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Chapter 24 & Chapter 26 – World War II Mr. Duez

World War II was more important than the Great Depression in fundamentally
transforming American society.

Assess the validity of this statement based on your knowledge of American society
between 1930 and 1945 and the documents below.
DOCUMENT A:
I am certain that my fellow Americans expect that on my induction into the Presidency I will address
them with a candor and a decision which the present situation of our Nation impels. This is
preeminently the time to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly. Nor need we shrink
from honestly facing conditions in our country today. This great Nation will endure as it has endured,
will revive and will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to
fear is fear itself; nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert
retreat into advance. In every dark hour of our national life a leadership of frankness and vigor has
met with that understanding and support of the people themselves which is essential to victory. I am
convinced that you will again give that support to leadership in these critical days.
SOURCE: Franklin D. Roosevelt, First Inaugural Address, 1932.
DOCUMENT B:
Picture from the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration.
Farm Security Administration: Destitute pea pickers in California.
Mother of seven children by Dorthea Lange (Circa February 1936)

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 DOCUMENT C:
Source: WWII Poster,
Attack on All Fronts

DOCUMENT D:
The Rights of Employees
Sec. 7. [Sec. 157]. Employees shall have the right to self-organization, to
form, join, or assist labor organizations, to bargain collectively through
representatives of their own choosing, and to engage in other concerted
activities for the purpose of collective bargaining or other mutual aid or
protection, and shall also have the right to refrain from any or all such
activities except to the extent that such right may be affected by an
agreement requiring membership in a labor organization as a condition
of employment....
Source: National Labor Relations Act, 1935.
DOCUMENT E:
There can be no objection to any hand our government may take which
strives to bring peace to the world so long as that hand does not tie
130,000,000 people into another world death march....We reach now a
condition on all fours with that prevailing just before our plunge into
the European war in 1917. Will we blindly repeat that futile venture?
Can we easily forget that we won nothing we fought for then--that we lost every cause declared to be
responsible for our entry then?
Source: Senator Gerald P. Nye, 1937.
DOCUMENT F:
We met the issue of 1933 with courage and realism. We face this new crisis- this new threat to
the security of our nation-with the same courage and realism. Never before since Jamestown and
Plymouth Rock has our American civilization been in such danger as now.
For on September 27, 1940-this year-by an agreement signed in Berlin. three powerful nations,
two in Europe and one in Asia, joined themselves together in the threat that if the United States of
America interfered with or blocked the expansion program of these three nations-a program aimed at
world control-they would unite in ultimate action against the United States…The British people and
their allies today are conducting an active war against this unholy alliance. Our own future security is
greatly dependent on the outcome of that fight. Our ability to "keep out of war" is going to be affected
by that outcome.
We must be the great arsenal of democracy. For us this is an emergency as serious as war
itself. We must apply ourselves to our task with the same resolution, the same sense of urgency, the
same spirit of patriotism and sacrifice as we would show were we at war.
Source: Franklin D. Roosevelt, Arsenal of Democracy speech, December 29, 1940.
DOCUMENT G:
In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon
four essential human freedoms.
The first is freedom of speech and expression everywhere in the world.
The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way everywhere in the world.
The third is freedom from want, which, translated into world terms, means economic
understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants
everywhere in the world.
The fourth is freedom from fear—which translated into world terms, means a world-wide
reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a
position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor—anywhere in the world.
Source: Franklin D. Roosevelt, The Four Freedoms, January, 1941.

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 DOCUMENT H:

We Can Do It! Rosie The Riviter

Source: Westinghouse for the War Production Co-Ordinating Committee, c.
1943.

DOCUMENT I:
We know that our fate is tied up with the fate of the democratic
way of life. And so, out of the depths of our hearts, a cry goes out for
the triumph of the United Nations. But...unless this war sounds the
death knell to the old Anglo-American empire systems, the hapless
story of which is one of exploitation for the profit and power of a
monopoly capitalist economy, it will have been fought in vain. Our
aim then must not only be to defeat nazism, fascism, and militarism on
the battlefield, but to win the peace, for democracy, for freedom and
the Brotherhood of Man without regard to his pigmentation, land of
his birth or the God of his fathers....
White citizens...should [not] be taken into the March on Washington Movement as members.
The essential value of an all-Negro movement as the March on Washington is that it helps to create
faith by Negroes in Negroes. It develops a sense of self-reliance with Negroes depending on Negroes
in vital matters. It helps to break down the slave psychology and inferiority-complex in Negroes which
comes and is nourished with Negroes relying on white people for direction and support.
Source: A. Philip Randolph, 1942, proposing a march on Washington.
DOCUMENT J:
I do know one thing, this place was very segregated when I first come here. Oh, Los Angeles,
you just couldn't go and sit down like you do now. You had certain places you went. You had to more
or less stick to the restaurants and hotels where black people were. It wasn't until the war that it really
opened up. 'Cause when I come out here it was awful, just like bein' in the South....
The war helped some people because they come back, they took trades, learned to do things.
My brother come back and now he is very successful. I think the army really made a man out of him.
He works at Rockwell in the missile department and he's a supervisor. He wouldn't have known what
to do if he hadn't gone in the army....
They didn't mix the white and black in the war. But now it gives you a kind of independence
because they felt that we gone off and fought, we should be equal. Everything started openin' up for us.
We got a chance to go places we had never been able to go before....
Source: Opportunities for Women and Blacks, ca. 1942-1945.

DOCUMENT K:
Source:
Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima,
by Joe Rosenthal, The Associated Press.

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DOCUMENT L:
The Depression's impact on the United States economy
1929 1933
Banks in operation 25,568 14,771
Prime interest rate 5.03% 0.63%
Volume of stocks sold (NYSE) 1.1 B 0.65 B
Privately earned income $45.5B $23.9B
Personal and corporate savings $15.3B $2.3B
Source: Historical Statistics of the United States, pp. 235, 263, 1001, and 1007.

DOCUMENT M:
SOURCE: “Recollections of the NEW DEAL: When the People Mattered” by Thomas H. Eliot.

On 9th March 1933, Franklin D. Roosevelt called a special session of Congress.

He told the members that unemployment could only be solved "by direct
recruiting by the Government itself." For the next three months, Roosevelt
proposed, and Congress passed, a series of important bills that attempted to
deal with the problem of unemployment. The special session of Congress
became known as the Hundred Days and provided the basis for Roosevelt's
New Deal.

The government employed people to carry out a range of different tasks. These
projects included the Works Projects Administration (WPA), the Civilian
Conservation Corps (CCC), the National Youth Administration (NYA), Farm
Security Administration (FSA), the National Recovery Administration (NRA)
and the Public Works Administration (PWA). Other schemes administered by
the Works Projects Administration included the Federal Writers Project (1935-
39) Federal Theatre Project (1935-39) and the Federal Art Project (1935-43).

As well as trying to reduce unemployment, Roosevelt also attempted to reduce

the misery for those who were unable to work. One of the bodies Roosevelt
formed was the Federal Emergency Relief Administration which provided
federal money to help those in desperate need.

Other legislation passed by Roosevelt included the Agricultural Adjustment Act (1933), National Housing Act
(1934), the Federal Securities Act (1934). In August 1935 the Social Security Act was passed. This act set up a
national system of old age pensions and coordinated federal and state action
for the relief of the unemployed.

During the 1936 presidential election, Roosevelt was attacked for not keeping
his promise to balance the budget. The National Labor Relations Act was
unpopular with businessmen who felt that it favored the trade unions. Some
went as far as accusing Roosevelt of being a communist. However, the New
Deal was extremely popular with the electorate and Roosevelt easily defeated
the Republican Party candidate, Alfred M. Landon, by 27,751,612 votes to
16,681,913.

DOCUMENT N: (picture on right)

V–J day in Times Square, a photograph by Alfred
Eisenstaedt, was published in Life in 1945 with
the caption, “In New York's Times Square a
white-clad girl clutches her purse and skirt as an
uninhibited sailor plants his lips squarely on
hers.”