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Seminar 3
The United States in the 1930s and 1940s

Seminar Outline.

This seminar will examine the rise of the United States to superpower status in the 20th century. In addition to reading a speech by President Roosevelt and a political essay by his Republican opponents, we shall examine art work, propaganda posters, and letters and other documents in order to explore how ordinary Americans experienced and perceived these extraordinary years. America changed enormously during the 1930s and 1940s, moving from the catastrophe of the Great Crash of 1929, to the misery of the Great Depression, to the vigour and hope of the New Deal and all of its programmes, to the emergence of a new, stronger and much wealthier America through mobilisation for World War II.

Topics for discussion.

Why did Roosevelt's New Deal inspire such confidence amongst so many Americans, even when it failed to end the Great Depression?

What opposition was their to Roosevelt and the New Deal, and on what grounds?

How did WPA artists present America in their work? What was their image of American society and culture during the Great Depression?

What kind of role did propaganda posters play in the US during World War II? What kinds of messages was the government conveying to citizens, and how did they try to communicate them?

Many American women worked in industrial jobs during World War II. What kinds of experiences did they have? How were they treated by male workers, male family members and the government during and then after the war? What kinds of effects did this wartime work have on American women?

Sources.

1. Franklin Roosevelt, First Inaugural Address (1933)

After one term in office, President Hoover had been unable to change America's economic fortune, or win the confidence of voters. With the national economy in ruins, and banks failing all around the country, a state of panic met Roosevelt when he became president. In his first inaugural address, Roosevelt did much to calm the nation, inspiring confidence and promising action.

Click here to go to the web page of the US Government Printing Office, with the text of Roosevelt's First Inaugural Address.

2. A New Deal for the Arts: WPA Art Work

The Works Projects Administration was a New Deal programme that gave work to unemployed writers, artists, dancers, performers, architects etc. Many new government buildings were erected, often filled with large murals painted by artists, while writers toured the nation, writing about its history, geography and culture.

Much of the work of WPA artists and writers still exists, giving us a valuable set of images of how America was and of how Americans wanted it to be.

Click here to go to the web site of the National Archives and Records Administration. On this page are a list of highlighted categories, for example, Rediscovering America. Click on each of these to read about the art work and its significance, and to see the pictures themselves. To see larger versions of each image, click on the picture itself.

3. Thomas and Doris Reed, The Republican Opposition (1940)

During most of Roosevelt's presidency, the Republicans were a relatively weak and discredited force. Yet their opposition to his administration and its New Deal policies was strong, with an ideological base firmly rooted in American political traditions, and Republicans sought to save the nation from a government that - in their eyes - threatened the very nature of freedom in the American republic.

Click here to go to the Survey Graphic web page, with the text of the Republican Opposition.

4. Powers of Persuasion: Poster Art from World War II

During World War II the US government mounted the largest mobilisation of soldiers, civilians and industry in the nation's history. To encourage popular commitment to a massive and costly war, the government employed propaganda, which reveals much about the ideals and objectives of both the government and the population as a whole.

Click here to go to the Powers of Persuasion Exhibit of the National Archives and Records Administration. If you click on the highlighted title of each poster, for example, Man the Guns!, you can see the image and read about each poster. Click on the posters themselves to see larger versions.

5. Women in Industry During World War II

With so many men away on military service, and with a massive expansion of industrial production, American industries were desperately short of labour. African Americans, Native Americans, Mexican Americans and especially white women took the places traditionally occupied by white men: many of these white women had never before worked and earned their own pay, yet they became skilled and proud workers, who were to learn much about their own abilities independent of their fathers and husbands.

Click here to find out more details about women in industry. Read the introductory material, then click on each highlighted item, for example, Executive Order, to see the document or image.

Bibliography.

• Anthony Badger, The New Deal.
• Michael Bernstein, The Great Depression: Delayed Recovery and Economic Change in America, 1929-1939.
• Russell Buchan, The United States and World War II.
• Helen Burns, The American Banking Community and New Deal Banking Reforms.
• Thomas Cochran, The Great Depression and World War II.
• Christopher DeNoon, Posters of the WPA.
• Robert Fyne, The Home Front and Beyond: American Women in the 1940s.
• Susan Hartman, The Home Front and Beyond: American Women in the 1940s.
• E.W. Hawley, The Great War and the Search for a Modern Order.
• Ken Jones, Hollywood at War: The American Motion Picture and World War II.
• Amy Kesselman, Fleeting Opportunities: Women Shipyard Workers in Portland and Vancouver During WW II.
• William Leuchtenburg, The Perils of Prosperity, 1914-1932.
• William Leuchtenburg, Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal, 1932-1940.
• Donald McCoy, Angry Voices: Left of Centre Politics in the New Deal Era.
• William McDonald, Federal Relief Administration and the Arts.
• Robert McElraine, The Great Depression: America, 1929-1941.
• Phillip McGuire, Taps for a Jim Crow Army: Letters from Black Soldiers in World War II.
• Ruth Milkman, Gender at Work: The Dynamics of Job Segregation During World War II.
• Sally Miller and Daniel Cornford, eds., American Labor in the Era of World War II.
• Gerald Nash, The Great Depression and World War II.
• Michael Parrish, Anxious Decades: America in Prosperity and Depression.
• Gerald Roeder, The Censored War: American Visual Experiences During World War II.
• A.U. Romasco, The Politics of Recovery: Roosevelt's New Deal.
• Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., The Crisis of the Old Order, 1919-1933.
• Theodore Saloutos, The American Farmer and the New Deal.
• John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath.
• Charles Trout, Boston, The Great Depression and the New Deal.
• Susan Ware, Beyond Suffrage: Women in the New Deal.
• Tom Watkins, The Great Depression: America in the 1930s.
• Neil Wynn, The Afro-American and the Second World War.