Great Depression and WWII Review

1. Great Depression and WWII Review Effects on the Postwar World?

2. Great Depression Facts • Stock market crash – Black Thursday, Oct. 24, 1929 • Productivity fell to 1/3 of 1929 levels • Lack of private investment • At worst point, unemployment was 24.9% of total workforce = 12,830,000 people • Plus farmers – fall in farm prices, foreclosures, Dust Bowl • Migrant workers, housing foreclosures, renters, Hoovervilles • FDR elected in Nov. 1932, proclaiming a “New Deal” for all Americans • Major shift in politics, culture, economics, and society

3. The New Deal, 1 & 2 • Two New Deals, First and Second • Experimentation: first 100 days and after • Not always consistent, some things worked, some things didn’t • Three main goals: Relief, Recovery, Reform • World War II finally ended Depression by achieving some of the goals of the 2nd New Deal – Keynesianism • For a list of New Deal programs, go to this link

4. Second New Deal, 1935-1941 • Government as countervailing power to business • Business had too much power • Govt. and labor can act as counterweight to business power • Anti-monopoly • Basis for modern liberal ideas - Liberalism • Underconsumptionism = Keynesianism: government must “prime the pump” – provide relief, jobs, economic growth to increase public consumption of goods/services = economic growth, industry, jobs, income…

5. Second New Deal (cont.) • NLRA, the Wagner Act (1935): labor’s “Magna Carta”, guaranteed right to join a union • Social Security Act (1935): established social safety net • Wealth Tax Act: taxes on wealthiest to 75% • Progressive taxation – higher on wealthiest • FDR’s Big 1936 victory – showed support for 2nd New Deal vs. 1st New Deal and critics

6. The CIO and the Labor Movement • CIO formed in 1936, industrial unions, rival to AFL trade unions • John L. Lewis, head of UMW and other CIO leaders said “FDR wants you to join a union” – made union membership patriotic • Flint, Michigan, GM sit-down strike in 1937; 170 sit-downs all over nation by March • Union members: 3 mil in 1933; 10.5 mil in 1941 • Unionized major industries for first time: auto, steel, meatpacking, rubber • Videos: GM Sit-down; Unionizing Ford

7. Flint Sit-down Strike, 1936-37 Studs Terkel Interview Three Stooges, Sit-downers

8. Political Realignment:The New Deal Coalition • New Democratic Party majority composed of: • Liberals and leftists • Workers, union members • Urban ethnic groups, immigrants • African Americans • Southern Democrats • Problems/weaknesses in coalition?:

9. New Deal Culture: • Focus on work and workers; problems of machine:

10. New Deal Culture: • Focus on rural poor, forgotten Americans: • John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath • Dorothea Lange’s FSA photographs • Regionalist painters and artists focused on rural regions, farmers, small town America • Woody Guthrie’s songs

11. Dorothea Lange: Child and Her Mother, Wapato, Yakima Valley, Washington

12. Dorothea Lange: White Angel Bread Line, San Francisco

13. Dorothea Lange:

14. Dorothea Lange:

15. New Deal Questions and Issues • Question for the rest of this class: What happens to the New Deal Order (changes in politics, society, culture brought about through the New Deal)? • Upheld and Strengthened? • Attacked and Dismantled? • Extended to other groups, rest of population? • African Americans • Women • Everyone?

16. World War II The ‘Good War’ at Home and Abroad

17. Lead-up to U.S. Involvement • 1930s, Japanese colonialism in Pacific • 1930s, Rise of fascism in Europe • 1936, Axis formed (Germany, Italy, Japan) • 1938, Germany annexed Austria, Czech. • 1939, Hitler-Stalin Pact • 1939, Hitler invaded Poland • June, 1940, France fell • Summer-fall, 1940, Battle of Britain (bombing) • June, 1941, Hitler invaded USSR (mistake) • Dec. 7, 1941, Pearl Harbor, U.S. entered war

18. From Isolationism to War • American criticism of WWI, “merchants of death” – 1935 Neutrality Act; ‘cash-and-carry’ law • America First movement

19. Fighting the War: Basics • Allies, Big Three (U.S., GB, USSR) + France and China • FDR, Churchill, Stalin – Big Three Leaders • Strained relations over war aims and strategy • Axis (Germany, Italy, Japan) • Hitler, Mussolini, Emperor Hirohito/Military leaders • Two Wars: Europe and Pacific • War in Europe • USSR vs. Germany, 1941, the Eastern Front • Allies entered Europe through Africa/Italy first (1942/43) • Then D-Day invasion at Normandy on French coast (1944), push towards Berlin • V-E Day, May 8, 1945

20. The Big Three

21. War at Home:Expanded Govt. Power • Similar to WWI experience • Dollar-a-year men, corp. leaders, guaranteed profits • Bigness a benefit – large bureaucracies and businesses favored for high productivity – top 100 comp. from 30% (1940) to 70% (1945) • WPB – powerful, contracts, conversion, control • OPA – controlled consumer prices • Paying for war: taxes, debt, bonds • Military drafted 31 million men; half failed

22. Idealism of Allies • FDR’s Four Freedoms: • Atlantic Charter – U.S. and GB – war a fight for freedom, free trade, collective security, national self-determination • Music of Popular Front: • Aaron Copland • George Gershwin • Woody Guthrie • Big Band

23. Four Freedoms

24. Four Freedoms

25. War at Home: Mobilization, Unity, and Sacrifice

26. Labor shortage: women, blacks entered workforce, industrial jobs, moved north Workers continued to join unions during war Gained higher wages and income NWLB handled disputes Labor’s no-strike pledge for war Tension and strikes: disputes over wages vs. corp. profits led UMW to strike in 1943 Mobilizing Workers: Creating an ‘Arsenal of Democracy’

34. War at Home: A War of Possibilities: Racial and Economic Liberalism • Economic Liberalism: Social and economic equality (The Four Freedoms) • Equality of sacrificein wartime (fair wages and profits) • Racial and Gender Equality: Incorporation of women, blacks, and immigrants into nation – the right to fight, to be patriotic, to join the nation • Racial and Gender Equality: Ability of all Americans to serve country and gain benefits of service

35. Racial Liberalism During War

36. WWII Civil Rights: Realities • Fight for equality at home and in war effort: • Black newspapers and organizations: Double V campaign: war against fascism abroad AND racism at home • FEPC created in 1941 after A. Philip Randolph’s threat of March on Washington – equal opportunity • U.S. armed forces segregated throughout war, even in other countries • War as hothouse for civil rights: • Disappointments of wartime experience led to black mobilization of 1950s and 1960s • Women reluctant to return home after war-work, fought 1950s domestic culture • Gays became less isolated, found others, organized

37. WWII Civil Rights: Realities • Tendency towards suspicion and conformity on the home front • Private Snafu films • Problems of racism at home and abroad: • Conflict between war aims and realities of racism in U.S. society and military • Discrimination against black Americans: segregated armed forces, workplaces, lower pay • Japanese internment • Anti-Hispanic attacks in Los Angeles led to “zoot suit riots” • Racial war against Japanese

38. Double Victory over Racism Band, The Ink Spots, supported Double V campaign

39. Legacy of Wartime Racism • Why no black soldiers in Saving Private Ryan?

40. Legacy of Wartime Racism • Why no black soldiers in Saving Private Ryan? • Structural and legal racism had long-term effects • Segregated armed forces, bases • Unable to prove heroism/loyalty • Discouraged from using G.I. Bill • G.I. housing loan discrimination; redlined black neighborhoods • Desegregated armed forces, in 1948: wars with black soldiers on front lines = losses, dishonorable wars

41. Race War in the Pacific • War against Japanese diff. than war against Germans: racism on both sides • History of white anti-Asian racism in U.S. and abroad (Chinese/Japanese exclusion, Filipino war) • Japanese internment within U.S. • “Japs” portrayed as particularly sneaky (rats) and bloodthirsty • Racial aspect, along w/ nature of jungle combat, led to atrocities on both sides • Take no prisoners • Taking of souvenirs (body parts, skulls) • Would U.S. have used atomic bomb against the Germans?

42. Anti-Japanese Propaganda

43. Anti-Japanese Propaganda

44. Anti-Japanese Propaganda

45. Ethics and Morality of War • ‘The Good War’? • Effects of WWII military tactics and culture on later U.S. and world history? • German and Japanese war machines, atrocities on civilians: • Nazis, Guernica, bombing of London, Holocaust • Japanese, Rape of Nanking, kamikaze, enslavement • Methods of war: • mass mechanized war • targeting of civilians • inciting terror and demoralization • U.S. bombing of non-military civilian German targets: Dresden (Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five) • U.S. intentional firebombing of Tokyo; ¼ of city burned • U.S. use of atomic bombs

46. Summary Questions: • What lasting effects did the Great Depression, New Deal, and WWII have on American society? • What was the position of the U.S. in the postwar world? • What problems remained within U.S. society in the immediate postwar world? • How did people address these problems?