Prohibition

• The 18th Amendment went into effect in January of 1920, banning all alcoholic beverages.

• Many believed that alcohol caused too many problems such as crime, wife and child abuse, and accidents on the job.

• It was impossible to enforce the law.• People went to underground to hidden

saloons or nightclubs called Speakeasies to obtain alcohol.

Al Capone

• Centered in Chicago Al Capone killed off his competition and controlled all of the illegal sale of alcohol in Chicago.

• He made $60 million a year. • He was sent to jail for tax evasion for 11 years.

(Alcatraz)• Once released he became mentally ill, some

say it was due to syphilis. Died due to complications from the disease.

Science and Religion Clash

• Fundamentalism- a protestant movement that believed that all stories in the Bible were true and should be taken literally.

• They believed that evolution was not true. • They began to call for laws that would prohibit

the teaching of evolution.

• The Scopes Trial- AKA the Monkey Trial- In 1925 Tennessee passed a law that made the teaching of evolution illegal.

• The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) promised to defend any teacher who would challenge the law.

• John T. Scopes accepted the challenge and taught evolution. He was arrested.

• He was found guilty and fined $100. • Many began to accept that the Bible can be

interpreted in different ways.

The Flapper

• Flapper- young women who embraced the new fashions and urban attitudes of the day.

• Many women became more assertive and wanted equal status with men.

• Some begun smoking, drinking in public, and talking openly about sex.

• The growth of business and industry produced time saving appliances that freed women from some household chores and created jobs for millions of women.

• During this time there were more stores that offered ready-made clothes, sliced bread, and canned food. (Time saving inventions)

• More women worked and more kids went to school who began to spend less time with their families and became rebellious.

Mass Media

• Huge national chains of Newspapers and magazines came about such as Readers Digest and Time Magazine.

• Radio became the most powerful communications medium to emerge in the 1920’s.

• Radio allowed more people to experience life and history while it happened. One could listen to Presidential speeches or hear the World Series live.

Original Cost: $85.00, which would cost $922.42 in 2005!

Original Cost: $65.00(What cost $65.00 in 1928 would cost $693.18 in 2005 dollars)

Speaker Type: HeadphonesOriginal Cost: $69.00. With tube $76.50A $69.00 radio in 1922 would cost $714.25 in 2005!

Authors

• Sinclair Lewis- First to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. Wrote Babbitt, which dealt with Americans conformity and materialism.

• F Scott Fitzgerald- coined the term “Jazz Age,” and “Flapper.” Wrote the novel The Great Gatsby.

• Zora Neale Hurston- was an author during the time of the Harlem Renaissance, best known for the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God.

• W. E. B. Du Bois- a founding member of the NAACP lad a parade of 10,000 African American men in New York to protest racial violence.

• NAACP- continued its campaign through antilynching legislation.

• Marcus Garvey- founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA).

• Garvey also encouraged African Americans to return to Africa and help native people there throw off white colonial oppressors, and build a mighty nation.

• During the Great Migration many African American families moved to Harlem, New York.

• Harlem Renaissance- It was a literary and artistic movement led by well-educated, middle class African Americans who expressed a new pride and wrote with defiance about the trials of being black in a white world.

JAZZ

• Jazz was born in the early 20th century in New Orleans.

• Louis Armstrong- Trumpet player that became the most important and influential musician in the history of jazz.

• Duke Ellington- Jazz pianist and composer became one of the greatest composers of the 20th century.

• Bessie Smith-became the highest paid black artist in the world.

The Nation’s Sick Economy

Industries in Trouble

• Railroads lost business to new forms of transportation such as trucks, buses and automobiles.

• The housing industry began to fall and when housing falls so do jobs related to it such as furniture, lumber, appliances and so on.

• The Farming industry went form making $10 billion to $4 billion in two years.

Living on Credit• Many Americans were living beyond their means.

They bought goods on credit and increased their debt.

• Because many Americans were in debt, they stop spending as much.

• Uneven Distribution of Income- 70% of families earned $2500 a year.

• Families earning $5000 could not afford to buy many of the household products that were around at the time.

• The Economic boom of the 1920’s was enjoyed by the rich.

Stock Market

• Dow Jones Industrial Average (Dow)- measures the health of the stock market by measuring the stock prices of 30 large companies on the New York Stock Exchange.

• Sept. 1929-Stock Market Prices peaked and then fell. • Oct. 24, 1929- Stock Market takes a plunge and

panicked investors tried to sell all of their shares. • Oct 29, 1929- Is now known as Black Tuesday was

when stock prices fell sharply and investors sold a record of 16.4 million shares.

Great Depression

• The stock Market Crash signaled the beginning of the Great Depression from 1929 to 1940

• During the Great Depression unemployment skyrocketed and many people made a run on the bank to take out their money.

• However, many banks invested in the stock market and over 600 banks closed.

• By 1933, 11,000 banks had failed and millions of people lost their savings accounts.

• Over 13 million people lost their jobs and those that kept their jobs faced pay cuts and reduced hours.

• Countries that traded with the U.S. also suffered from the G.D.

Hardship During the Depression

People’s Lives

• Because so many people lost their jobs, many were evicted from their homes and lived in the streets.

• Shantytowns- little towns consisting of shacks made up of cars, boxes, cardboard or whatever junk they can put together.

• Soup Kitchens- offered free or low cost food • Bread lines- lines of people waiting to receive food

provided by charitable organizations.

• African Americans and Latinos suffered more during the great depression because their unemployment was higher and when they were employed they were paid less.

• Racial violence increased due to whites competing for the same job.

• 24 African Americans were lynched in 1933.• Many whites demanded that Mexicans be deported

even if they were born in the U.S. Hundreds of thousands relocated in Mexico due to deportation or they left voluntarily.

The Dust Bowl• Many farmers removed the grasslands of the Great

Plains so they can grow their crops. After several years, the land was not suitable for growing crops.

• When a drought and wind began in the Great Plains there was little grass to hold the soil down.

• A wind storm in 1934 carried dust all the way to the East Coast.

• Many families packed their stuff and headed to California down Route 66. Those that migrated became known as Okies (became a negative word for all migrants).

Effects on the Family

• Many men could not provide for their families and would wander the streets in search for jobs.

• After 2-3 years of searching for a job many men became discouraged, stopped searching for jobs, and even abandoned their families.

• As many as 300,000 “hoboes” wandered the streets, hitched rides on railroad boxcars, and slept under bridges.

• During the early years of the Great Depression the Federal Government did not offer direct relief- or cash payments like welfare.

Women and Children of the Great Depression

• Many married were not hired during the Depression because many believed they had no right to work when there were men who were unemployed.

• Children with poor diets began to develop serious health problems.

• Many schools also shut down, and children went to work.

• “Wild Boys” were teenagers that hopped on freight trains in search of work, adventure, and an escape from poverty.

• “If I leave my mother, it will mean one less mouth to feed.”

Social effects

• Many people lost their will to survive and committed suicide and many were admitted to mental hospitals.

• Many people also developed habits of saving and thriftiness.

Hoover Struggles with the Depression

Hoover’s Cautious Steps• Herbert Hoover asked employers not to cut wages or

lay off workers, and workers not to demand raises or go on strike.

• During this time he also got approval from Congress to build Boulder Dam (AKA Hoover Dam).

• Because prices of farm products dropped, many farmers grew frustrated and burned their corn and dumped their milk on highways rather than sell it at a loss. This was called a “Farm Holiday.”

• They did this to lower the supply of farm products which would raise the price.

• Shantytowns became known as Hoovervilles. • Newspapers became Hoover Blankets• Empty pockets turned inside out were

“Hoover Flags.”• Many saw Hoover as a heartless leader that

wasn’t doing enough for the people by not offering direct relief or federal welfare.

Hoover Takes Action• Federal Home Loan Bank Act- Lowered mortgage rates

and allowed farmers to refinance their farm loans and avoid foreclosure.

• Bonus Army- WWI veterans that had not been compensated for their wartime service marched on the nations capitol.

• They hoped that they would convince Congress to pass the Patman Bill that would give them $500 each.

• Hoover later sent 1,000 soldiers to get rid of the Bonus Army. They used tear gas, which killed an 11 month old baby and blinded an 8 year old boy. Two people were shot and many Americans could not believe how the government was treating its veterans.

• Guess who won the next presidential election?

A New Deal Fights the Depression

The New Deal

• Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) became president and began working with a team of professors, lawyers, and journalist known as the “Brain Trust.”

• They designed a program to alleviate the problems of the Great Depression called the New Deal.

• The New Deal had three goals: relief for the needy, economic recovery, and financial reform.

The Hundred Days

• From March 9 to June 16, 1933, Congress passed 15 major pieces of New Deal legislation.

• A day after taking office, Roosevelt declared a bank holiday and closed all the banks to prevent further withdrawals.

• He passed the Emergency Banking Relief Act, which would authorize the Treasury Department to inspect banks.

Fireside Chats

• Fireside Chats were 30 radio talks about issues of public concern, explaining in clear, simple language his New Deal measures.

Regulating Banking• Glass-Steagall Act- established the Federal Deposit

Insurance Corporation (FDIC). • Federal Securities Act- required for corporations to

provide complete information on all stock offerings and made them liable for any misrepresentations.

• Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)- regulated the stock market by preventing people with inside information about companies from “rigging” the stock market for their own profit.

• In 1933 the 21 Amendment was passed which repeal prohibition. The tax of alcohol was then more expensive.

Rural Assistance

• Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA)- raised crop prices by lowering production.

• The government paid farmers to leave land unseeded.

• It also paid farmers to slaughter 6 million pigs and 220,000 pregnant cows .

• Many Americans protested the destruction of food when many people were going hungry.

Work Projects

• Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)- Put young men aged 18 to 25 to work building roads, developing parks, planting trees, and soil-erosion and flood-control projects.

• The CCC paid workers $30 a month, in which $25 was automatically sent home. It supplied free food, uniforms, and lodging in the work camps.

• The CCC planted over 200 million trees in the Great Plains area to prevent another Dust Bowl.

NIRA

• National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA)- provided money to states to create jobs in construction of schools and other community buildings.

• NIRA failed to make sufficient jobs for the unemployed.

• Therefore, Roosevelt established the Civil Works Administration (CWA), which created 40,000 schools and paid 50,000 teachers in rural areas.

New Deal Under Attack

• By the end of the Hundred Days, many had benefited from the New Deal.

• Roosevelt agreed to a policy of deficit spending- spending more money that the government receives in revenue.

• The Supreme Court struck down the AAA on the grounds that agriculture is a state matter not to be regulated by the federal government.

• Fearing that the Supreme Court might dismantle the New Deal, Roosevelt proposed a court reform bill that would allow him to appoint six new Supreme Court Justices.

• Many Justices retired and Roosevelt was able to was able to appoint seven new justices.

The Second New Deal

Helping Poor Farmers

• The Second New Deal came after Roosevelt was reelected for a second term.

• It attempted to help poor farmers by providing loans so they may buy the land which they are working.

Helping the Youth

• Works Progress Administration (WPA)- created as many jobs as possible and as quickly as possible.

• They are responsible for hiring 8 million workers to build 850 airports, construct or repair 650,000 miles of roads, and construct 125,000 public buildings.

• Although many people criticized such projects as “make-work projects,” the jobs gave people a sense of hope and purpose.

Eleanor Roosevelt

• The presidents wife traveled the country, observing social conditions and would remind her husband of the suffering of the nation’s people.

• Eleanor made sure that the WPA made special efforts to help women, minorities, and young people.

Helping Labor

• The Wagner Act- prohibited unfair labor practices such as threatening to fire workers for unionizing.

• Fair Labor Standards Act- set the minimum wage, 40 hour work week, set rules for workers under the age of 16, and banned hazardous work for those under 18. (Still in effect today!)

Social Security Act (1935)

Three Major Parts:1. Old-age insurance for retirees 65 or older

and their spouses. 2. Unemployment compensation system3. Aid to families with dependent children and

the disabled

“Let there be Light”

• The Second New Deal also included laws to promote rural electrification and to regulate public utilities.

• Rural Electrification Administration (REA)- brought electricity to rural and isolated areas.

• By 1945, 45% of the nation’s farms had electricity. By 1949, that figure rose to 90%.

The New Deal Affects Many GroupsCh 15-3 to 15-5

Pedro J. Gonzalez

• Was the first Spanish language disc jockey in Los Angeles.

• He used his radio program to condemn discrimination against Mexicans.

• For his efforts he was arrested, jailed, and deported even though he was a U.S. citizen.

• Frances Perkins became the first female cabinet member as secretary of labor. She played a major role in creating the Social Security System.

• Mary McLeod Bethune- Was hired by FDR to take lead of the Division of Negro Affairs of the National Youth Administration. She also helped organize the “Black Cabinet,” to advise FDR on racial issues.

FDR Fails to Support Civil Rights

• FDR did not support federal antilynching laws and an end to poll taxes.

• Many New Deal Programs such as the CCC discriminated against people of color.

• Why do you suppose FDR did not back up Civil Rights?

• VOTES

AFL-CIO

• American Federation of Labor (AFL)- restricted craft unions such as carpenters and electricians.

• Therefore, a new committee was formed called the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO).

• In 1955, they joined and became known as AFL-CIO. They are currently the largest federation of unions.

• Many writers received support through the WPA program, the Federal Writer’s Project.

• Richard Wright, an African American author, wrote Native Son (1940), about a young man trying to survive in a racist world.

• John Steinbeck, published the novel The Grapes of Wrath (1939), about the Oklahomans that left during the Dust Bowl towards California.

• Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) harnessed water power to generate electricity and to help prevent disastrous floods in the Tennessee Valley.

Dictators Threaten World Peace

Failures of WWI Peace Settlement

• The Treaty of Versailles blamed Germany for starting WWI.

• Germany was stripped of their overseas colonies and territories.

• The Soviet Union resented parts of their land being taken away.

Joseph Stalin• After Lenin Died in 1924, Joseph Stalin took control

of the Soviet Union.• As in many communist countries, the government

took all privately owned lands and replaced them with large government owned farms.

• All economic activity was placed under state management.

• By 1937, the Soviet Union was the second largest industrial power, surpassed only by the U.S.

Totalitarian

• Stalin eliminated anyone who threatened his power.

• It is estimated that Stalin is responsible for the deaths of 8 million to 13 million people.

• Totalitarian- a government that has complete control of its citizens.

• In Stalin’s totalitarian government, individuals has no rights, and the government does away with all opposition.

Fascism in Italy

• Benito Mussolini-established a totalitarian regime in Italy.

• Mussolini established the Fascist Party, which places the interest of the state above those of individuals.

• Just as Stalin had done, Mussolini crushed his opposition and made Italy a totalitarian state.

Nazis Take Over Germany

• After WWI, Adolf Hitler joined a struggling group called the National Socialist German Worker’s Party (Nazi).

• Hitler wrote a book titled Mein Kampf (my Struggle), where he outlined the beliefs of Nazism.

• He believed in uniting all German speaking people.

• Hitler also wanted to enforce racial purification.• In his views Germans (especially blue-eyed, blonde

hair “Aryans”) formed a master race. All other races were fit to serve the Aryans.

• Many men that were out of work joined Hitler's private army , the storm troopers or brown shirts.

• Once Hitler became prime minister he established the Third Reich, or Third German Empire.

Japan…Germany…Italy

• Japanese militarists launched a surprise attack on Manchuria in 1933, which is located in China.

• The League of Nations, which was established after WWI to prevent nations attacking each other, condemned Japan for its attack.

• Japan just quit the League of Nations. Germany followed, and began to rebuild their military.

• Mussolini invaded and took over Ethiopia.• The League of Nations did very little to stop all of

this.

Spain

• Spanish Civil War began and Hitler and Mussolini backed General Francisco Franco’s rebellion.

• The civil war allowed Germany and Italy to become allies.

• After Franco’s victory in Spain, there was another totalitarian government in Europe.

• (Spain, Germany, Italy, Soviet Union)

Neutrality Acts

• In an effort to keep the U.S. out of future wars, Congress passed a series of Neutrality Acts.

• The first three acts outlawed the sale of weapons to countries at war, including civil wars.

War In Europe

Austria and Czechoslovakia Fall

• Hitler declared that to grow and prosper Germany needed the land of its neighbors. His plan was to absorb Austria and Czechoslovakia into the Third Reich.

• The Majority of Austria’s 6 million people were German and wanted to unite with Germany.

• On March 12, 1938, German troops marched into Austria. A day later Germany announced it union.

Czechoslovakia

• Hitler wanted to annex Czechoslovakia in order to provide more living space for Germany as well as to control its important natural resources.

• Hitler accused the Czechs with abusing the Germans in the Sudetenland, the western region of Czechoslovakia.

• France and Great Britain promised to protect Czechoslovakia if Germany invaded.

Munich Agreement

• French premier Edouard Daladier and British prime minister Neville Chamberlain met with Hitler in Munich.

• Hitler promised them that Sudetenland would be his last territorial demand. They believed him!

• On September 30,1938, they signed the Munich Agreement, which turned the Sudetenland over to Germany without a single shot being fired.

• Winston Churchill, Chamberlain’s political rival in Great Britain, believed they had adopted a shameful policy of appeasement-or giving up to pacify an aggressor.

The German Offensive

• Churchill warned that Hitler was not done expanding the Third Reich.

• On March 15, 1939, about 6 months after the Munich agreement, Germany took over all of Czechoslovakia.

• Hitler now wanted Poland and he declared that Poland was mistreating Germans in that country.

• Nobody believed that Hitler would attack Poland because then the Soviet Union, Poland Neighbor would attack Germany.

• Then Germany would be attacked by France and Great Britain.

• This would be a two front war (a war to the east and west of Germany).

• Stalin signed the nonaggression pact, which meant that neither Germany or the Soviet Union would attack each other.

• A second secret pact was signed in which the two countries agreed to divide Poland amongst each other.

Poland = WWII• On September 1, 1939, the German Luftwaffe (air

force) attacked Poland.• The blitzkrieg, or lightning war was Germany’s

newest technology, in which it used fast tanks and aircrafts.

• On September 3, Britain and France declared war on Germany.

• Major fighting was over in 3 weeks way before France and Britain could mount a defense. The Blitzkrieg tactic worked.

• In the last week of fighting the Soviet Union attacked Poland, grabbing some of its territory.

• WWII had begun.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/fb/PanzerInfantryAdvance.jpg

• Junker planes introduced in 1936 and retired in 1945, used mainly by the German air force (Luftwaffe)

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0b/Panzerkampfwagen_I_Ausf._A.jpg

The Phony War

• For several months after the fall of Poland, the French sat on their border waiting for Germany to make a move. Germany waited for them too.

• It became known as a sitting war.• While the French and the Germans waited, the

Soviets took over Estonia, Latvia, Finland, and Lithuania.

• The Phony War was over when Hitler invaded Denmark, Norway, Belgium, Luxemburg, and the Netherlands.

Fall of France (No French Fries)• The German offensive forced the French and the

British towards the English Channel.• Italy then entered the war on Germany’s side and

attacked France from the South. • The Battle of Britain- Since Germany’s naval fleet

could not compare to that of the British, Germany decided to attack Great Britain from above.

• Great Britain had newer Technology (radar). Britain’s Royal Air Force (RAF) fought off Germany. On a single day there were about 2,000 German fighter planes bombing Great Britain.

The Holocaust

• In 1933, after Hitler took power in Germany, he ordered all “non-Aryans” to be removed from government jobs.

• This was the first step that eventually led in a campaign of racial purity called the Holocaust.

• Many Germans blamed the Jews for many of Germany’s failures including their loss in WWI.

• The Nuremberg Laws stripped the Jews of their German citizenship.

Kristallnacht

• November 9-10, 1938, became known as Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass).

• Nazi storm troopers attacked Jewish homes, businesses, and synagogues by breaking windows or burning them down.

• 100 Jews were killed, 30,000 were arrested and the Nazi’s blamed the Jews for the destruction.

No Place to Go

• Many Jews fled to other countries but many Jews had trouble finding nations that would accept them.

• Many countries began to limit the number of Jews entering their country.

• The United States accepted 100,000 Jews of “exceptional Merit,” like Albert Einstein.

• Many Americans did not want more immigrants because of the lack of jobs during the Great Depression.

The Plight of the Saint Louis

• A ship by the name of the St. Louis had 943 passengers, 740 of them had U.S. immigration papers. The Coast Guard did not let them disembark in America and the ship was forced to return to Europe. France accepted them and more than half of the passengers later died in the Holocaust.

Hitler’s “Final Solution”

• Hitler wanted to rid Europe of all Jews.• He imposed what he called the “Final Solution,”

which genocide- or the killing of an entire population.

• Although Jews were the main target, many others were included as unfit to be part of the master race including: Jehovah’s Witnesses, Catholics, homosexuals, the mentally ill, the physically disabled, and gypsies.

Forced Relocation• Jews were segregated into over-crowded, ghettos.• The Nazis sealed off the ghettos with barbed wire

and stone walls.• Concentration Camps- Many Jews were forced onto

trains headed to labor camps.• Life in the camps was a cycle of hunger, humiliation,

and work usually led to death.• Jews worked 7 days a week, from dawn to dusk, until

they collapsed. If they were too weak to work they were killed.

Mass Extermination

• The Germans built six death camps in Poland which had gas chambers that could kill 12,000 people a day.

• Auschwitz was the largest death camp.• Those that looked healthy enough to work

were separated from those that would die. • Those that would die were given soap and told

to undress for a shower. They were then led to a gas chamber.

• The bodies placed in huge burial pits.• In order to cover up the evidence of the

slaughter, the Nazis would burn the bodies in the pits or in huge crematoriums.

• Some Jews died as a result of horrible medical experiments.

America Moves Toward War

Cautiously Moving

• Roosevelt wanted to help France and Great Britain fight against Hitler in order to keep the U.S. out of war.

• Therefore, FDR passed a “cash-and-carry” provision that allowed warring nations to buy arms as long as they paid cash and transported them on their own ships.

• The U.S. had sent 500,000 rifles, 80,000 machine guns, and 50 destroyers.

The AXIS Powers

• Germany, Italy, and Japan signed a mutual defense treaty and became known as the Axis Powers.

• This meant that if the U.S. declared War on any of the Axis Powers, it would have a two-ocean war, with fighting in the Pacific and Atlantic (Japan and Europe).

• During this time, FDR ran for a third term and won. He broke George Washington’s tradition of a two-term presidency.

FDR’s Plan

• FDR warned that if Britain fell to Germany then the AXIS Powers would conquer the world.

• Lend Lease Plan- the president would lend or lease arms and other supplies to any country whose defense was vital to the U.S.

Supporting Stalin

• Hitler broke his agreement with Stalin and invaded the Soviet Union. Therefore, FDR began sending lend-lease supplies to the Soviet Union.

• “If Hitler invaded Hell” the British would be prepared to work with the devil himself. (Winston Churchill)

German Wolf Packs

• To prevent delivery f lend-lease shipments, Hitler deployed hundreds of submarines to attack ships.

• FDR allowed the navy permission to attack the U-boats in self defense.

Atlantic Charter

• The Atlantic Charter became the basis for “A Declaration of the United Nations.”

• The term “United Nations” express the common purpose of the Allies or those nations that fought the Axis Powers.

Hideki Tojo

• Hideki Tojo wanted to unite Asia by taking the French, Dutch, and British colonies in Asia.

• The British were too busy fighting Hitler to stop Japan’s expansion.

• Japan took over Indochina (Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia), and the U.S. protested by cutting off trade with Japan.

• They stopped trading oil to fuel its war.

Peace Talks with Japan

• Tojo promised Japan’s emperor, Hirochito, that he would keep the peace with the Americans.

• On Nov. 5, 1941, Tojo ordered the Japanese navy to prepare for an attack on the U.S.

• The U.S. broke Japan’s secret communication codes and learned that Japan was preparing for a strike, but did not know when or where.

• The U.S. and Japan’s peace talks went on for a month and on Dec 6, 1941, FDR received a decoded message that said that Japan would reject all American peace proposals.

December 7, 1941

• For 1 ½ hours, 180 warplanes attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

• Japan killed 2,403 Americans and wounded 1,178.• The next day FDR addressed Congress with his

famous infamy speech: “Yesterday December 7, 1941, a date which will live in infamy…”

• Congress then approved FDR’s declaration of war against Japan.

• Three days later, Germany and Italy declared war on the U.S.

Mobilizing for Defense

The War Effort

• After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the Japan Times boasted that the United States, now reduced to a third-rate power, was “trembling in her shoes.” But if Americans were trembling it was with rage, not fear. Uniting under the battle cry “remember Pearl Harbor!” they set out to prove Japan wrong.

Expanding the Military

• WAAC or WAC- Under the Woman’s Auxiliary Army Corps women volunteers would serve in noncombat positions.

• WAC’s worked as nurses, ambulance drivers, radio operators, electricians, and pilots.

Discrimination

• Because they were being segregated, African Americans, Native Americans, Mexican Americans, and Asian Americans questioned whether it was their was to fight.

• An African American newspaper published “Just carve on my tombstone, ‘Here lies a black man killed fighting a yellow man for the protection of a white man.’”

• Despite discrimination in the military, more than 300,000 Mexican Americans joined the armed forces.

• Many minorities were limited to noncombat roles.

• 33,000 Japanese Americans served and many volunteered as spies and interpreters.

Production

• 1942 ended the year for automobile production as many factories retooled to produce tanks, planes, boats, and command cars.

Some call this a 1943 Cadillac. It had two Cadillac V-8 engines. Inside the tank there was a plaque that proudly displayed a that this was a product of Cadillac.

Labor’s Contribution

• Many industries believed that women lacked the stamina for factory work and would not hire them.

• Once women proved that they were capable of welding and riveting they began to hire them and pay them 40% less then men doing the same job.

• Many people refuse to hire African Americans as mechanics and aircraft workers.

• A. Phillip Randolph called all African Americans to Washington D.C. and march for their “right to work and fight for our country.”

• FDR asked him not to march on Washington. Randolph did not back down. FDR then made an executive order “to provide the full and equitable participation of all workers in defense industries, without discrimination because of race, creed, color, or national origin.

WPB• The War Production Board (WPB)- organized

nationwide drives to collect scrap iron, tin cans, paper bags, and cooking fat for recycling into war goods.

• Rationing- Households received ration books wo be used for buying scarce items such as meat, shoes, sugar and gasoline.

• Many people walked or rode their bikes to work to do their part in the war effort.

• Some people cheated and purchased rationed items on the black market.

The War for Europe and North Africa

Heroes in Combat

• Some of the most famous pilots that fought in Italy were the all black 99th Pursuit Squadron called the Tuskegee Airmen.

• Many Mexicans served in segregated units and had a Regiment become one of the most decorated of the war.

• Japanese Also served in Italy. Many were Nisei (American citizens whose parents were from Japan). The 100th battalion became the most decorated in U.S. history.

D-Day• Dwight D. Eisenhower (Ike)- gathered a force of

nearly 3 million British, American, and Canadians. • Ike planned to attack Normandy in northern France. • He radioed messages that the Germans could hear,

stating that he was going to invade the French port of Calais. Hitler ordered his men to Calais.

• D-Day June 6, 1944- the largest land-sea-air operation in army history.

• September 1944-Allies freed France, Belgium, and Luxemburg.

• The victory allowed FDR to be reelected for a fourth term.

• The key to the success of D-Day was the ability to deliver so many men at the same time.

• 1,200 ships, 4,126 landing craft, 804 transport ships, 10,000 planes, and 23,000 parachutists.

Liberating Death Camps

• The Soviets were the first to reach the Nazi death camps in Poland.

• When the Soviets entered they found Nazis trying to cover up what they had done, 1,000 starving prisoners, the worlds largest crematorium, and a storehouse containing 800,000 shoes.

Unconditional Surrender

• April 25, 1945-the Soviet army storms Berlin and many Nazi soldiers retreated. They were shot on the spot or hanged with a placard on their chest reading “We betrayed the Fuhrer.”

• April 12, 1945 FDR dies.• April 29, Hitler marries, blames the Jews for

the war, and a day later he shot himself while his wife drank poison.

• Hitler wrote out his last address to the German people. He stated “I die with a happy heart aware of the immeasurable deeds of our soldiers at the front. I myself and my wife choose to die in order to escape the disgrace of capitulation.”

• A week later Eisenhower accepted the unconditional surrender of the Third Reich.

• On May 8, 1945, the Allies celebrated V-E Day-Victory in Europe Day. The war in Europe was over.