Lesson on Wednesday, April 4, 2018

Aim: How did WWII transform the United States domestically and change its relationship with the world?

Bell Ringer: Review HW (10 min)

Comment on three themes that Haile Selassie makes in his argument (failure of the League of Nations, effects of European colonialism, and religious/political cross points).
https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/selassie.htm (10 min)

Agenda:

1. War Powers Act (WXT): gave president Roosevelt unprecedented control over all aspects of the war effort. 

Financing the War: Defense mobilization ended the Great Depression, not the New Deal. 

2. Journal 132 / A: The war enabled the federal government to increase powers exponentially in terms of control over the nations's resources, economy, and industry. Partnership of industry and government increased during the war, reading a dangerous balance of power in which future president administrations utilized corporate managers and sought new wars to enrich corporations that made the weapons to fight the war. Working together, American business and government turned out a prodigious supply of military hardware. 

3. Revenue Act (WXT): "expanded the number of people paying income taxes from 3.9 million to 42.6 million. Taxes on personal incomes and business profits paid half the cost of the war."

15 million rifles and machine guns
64,000 landing craft
6,500 cargo ships and naval vessels

"By 1945, the largest one hundred American companies produced 70 percent of the nation's industrial output. <<< The Military Industrial Complez

 

4. PROPAGANDA

Journal 134 - What was the government trying to convince Americans to do or think via propaganda? (5 min) answer while watching the video. 

*It is crucial that you are able to analyze how mass mobilization of Americans to fight in the war permanently altered American societal structure, particularly along race, class, and gender lines. 

5. code talkers (WXT): Japanese intelligence could not decipher the Navajo code talk because it was based on the Navajo language. "No Axis nation ever broke these Native American codes" 
https://navajocodetalkers.org

*WWII led to opportunities for women and minorities to improve their socioeconomic status. 

6. Who was Rosie the Riveter? 

WARTIME CIVIL RIGHTS

7. Journal 133 / A: The slogan underlined the injustice of black soldiers fighting for America and for freedom abroad while they were not free within the nation for which they had pledged their lives. 

Executive Order 8802 (POL) - An order signed by Roosevelt in 1941 that prohibited "discrimination in the employment of workers in defense industries or government because of race, creed, color, or national origin" and established the Fair Employment Practices Commission (FEPC)

Servicemen's Readjustment Act (1944) (POL): Popularly known as the GI Bill, legislation authorizing the government to provide WWII veterans with funds for education, housing, and health care, as well as loans to start business and buy homes. 



 Home Learning: 

1. Throughout his second term (1937-1941), FDR had to struggle with a public opinion averse to entering another foreign conflict. He delivered this address after the Japanese invasion of China in 1937. What does it reveal about his thoughts--and what does the fact that the address produced no significant policy change say about FDR's motives for delivering the speech?

http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/history/johnson/quarantine.htm

2. Read pages 781-788

3. Journal 135 - What effects did wartime migration have on the United States?

4. Journal 136 - Why were Japanese Americans treated differently than German and Italian Americans during the war?