World War II Part 2 - The Homefront: Crash Course US History #36 — Transcript

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1. 0:00Episode 36: World War II (2) – the war at home
2. 0:01Hi, I’m John Green, this is Crash Course U.S. History and today we’re going to discuss
3. 0:04how World War II played out at home and also the meaning of the war.
4. 0:08Mr. Green, Mr. Green, so is this going to be, like, one of the boring philosophical
5. 0:11ones, then?
6. 0:12Oh, Me From the Past, I remember when you were idealistic.
7. 0:15I remember a time when all you cared about was the deep inner meaning of … mostly girls.
8. 0:22But, you’ve changed, Me from the Past, and not in a good way.
9. 0:27intro So anyway World War II brought about tremendous
10. 0:36changes in the United States, in many ways shaping how Americans would come to see themselves
11. 0:40and how they would want to be seen by the rest of the world.
12. 0:43Some of these ideological changes were a continuation of the New Deal, others were direct results
13. 0:47of the war, but one thing we can say is that by the end of the war, the country was very
14. 0:52different.
15. 0:53For starters, World War II strengthened the federal government of the United States.
16. 0:56This always happens when a country goes to war, but World War II brought about even more
17. 1:00governmental intervention and control than we had seen in World War I.
18. 1:03It was like the New Deal on steroids.
19. 1:05Like federal agencies, like the War Production Board, War Manpower Commission and Office
20. 1:10of Price Administration took unprecedented control of the economy.
21. 1:14There was massive rationing of food and supplies, entire industries were completely taken over
22. 1:18by the government.
23. 1:19The federal government fixed wages, rents, prices, and especially production quotas.
24. 1:23Like, if you’re looking to buy a 1942 model Ford, or Chrysler, good luck because there
25. 1:29weren’t any.
26. 1:30The government told those car makers not to create new models that year.
27. 1:33So basically FDR was president for life and controlled all the industries.
28. 1:36I mean, how did this Communist end up on the dime?
29. 1:39Well the answer is that while it might have sucked not to have a 1942 Ford, most people
30. 1:43were just happy to be working after the Great Depression.
31. 1:46Unemployment dropped from 14% in 1940 to 2% in 1943.
32. 1:49Of course 13 million Americans were serving in the military in some capacity, so that
33. 1:54helped employment.
34. 1:55But in general the war kicked the American economy into overdrive.
35. 1:57Like, by 1944 American factories were producing an airplane every five minutes and a ship
36. 2:02every day.
37. 2:04U.S. Gross National Product went from $91 billion to $214 billion during the war.
38. 2:10Why did this happen?
39. 2:11Well that’s controversial, but primarily because of federal spending.
40. 2:14Government expenditures during the war were twice the amount they had been in the previous
41. 2:19150 years.
42. 2:20Combined.
43. 2:21Although a lot of this was financed with debt, much of the war was paid for with taxes.
44. 2:25Like, the federal government began the practice of withholding taxes from paychecks, for instance,
45. 2:30a practice I first became familiar with when working at Steak N Shake discovering that
46. 2:34instead of being paid I don’t know, like, $100 a week, I was being paid -$30 a week
47. 2:39because I had to declare my tips.
48. 2:41Because my dad made me.
49. 2:42Before World War II only 4 million Americans even paid federal income taxes; but after
50. 2:47the war 40 million did.
51. 2:49Also big business got even bigger during the war because of government contracts.
52. 2:53Cost-plus contracts guaranteed that companies would make a profit, and the lion’s share
53. 2:58of contracts went to the biggest businesses.
54. 2:59So, by the war’s end the 200 biggest American corporations controlled half of all of America’s
55. 3:05corporate assets.
56. 3:06And all this government spending also spurred development, like defense spending basically
57. 3:10created the West Coast as an industrial center.
58. 3:12Seattle became a shipping and aircraft-manufacturing hub.
59. 3:15And California got 10% of all federal spending.
60. 3:18And Los Angeles became the second largest manufacturing center in the country, meaning
61. 3:22that it was not in fact built by Hollywood, it was built by World War II.
62. 3:26All of this was pretty bad for the South, by the way, because most of this industrialization
63. 3:29happened in cities and the South only had two cities with more than a half a million
64. 3:33people.
65. 3:34And organized labor continued to grow as well, with union membership soaring from around
66. 3:379 million in 1940 to almost 15 million in 1945.
67. 3:41Besides union-friendly New Deal policies, the government forced employers to recognize
68. 3:46unions in order to prevent labor strife and keep the factories humming so that war production
69. 3:50would not decrease.
70. 3:51And, from a human history standpoint, one of the biggest changes is that many of the
71. 3:55workers in those factories were women.
72. 3:57You’ve probably seen this picture of Rosie the Riveter and while there wasn’t actually
73. 4:01a riveter named Rosie, or maybe there was but, she’s an amalgam.
74. 4:05But by 1944 women made up 1/3 of the civilian labor force in addition to the 350,000 who
75. 4:10were serving in the military.
76. 4:11And the type of women who were working changed as well.
77. 4:14Married women in their 30s outnumbered single women in the workforce.
78. 4:17But the government and employers both saw this phenomenon as temporary, so when the
79. 4:22war was over most women workers, especially those in high paying industrial jobs, were
80. 4:26let go.
81. 4:27This was especially hard on working class women who needed to work to survive and had
82. 4:30to return to lower paid work as domestics or in food services, or, god forbid, as teachers.
83. 4:36Oh, it’s time for the Mystery Document?
84. 4:37The rules here are simple.
85. 4:41We use primary sources for learning as this is a serious show about history and then if
86. 4:44I guess the author wrong, I get shocked.
87. 4:46Okay, what do we got today?
88. 4:47Let’s take a look.
89. 4:48Certainly this is no time for any of us to stop thinking about the social and economic
90. 4:52problems which are the root cause of the social revolution which is today a supreme factor
91. 4:56in the world.
92. 4:57For there is nothing mysterious about the foundations of a healthy and strong democracy.
93. 5:01The basic things expected by our people of their political and economic systems are simple.
94. 5:06They are: Equality of opportunity for youth and for
95. 5:09others.
96. 5:10Jobs for those who can work.
97. 5:11Security for those who need it.
98. 5:13The ending of special privilege for the few.
99. 5:15The preservation of civil liberties for all.
100. 5:17I mean, that’s some pretty hardcore New Deal stuff right there.
101. 5:20And, uh, the biggest New Deal-er of all was FDR, BUT I remember last time when I guessed
102. 5:27FDR and it was actually Eleanor Roosevelt.
103. 5:31So.
104. 5:33You wouldn’t do Eleanor Roosevelt twice.
105. 5:36Or would you?
106. 5:37Hm.
107. 5:38No it sounds more like a speech.
108. 5:39FDR.
109. 5:40YES!
110. 5:41So, I mentioned at the beginning of this video that World War II was an ideological war,
111. 5:44and nothing better encapsulates that idea than FDR’s “Four Freedoms,” which were:
112. 5:48freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear.
113. 5:53During the war the National Resources Planning Board offered a plan for a peacetime economy
114. 5:57based on full employment, an expanded welfare state and a higher standard of living for
115. 6:02all.
116. 6:03In 1944 FDR even called for a new Economic Bill of Rights that would expand governmental
117. 6:07power in order to create full employment, and guarantee an adequate income, medical
118. 6:11care, education, and housing to all Americans.
119. 6:14As FDR put it: “True individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and
120. 6:19independence.”
121. 6:20But that didn’t happen, largely because Southern Democrats in the House and Senate
122. 6:23didn’t want it to because it would have meant a larger role for unions and also extending
123. 6:27greater equality to African Americans, and they weren’t about to let that happen.
124. 6:31I mean, their jobs were literally dependent upon African Americans not being able to vote.
125. 6:36But, Congress did pass the GI Bill of Rights – officially the Servicemen’s Readjustment
126. 6:40Act -- to attempt to prevent widespread unemployment for returning soldiers.
127. 6:43It worked amazingly well, and by 1946 more than one million former soldiers were enrolled
128. 6:49in college and almost 4 million got assistance with mortgages, spurring a post-war housing
129. 6:54boom.
130. 6:55Levittown and all the towns since that look like it came after the war.
131. 6:57So, we talked about FDR’s Four Freedoms, but big business added a fifth freedom – free
132. 7:02enterprise.
133. 7:03Advertisers helped on this front, trying to make the war about consumption, telling Americans
134. 7:07that they were fighting to “hasten the day when you … can once more walk into any store
135. 7:12in the land and buy anything you want,” according to an ad for Royal Typewriters.
136. 7:16And FDR’s vision of extending freedom wasn’t limited to the United States, like Henry Luce,
137. 7:21the publisher of Time Magazine published a book called The American Century claiming
138. 7:24that the war had thrust upon the U.S. the opportunity to share with all people their
139. 7:29“magnificent industrial products” (that’s a quote) and American ideas like “love of
140. 7:34freedom” and “free economic enterprise.”
141. 7:37Now, of course, there wasn’t complete agreement on this liberal, government-led vision of
142. 7:38freedom.
143. 7:39Like, Frederick Hayek in 1944 published the Road to Serfdom, claiming that government
144. 7:40planning posed a threat to individual liberty.
145. 7:41And even though he claimed not to be a conservative because conservatives liked social hierarchy,
146. 7:42Hayek’s equating New Deal planning with Fascism and socialism became a foundation
147. 7:43for later American conservatives.
148. 7:44The struggle against Nazism also helped re-shape the way that Americans thought of themselves.
149. 7:45Like, because the Nazis were racists, Americanism would mean diversity, and tolerance, and equality
150. 7:47for all people.
151. 7:48The federal government supported this version of America.
152. 7:50FDR claimed that to be an American was “a matter of mind and heart,” not “a matter
153. 7:55of race or ancestry.”[1] Of course, it wasn’t a matter of race and
154. 7:58ancestry, we’d already killed 95% of the indigenous population.
155. 8:01This was also, not coincidentally, the period where American intellectuals began publishing
156. 8:05books debunking the supposed “scientific” basis of racism.
157. 8:09Now this didn’t mean that Americans suddenly embraced equality for all people.
158. 8:12Anti-Semitism still existed and contributed to the government’s not doing more to help
159. 8:17the Jews who perished in the Holocaust.
160. 8:18In fact, only 21,000 Jewish people were allowed to come to the U.S. during the course of the
161. 8:23war.
162. 8:24And white peoples’ fear over minority groups contributed to race riots in Detroit and the
163. 8:27Zoot Suit Riot against Mexicans in Los Angeles in 1943.
164. 8:31Not just a song by the Cherry Poppin’ Daddies, also a tragic moment in American history.
165. 8:35The war years saw a dramatic increase in immigration from Mexico under the Bracero program (which
166. 8:40lasted until 1964).
167. 8:41And about 500,000 Mexican American men and women served in the armed forces during the
168. 8:46war.
169. 8:47As did 25,000 American Indians although Indian reservations being largely rural, didn’t
170. 8:51really share in the wartime prosperity.
171. 8:53Asian Americans are probably the most glaring example of the failure to be adequately pluralistic.
172. 8:59Although things did improve for Chinese Americans because America couldn’t keep restricting
173. 9:03the immigration of its ally in the war, Japanese Americans suffered horrible racism and one
174. 9:08of the worst violations of civil liberties in America’s history.
175. 9:11Executive Order 9066 in February 1942 expelled all persons of Japanese descent from the west
176. 9:18coast.
177. 9:1970% of Japanese Americans lived in California and as a result of this order more than 110,000
178. 9:24people, almost 2/3 of whom were American citizens, were sent to internment camps where they lived
179. 9:30in makeshift barracks under the eyes and searchlights of guards.
180. 9:34A man named Fred Korematsu appealed his conviction for failing to show up for internment all
181. 9:39the way to the Supreme Court, where he lost in yet another horrendous court decision.
182. 9:44Okay, let’s go to the Thought Bubble.
183. 9:45The group that experienced the greatest change during World War II was probably African Americans.
184. 9:50They still served in segregated regiments in the armed forces, but more than 1 million
185. 9:54of them answered the call to fight.
186. 9:56And just as important, continuing the Great Migration that had begun in the 1920s 700,000
187. 10:01African Americans left the south, moving to northern and especially western cities where
188. 10:05they could find jobs, even though these mass migrations often led to tensions between blacks
189. 10:10and whites and sometimes these tensions exploded into violence.
190. 10:13World War II also saw the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement.
191. 10:15Angered by discrimination in defense employment, black labor leader A. Philip Randolph threatened
192. 10:20a march on Washington demanding access to defense jobs, an end to segregation and a
193. 10:25federal anti-lynching law.
194. 10:27He didn’t get all those things, but he did get Executive Order 8802 which banned discrimination
195. 10:32in defense hiring and created the Fair Employment Practices Commission.
196. 10:36The FEPC couldn’t enforce anti-discrimination but as a compliance agency it helped African
197. 10:41American workers obtain jobs in arms factories and shipyards.
198. 10:45By 1944 more than a million black people were working in manufacturing, and 300,000 of them
199. 10:51were women.
200. 10:52The rhetoric of fighting a war for freedom against a racist dictatorship wasn’t lost
201. 10:56on African Americans and many saw themselves as engaged in the double-V campaign, victory
202. 11:01over the Axis powers abroad and over racism in the United States.
203. 11:06The war saw ending segregation and black equality become cornerstones of American liberalism,
204. 11:11along with full employment and the expansion of civil liberties.
205. 11:14Eventually even the army and navy began to integrate, although the full end to discrimination
206. 11:18in the military would have to wait until well after the war.
207. 11:21Thanks Thought Bubble.
208. 11:22So if America was isolationist before the war – and I’ve argued that it actually
209. 11:25wasn’t really – after the war it certainly wasn’t.
210. 11:28FDR took a very active role in planning for a more peaceful and prosperous post-war world.
211. 11:34And conferences at Teheran, Yalta, and Potsdam clarified war aims, and established the idea
212. 11:38that Germany would be divided and Nazis tried for war crimes.
213. 11:42These conferences also laid the foundation for the Cold War in allowing Soviet influence
214. 11:46in Eastern Europe, especially Poland, so that wasn’t such a good thing.
215. 11:50But, the 1944 conference Bretton Woods, in beautiful, freedom loving New Hampshire, established
216. 11:55America’s economic dominance as the dollar – which again would be backed by gold -- replaced
217. 11:59the pound as the main currency in international transactions.
218. 12:02It also created World Bank to help rebuild Europe and also to help developing countries
219. 12:06and the IMF to stabilize currencies.
220. 12:08How well that’s worked is debatable, but this isn’t: the United States became the
221. 12:12financial leader of a global capitalist order.
222. 12:15The United States also took a leading role in establishing the United Nations at the
223. 12:19Dumbarton Oaks conference in 1944.
224. 12:21Why do we not have a UN commission on improving the names of historical events?
225. 12:26And then America adopted the UN charter, which was endorsed by the Senate because apparently
226. 12:27we had learned our lesson after the League of Nations debacle.
227. 12:28The goal of the UN was to ensure peace, and the United States’s position as one of the
228. 12:30five permanent members of the Security Council signaled that it intended to take an active
229. 12:35and leading role in international affairs.
230. 12:37And we had to because by the end of the war only the United States and USSR were powerful
231. 12:42enough to have any influence.
232. 12:43So, World War II ended the depression and transformed America’s economy.
233. 12:47It cemented the new definition of liberalism established by the New Deal, and opened up
234. 12:51opportunities for diverse groups of Americans.
235. 12:54It also transformed definitions of freedom both at home and abroad.
236. 12:57I mean, even before the U.S. entered the war it issued the Atlantic Charter along with
237. 13:01Britain affirming the freedom of all people to choose their own government and declaring
238. 13:06that the defeat of Nazi Germany would help to bring about a world of “improved labor
239. 13:11standards, economic advancement, and social security.”
240. 13:14At home and abroad World War II became a war that was about freedom, but was also about
241. 13:18what Gunnar Myrdal called the American Creed – a belief in equality, justice, equal opportunity,
242. 13:25and freedom.
243. 13:26I want to be clear that we have done a terrible job of living up to the American Creed, but
244. 13:29the story of American history is in many ways the story of ideas pulling policy, not the
245. 13:35other way around.
246. 13:36American history is an economic and political and social history, but it is also a story
247. 13:40about the power of ideas.
248. 13:42And World War II helped clarify those ideas for America and for the world.
249. 13:47Thanks for watching.
250. 13:48I’ll see you next week.
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258. 14:11So thank you for making it possible, thanks for watching, and as we say in my hometown,
259. 14:15don’t forget to be awesome...boom.
260. 14:16Oh god.
261. 14:17It was worse than I expected.
262. 14:18________________ [1] quoted in Foner Give me Liberty p. 927