How Did Ww2 Affect The Economy Of The United States

The world staggered in the aftermath of World War I. After the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, countries were left angry and frustrated; and America, though not as injured as those countries friendly with her, sat just as shell-shocked as others. For nations all over the world, the reality of the Great War affected economies and family units, debt was high and many families had lost loved ones. In America, battle deaths in World War I totaled over 55,000, with another 63,000 dying during military service, leaving the family structure challenged and changed. For children surviving this period, World War II would take on a different connotation as they, now as adults, faced their own responsibilities in a precarious and wounded world. The familial

Kennedy, the world found itself on the brink of another worldwide war. For Americans, however, cynicism and discouragement fueled by empty pockets and lack of jobs met the new threat of war that loomed with an air of isolation and commitment to seclusion in terms of aid to European Allies. Parents, as children of the first war, remembered the debt and loss of life that they experienced within their own families, as well as the death experienced worldwide. Adding these memories to a ravaged economy, American adults wanted nothing to do with the brewing tensions in Europe, and though the Great Depression, and President Roosevelt’s subsequent New Deal, roused a new interest in politics for many, parents remained more concerned with finding jobs and earning enough money to keep food in the mouths of their children. Little did they know, however, that World War II would wipe out the Depression “at a stroke.” Despite the apprehension of war felt in America, Pearl Harbor would catapult the country into a war it initially hid from, and brought a new mindset to the

The war effort on the homefront did not end with the working mother; children, too, found themselves fighting the fight at home. Whether by selling war bonds or gathering scrap, children had a place in the struggle. The employment of children in the sale of bonds came upon the nation in the government’s use of sentimental marketing. Children’s involvement in scrap collection, which was undertaken in an effort to collect as many materials as possible for the government and military to create what they needed for war. Since the end of the Great Depression, a time that saw many children taking employment when and where they could in order to contribute financially to their families, children had no longer been required, or expected, to work. With fathers becoming soldiers, and many mothers taking on their own occupations outside the home, children were the most free of society in terms of time. Their ability to gather the materials needed, then, caused a heavy encouragement to do so through