Existing comment:
Twentieth-Century Americans: 1930-1950
The 1930s and 1940s in America were shaped by two central events: the Great Depression and World War II. The Depression era's breadlines and improvised shantytowns of unemployed challenged, as never before, America's self-image as the land of opportunity and plenty. In the process, it inspired Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal experimentation in giving government a larger role in the nation's economic life, and redefined the relationship between the country's citizenry and its government. In the wake of that sea change came global conflict, and out of the massive mobilization of soldiers and industry required to win the war, the United States emerged as the leader of the free world with powers to shape the international order. For millions of people, the personal traumas, losses, and opportunities produced by these two crises became the most formative experience of their lives, and the impact of that experience is detectable in American life even today. |