against the New Deal
(2010)
[38] EH.R: FORUM: The Great Depression. Eh.net.
Archived from the original on 2008-06-16. Retrieved
2008-10-11.
[39] Gary Dean Best, Pride, Prejudice, and Politics: Roosevelt
Versus Recovery, 19331938 (1990)
[40] Theodore Rosenof, Economics in the Long Run: New Deal
Theorists and Their Legacies, 19331993 (1997)
[41] Harold G. Vatter, The U.S. Economy in World War II
(1988) pp 2731
[42] David Kennedy, Freedom from Fear: The American Peo-
ple in Depression and War, 19291945 (2001) pp 61568
[43] Georey Perrett, Days of sadness, years of triumph: the
American people, 19391945: Volume 1 (1985) p. 300
[44] Harvey C Manseld, A short history of OPA (Historical
reports on War Administration) (1951)
[45] Paul A. C. Koistinen, Arsenal of World War II: The Po-
litical Economy of American Warfare, 19401945 (2004)
pp 498517
[46] R. Douglas Hurt (2008). The Great Plains During World
War II. U of Nebraska Press. p. 145.
[47] Richard L. Pifer (2002). A City At War: Milwaukee Labor
During World War II. Wisconsin Historical Society. p.
37.
[48] John Bush Jones (2009). All-Out for Victory!: Magazine
Advertising and the World War II Home Front. UPNE. pp.
26466.
[49] Miller and Cornford
[50]
[51] Hinshaw (1943)
[52] Hoehling (1966)
[53] Lichtenstein (2003)
[54] Philip Taft, The A.F. of L. from the Death of Gompers to
the Merger (1959) pp 20433
[55] Paul A. C. Koistinen, Arsenal of World War II: The
Political Economy of American Warfare, 19401945 p
410(2004)
[56] Melvyn Dubofsky and Van Tine, John L. Lewis: A Biog-
raphy (1977) pp 41544
[57] D'Ann Campbell, Women at War with America (1984) pp
13962
13
[58] Harvard Sitko, The Detroit Race Riot of 1943 (1969)
[59] Mauricio Mazn, The zoot-suit riots: the psychology of
symbolic annihilation (1984)
[60] Brian Hayashi, Democratizing the Enemy: The Japanese
American Internment (2010)
[61] Patterson, James T. (1997). Grand Expectations: The
United States, 19451974 (Oxford History of the United
States). Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0195117974.
10 Further reading
Allen, Frederick Lewis. Only Yesterday: An Infor-
mal History of the 1920s (1931) bestselling, well-
written history full text online free
Bagby, Wesley M. Americas international relations
since World War I (Oxford University Press, 1999)
Black, Conrad. Franklin Delano Roosevelt: Cham-
pion of Freedom (2012).
Campbell, D'Ann. Women at War with America:
Private Lives in a Patriotic Era (1984), wives, work-
ers and WACs in World War II
Dooley, Roger Burke. From Scarface to Scarlett:
American lms in the 1930s (1981)
Field, Alexander J. Great Leap Forward: 1930s De-
pression and US Economic Growth (Yale UP, 2011)
387pp
Fraser, Steve. Labor Will Rule: Sidney Hillman and
the rise of American labor (1993). on the CIO
Hamby, Alonzo L. For the Survival of Democracy:
Franklin Roosevelt and the World Crisis of the 1930s
(2004) excerpt and text search
Hoehling, A. A. Home Front, U. S. A. The Story of
World War II Over Here (1966)
Kennedy, David M. What the New Deal Did, Po-
litical Science Quarterly, (Summer 2009) 124#2 pp
251268
Kennedy, David M. Freedom from Fear: The Ameri-
can People in Depression and War, 19291945 (Ox-
ford History of the United States) (2001), 990pp;
Pulitzer Prize
Kyvig, David E. Daily Life in the United States,
19201940: How Americans Lived During the Roar-
ing Twenties and the Great Depression (2004)
Leuchtenburg, William E. The Perils of Prosperity,
19141932 (1993) 332pp.
Malin, James C. The United States after the World
War 1930. online detailed analysis of foreign and
economic policies
14 11 EXTERNAL LINKS

Malone, Michael P.; Etulain, Richard (1989). The

American West: A Twentieth-Century History. Lin-
coln, NE: University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 978-
0-8032-3093-4.
Marty, Martin E. Modern American Religion, Vol-
ume 2: The Noise of Conict, 1919-1941 (1997).
excerpt

Miller, Nathan. New World Coming: The 1920s and

the Making of Modern America (2003)

Murray Robert K. The Harding Era 19211923:

Warren G. Harding and his Administration. Uni-
versity of Minnesota Press, 1969, the standard aca-
demic study

Olszowka, John, et al. America in the Thirties (Syra-

cuse University Press, 2014) 296 pp) excerpt
Plotke, David. Building a Democratic Political Or-
der: Reshaping American Liberalism in the 1930s
and 1940s (Cambridge UP, 2006)

Shindler, Colin. Hollywood goes to war: lms and

American society, 1939-1952 (Routledge, 2014)

Tindall, George Brown. The Emergence of the New

South, 1913-1945 (LSU Press, 1967)

Ware, Susan. Holding their own: American women

in the 1930s (Twayne, 1982)

Zieger, Robert H. The CIO 19351955 (1995).

11 External links
 15

12 Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

12.1 Text
History of the United States (191845) Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_United_States_(1918%E2%80%9345)
?oldid=757849163 Contributors: Mav, RobLa, Mrwojo, Infrogmation, Dominus, Bcrowell, Cyde, 172, Minesweeper, Rossami, Nikai,
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RussBot, Anonymous editor, Nobs01, Gaius Cornelius, Rjensen, Moe Epsilon, Tony1, Black Regent, Xaxafrad, Duroy~enwiki, Tim1965,
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16 12 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

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