Domestic Transformation in the United States Matt Solomon AMH 4270 October 4, 2004

As America entered World War II, it was attempting to recover from crippling depression. Franklin Roosevelts New Deal legislation seemed to be doing all it could to help America recover economically; however, America struggled during the years after the stock market crash of 1929. What would it take to boost Americas economy? Would a war change the way Americas economy operated? How would a war transform America domestically? There is no doubt America looked different after World War II the war directly and indirectly transformed the United States and shaped it into the country it is today. In the years after the war, America experienced economic growth as indicated by the increasing of the gross national product, pulling America out of the earlier depression. Also, America experienced many changes socially, as many foreign born people came to the United States, and many ethnic minorities and foreign born people migrated to more urban parts of America, such as Detroit, to find jobs. The United States also experienced a new phenomenon with the birth of a teen culture with spending power that led to a different view of the role of the family. One of the important ways America changed domestically after World War II was through the steadying of the unstable economy. Before the war, America had been trudging through a depression and even faced a recession in 19371. Despite its best effort, the Roosevelt administration and New Deal legislation could not seem to pull America out of economic despair. There were two schools of thought that came with the New Deal. One school said that the New Deal and government control was the only way to pull out of the depression. Another, more localized school of thought said that the New Deal stepped on the American ideals of making resources available to everyone and

Spencer Downing, Lecture, August 23, 2004.

having respect for local political traditions.2 Whatever the case, the pumping of money into the economy through public works projects by the government pulled America out of serious trouble, despite the popular view that all wars are good for an economy. If the American government had appropriated a sufficient amount of money into Americas economy during the New Deal legislation, the same effect would have been achieved. 3 America seemed to need a reason to spend a massive amount of money on a public works project. Thus, the government chose to pump money into government defense spending, according to James T. Patterson.4 One indicator of the countrys economic boom after the war came in the form of the gross national product. Michael Adams, in his book denouncing the popular belief that World War II was the good war, said, Following the lean Depression years, the gross national product for 1940 was ninety-seven billion dollars. By 1944 it had reached $190 billion.5 He added, The average gross weekly wage rose from $25.50 in 1940 to $43.39 in 1945, an increase of 72 percent. 6 In the late 1940s, Americas population accounted for seven percent of the worlds total population but possessed forty-two percent of the worlds income and accounted for half of the worlds manufacturing output.7 Patterson added, American workers produced fiftyseven percent of the planets steel, forty-three percent of electricity, sixty-two percent of oil, eighty percent of automobiles.8 Americas economy was undergoing a complete overhaul. According to Patterson, millions of people in the post-war era became

2 3

Downing, 8/23/04. Michael Adams, The Best War Ever ( Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994), 117. 4 James T. Patterson, Grand Expectations: The United States, 1945-1974 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996), 4. 5 Adams, 6. 6 Adams, 6. 7 Patterson, 61. 8 Patterson, 61.

homeowners and members of a newly forming middle class.9 Poverty was on the decline at twenty-two percent in 1959, as opposed to nearly thirty percent in the late 1940s.10 Expansion in several industries, including aircraft, electrical and electronics firms, chemicals, and pharmaceuticals, was greatly assisted by government spending. 11 Although government spending declined from wartime spending ($95.2 billion in 1945), the total amount spent after the war was still above pre-war spending--$36.5 billion in 1948 as opposed to $9.4 billion in 1939.12 The post-war years were also marked by the consumption of goods. Consumerism had taken control of America as many people enjoyed conveniences of items such as the automatic car transmission, the electric clothes dryer, the long-playing record, the Polaroid camera, and the automatic garbage disposal unit. 13 Americans were enjoying the luxury of cars as sales jumped from 69,500 cars sold in 1945 to 5.1 million cars sold in 1949. 14 This boom helped the oil and gasoline industry, the highway department, and roadside hotels and restaurants; but, also hurt industries like public transportation and railroads.15 This economic boom that occurred in the years after the war greatly affected how America operated domestically and how America was viewed by the rest of the world. America became the leading power in the world and also enjoyed many luxuries previously stricken from it due to the economic strife caused by the depression. America pumped money into public works projects, mainly government

Patterson, 64. Patterson, 64. 11 Patterson, 64. 12 Patterson, 64. 13 Patterson, 70. 14 Patterson, 70. 15 Patterson, 71.
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defense spending, allowing its economic suffering to end and the ushering in of a new, prosperous consuming era. Much of America in the 1960s looked back to the 1940s with nostalgia for the good days when there was low amounts of crime and public disorder. 16 The late 1940s seemed to be a time of social stability to most as immigration rates were down due to legislation in the 1920s.17 Few Americans worried in this time period that foreign born strangers would take away jobs.18 However, in 1945, the American population of 139.9 million included almost eleven million foreign-born and twenty-three and a half million people of foreign-born or mixed parentagemost of which were people of European decent.19 The ethnicity of America was changing in the years after the war. Another change socially for America came in the form of people moving from more rural areas to the urban, industrial job centers, looking for a better life. 20 According to Adams, more that fifteen million civilians moved during the war, along with seven hundred thousand people moving from rural Appalachia to cities like Dayton, Muncie, and Detroit. 21 These migrations of workers led to problems such as housing shortages that in turn led to poor living conditions.22 The people worst off by these housing shortages and overcrowding tended to be African-American workers, who doubled the population of the ghetto in San Francisco and increased the population of the ghetto in Chicago by thirty-three percent. 23 The forcing of different ethnic groups to live and work together led to hostilities and

16 17

Patterson, 62. Patterson, 62. 18 Patterson, 62. 19 Patterson, 15. 20 Adams, 119. 21 Adams, 119. 22 Adams, 119. 23 Adams, 119.

violence, such as in June 1943, when riots broke out in Detroit. 24 Places of business that would not hire ethnic minorities led the Roosevelt administration to create the Fair Employment Practices Committee. Although the committee had little to no power, it showed some signs of improvement in hiring practices. 25 In the years following the war, after many African-Americans had seen America fight against the racist Nazis, many black workers and sympathetic white people started the fight for civil rights by trying to integrate restrooms and restaurants.26 The social changes that occurred during the postwar years contributed to the coming civil rights battle later on in the century. As many ethnic minorities, especially African-Americans, started gaining social independence in the North, many joined the fight to someday attain racial equality. The United States had fought for racial equality abroad, and now, domestically, would soon realize the need for racial equality in the post-war years. Another social change that occurred in the United States was the birth of a teen culture. According to Adams, teens in 1944 had an estimated spending power of $750 million of discretionary money, as parents provided the necessities. 27 The media and businesses jumped on this new found spending power by offering things that were overpriced and seemed frivolous, such as magazines like Seventeen that told teens what to buy and what was in style.28 With this boom in teen independence came a question of morals and family ideologies. Delinquency and divorce was on the rise as many women left their home lives for a full-time job. 29 America faced many social changes that transformed the country domestically. Ethnic minorities were moving around the country
24 25

Adams, 119. Adams, 120. 26 Adams, 120. 27 Adams, 127. 28 Adams, 127. 29 Adams, 132.

looking for jobs, women were in the workplace leaving the family at home, and teens were beginning to develop a spending power that would shape the youth of today. There is no doubt that America was changed domestically by World War II. The United States experienced an economic boost from the pumping of money into the economy through public works projects. This economic boost thrust America into the world as the dominant power. America also faced changes socially on the home front. Ethnic minorities, although mostly unsuccessful, sought the same economic opportunity that the rest of America was enjoying, especially the middle class. Women and teens gained economic independence that shaped the role of the family that the United States now follows. Much of how the way the United States operates today was shaped by the way World War II transformed America domestically