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1940s Careers In World War II Movies

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1940s Careers

Remember all those really cool World War II movies? This is the part those movies didn’t show you. Due to our vast amount of people available, our determination to continue on, and our influential propaganda; everyday life was improved by the war, as well as rights for women and blacks. Careers were changed as well, the war gave people new jobs and fixed inflation. The ‘Dust Bowl’ had just crippled the Midwest and a lot of people had no easy way of earning money, but the U.S. entering WWII changed it all.

Poverty swept the nation in the 1930s, and the 40s wasn’t so different when it began. We were weak and the Great Depression had been tearing the U.S. to pieces. Yet, we couldn’t quite figure out how to repair the damage; …show more content…

from depression, steel and food production was vital to keeping soldiers safe and healthy. While men were on the front lines fighting, women were then allowed to handle jobs normally restricted to men. Tanks and planes needed to be manufactured, and people needed food to eat. So, people began to ration what they had and sometimes people had to plant gardens to combat what the depression had done. People began to plant ‘Victory Gardens’ and increasing food production, and factories were producing weapons, ammunition, and vehicles to help soldiers on the battlefield. The federal government took control of the factories and regulated what they made and the workers’ …show more content…

Some of these films were created specifically towards german fascism, such as ‘Confessions of a Nazi Spy’ and ‘The Great Dictator’, (A Cultural History of the United States: The 1940s). Other movies, such as ‘Sergeant York’, showed that even a pacifist can become our greatest hero, (A Cultural History of the United States: The 1940s). Other form of influence were large billboards displaying Uncle Sam rolling up his sleeve, getting ready for war. These billboards were designed to bring in younger men into military enlistment stations, so they could enlist to fight in the war. Women had influential posters as well, displaying a women doing jobs that men normally do; these posters were showing women shouldn’t standby and watch the country burn, but help with the war

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The second World War resulted in a demand for workers after men began leaving for the war. Due to a lot of the working men in America going overseas as well as the demand for war products, women became a major source of labor. Propaganda began to address women, persuading them that it was their duty to start working for the men. The film The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter gives personal accounts of some of the hardships women faced in the era surrounding WWII, and how the media was used to create a desire for women to work.

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There was opposition in the United State against intervention in World War II. The war was too far removed from America’s national interests to justify intervention. There was little popular domestic support for intervention in a war in Europe that involved its most powerful industrialized nations. There were many first generation immigrants in the U.S. who were from most of the nations involved, particularly Germany, Great Britain, France, and Italy. American entry into World War II would cause a major conflict of national loyalties for those immigrants coming from nations with whom the US would be at war, specifically Germans and Italians.

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In both large cities and small towns working class people were destitute without funds to support their families. New York City reported an “estimated half million workers were left without means” (Sellers 137). In Virginia, farms and slaves were auctioned off to pay debts leaving a “sad spectacle of wasted and deserted field” (Feller 56). Feller’s noted the economic downturn took its toll on Americans as it “belied glib confidence in a better tomorrow” (56). There was an “outpouring of anger from the depression’s innocent victims” (Sellers 162).

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The poverty line in 1929 was considered to be an annual income of at least $2000. Most people,at the beginning of 1929, were making that and living happily. But, according to Frederick Lewis Allen’s, The Big Change, the US distribution of income was so uneven that 60% of the population was living in poverty. (Doc. 9). With over half of the country living in poverty, businesses had to lower prices and that caused the businesses to lose money and lay off workers, leading to even more impoverished families.

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With the help of propaganda posters, artists were able to motivate Americans, young and old, to contribute to the role of the United States in the war. Posters often contained children smiling and holding a war bond, with certain words like, “Buy a War Bond today”, or, “Support our troops by buying a War Bond”. However, they didn’t have to involve children. One famous example is “Uncle Sam”, used a propaganda poster to help persuade people to sign up for the draft, was originally published as the cover for the July 6, 1916, issue of Leslie's Weekly this portrait of "Uncle Sam" went on to become--according to its creator, James Montgomery Flagg--"the most famous poster in the world."

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