![]() One check on inflation was the Office of Price Administration ( OPA), which established rent ceilings and maximum prices on thousands of commodities, including farm products. The demands of war made the manufacturing process highly efficient - a “Liberty” ship (a merchant ship which, according to Roosevelt, would bring liberty to Europe) that took about 180 days to build in 1941 could be finished in less than two weeks in 1943.Ī shortage of workers meant higher salaries, and as personal incomes rose and spending increased, the government became concerned about inflation. Government contracts also guaranteed war‐related industries significant profits and exemption from antitrust action. The Reconstruction Finance Corporation made loans available for businesses to expand plants and finance new equipment. Private residential housing construction also ceased because lumber was critical to the war effort. By early 1942, automobiles, refrigerators, washing machines, and even tennis balls ceased to be manufactured because the steel and rubber were needed for the war. ![]() This transformation was overseen by a new federal agency, the War Production Board ( WPB), which was responsible for the allocation of scarce raw materials and supplies. Success on the battlefield hinged on the rapid conversion of American industry from producing consumer goods to making planes, ships, and tanks. But there were some Americans, such as African‐Americans, Hispanics, and particularly Japanese‐Americans, who did not benefit from the war and whose wartime hardships and sacrifices were oftentimes the results of discrimination. Shortages in food and raw materials led to “victory gardens” and well‐publicized campaigns to collect rubber and scrap metals, adding to the public's sense of participation in the war effort. ![]() Support for the war was built through bond drives, which raised revenue to help finance the war, and through movies, which presented the war in a way that promoted patriotism. Although almost every family had someone in uniform, the war was still remote to many Americans. ![]() The labor problem in the war years was too few workers, not too few jobs, and in factories across the country, millions of women replaced men who were in the service. Unemployment, which stood at more than 17 percent in 1939, dropped to an all‐time low of 1.2 percent by 1944. The war brought an end to the Great Depression. The difficult island‐hopping campaign that ensued during the next three years culminated with the dropping of the first atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which ushered in the Nuclear Age. The first major action was the August 1942 invasion of Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands. Meanwhile in the Pacific, after some initial setbacks, the United States went on the offensive against Japan. In Europe, the Allies were initially divided on the best and quickest way to defeat Nazi Germany the military and diplomatic decisions that were made between 19 planted the seeds of the Cold War. The gross national product rose from $91 billion in 1939 to $166 billion in 1945, and 17 million new jobs were created during the same period.Īmericans were fighting a two‐front war. Fifteen million American men and women ultimately served in the armed forces during the Second World War, and wartime production reached unprecedented levels. BushĮven though the draft was instituted in 1940, and rearmament began before Pearl Harbor, the full mobilization of the United States for war required a Herculean effort. From Vice President to President: George H.W.The United States under Ford and Carter.A New Society: Economic & Social Change.American Society and Culture, 1865–1900.
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