Mintz, S. (2007). Learn About World War II. Digital History. Retrieved 2/25/08 from
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/modules/ww2/index.cfm World War II killed more people, involved more nations, and cost more money than any other war in history. Altogether, 70 million people served in the armed forces during the war and 17 million combatants died. Civilian deaths were ever greater. At least 19 million Soviet civilians, 10 million Chinese, and 6 million European Jews lost their lives during the war. World War II was truly a global war. Some 70 nations took part in the conflict, and fighting took place on the continents of Africa, Asia, and Europe, as well as on the high seas. Entire societies participated, as soldiers, war workers, or victims of occupation and mass murder. Paul Halsall Aug 1997; Modern History Sourcebook:
Pearl Harbour Attack Documents, 1941; retrieved on 2/25/08
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1941PEARL.html The representatives of the Government of the United States and of the Government of Japan have been carrying on during the past several months informal and exploratory conversations for the purpose of arriving at a settlement if possible of questions relating to the entire Pacific area based upon the principles of peace, law and order and fair dealing among nations..... Mintz, S. (2007). World War II. Digital History. Retrieved 2/25/08 from
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/historyonline/us35.cfm Distribution of Family Income
1941 1944
Wealthiest 5% 24 20.7
Wealthiest 20% 48.8 45.8
Second Wealthiest 20% 22.3 22.2
Middle 20% 15.3 16.2
Second Poorest 20% 9.5 10.9
Poorest 20% 4.1 4.9
Labor Force Participation
Males Females
1940 55 % 28 %
1944 62 % 37 %
1947 57 % 31 %
Average Earnings
1940 $1,300
1944 $2,108
1947 $2,589
Personal Savings
1940 $ 4.2 billion
1941 11.1 billion
1942 27.7 billion
1943 33.0 billion
1944 36.9 billion
1945 28.7 billion
1946 13.5 billion
1947 4.7 billion
1997 The History Place Holocaust Timeline. retrieved 2/25/08 from
http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/holocaust/timeline.html Aug 8, 1940 - Romania introduces anti-Jewish measures restricting education and employment, then later begins "Romanianization" of Jewish businesses. Sept 27, 1940 - Tripartite (Axis) Pact signed by Germany, Italy and Japan. Oct 3, 1940 - Vichy France passes its own version of the Nuremberg Laws. Oct 7, 1940 - Nazis invade Romania (Jewish pop. 34,000). Oct 22, 1940 - Deportation of 29,000 German Jews from Baden, the Saar, and Alsace-Lorraine into Vichy France. In Nov - Hungary, Romania, and Slovakia become Nazi Allies.
Interview; David M. Kennedy Interview; retrieved on 2/25/08 from
http://www.pbs.org/fmc/interviews/kennedy.htm
QUESTION: Before the 1929 crash, what was the mood of America?
DAVID KENNEDY: When we think of the 1920s and think about what the mood of the country was, much of our popular understanding of that is informed by famous old books like Frederick Lewis Allen's Only Yesterday, and we have this image of the 1920s as a decade that was slap-happy on bathtub gin and flappers and so on and so forth. But in fact, for large portions of the country, the 1920s was a depressed decade. There had been an agricultural depression that, by 1929, was already nearly a decade old. Farm prices were way below what they'd been before the First World War, and even further below what they had been in wartime. Nearly half the American people still live in the countryside in the 1920s, and they lived in the grip of a chronic depression. If you were black, if you were a farmer, or if you were a recent immigrant living in America in the 1920s, you did not share, generally speaking, in that so-called 1920s prosperity. If, on the other hand, you were a reasonably skilled urban worker, you probably were making out pretty well. There was real prosperity in certain pockets of the economy in the 1920s. QUESTION: What impact did the Depression have on family life? DAVID KENNEDY: The impact of the Depression is visible in the cold ciphers that - statistics that record the history of this era. The divorce rate went down because divorce, we think, is at least in part a function of women's economic opportunities, and there were fewer. The marriage rate went down. Family formation is less likely to happen in a depressed economic circumstance. The birth rate went down rather markedly in the early years of the Depression. And indeed it's the suppression of the birth rate in the 1930s that is partly responsible for the explosion in the birth rate after World War II, in the so-called "baby boom." Part of the baby boom is making up for the deficit in births in the 1930s. So on every index that we commonly look to, to measure the health of family life, we can see that the Depression really blighted people's behavior in their families to a considerable degree. Henretta, James; Brody,David; Dumenil,Lynn
"War and the American State." America's History, 6th editon.
Boston/New York,Bedford/St. Martins 2008. Wilson called on americans to be " neutral in fact as well as in name,impartial in thought as well as in action."
Wilson wanted to arbitrate, the ultimate settlement much as roosevelt did in the russo japanese warof 1905. the nation's dicided loyalties also infulences wilson's policy.
Many americans felt culteral ties to the allies. The Irish resented the British, and there were many German immigrants who were loyal to germany.
10 million immigrants came to united states from germany and A-H. most politically active americans refused to support either side. in 1915, Henry Ford spent half a million dollars to senf 100 people to europe on a "peace ship" in an attempt to negotiate an end to the war.
American wanted to resume peaceful trade with all nations and remain neutral. British blockades of the world powers prevented this.
as a result, american trade with britain and france grew from 824 million in 1914
to 3.2 billion in 1916, and by 1917 american trade and loans to
germany totaled only 29 million, thus swaying america in favor of the alliance. 4 days later on April 6, 1917, U.S. declared war on Germany. The Us neutrality act;digital wizards(ontario0 inc/Juno beach centre 2003 As a reaction to Germany’s re-armament, and to prevent any US involvement in a possible European war, the US Congress voted the Neutrality Act,
signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on August 31, 1935. The Act prohibits trade in military material with warring countries and travel by US
nationals on ships belonging to warring countries. It was amended in 1936 to prohibit loans to warring countries, and then in January and March 1937
to include civil wars In the beginning of WWII, the possibility that Great Britain could be defeated is real and the growing Nazi threat is a cause for fear. Roosevelt realizes
that the Neutrality Act imposes restrictions on possible US actions; amendments will be adopted to diminish the legislation’s scope. Supplying nations at
war will be authorized on the “cash and carry” principle (November 1939) and loans of military material will be possible on a land-lease agreement
(November 1941). The League of Nations was created on January 10, 1920, following the Great War, as a first international effort towards peacekeeping. Sixty-three
nations joined the organization, including all European powers. Despite the role played by US President Woodrow Wilson in its creation, the Senate
opposed the United States joining the League. Its headquarters were in Geneva During the 1920s, the League enjoyed some influence through its role on issues such as the fight against opium trafficking, humanitarian assistance
to children, and international trade. The Great Depression modified the political climate and the ensuing crises proved a formidable challenge for the
League. It failed to stop Germany’s re-armament or to impose sanctions on Italy when it invaded Ethiopia. It was completely disregarded during WWII.
The League of Nations was officially dissolved on April 18, 1946, to be replaced by the United Nations. Book Title: America First: The Battle against Intervention, 1940-41. Contributors: Wayne S. Cole - author. Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press.
Place of Publication: Madison, WI. Publication Year: 1953. Page Number: iii. Nevertheless, the America First Committee was the
most powerful mass pressure group engaged in the strug
gle against the foreign policy of the Roosevelt adminis
tration in the crucial years of 1940-1941. Under its ban
ner numerous prominent American personalities battled
against a foreign policy which they believed to be con
trary to the best interests of the United States. General
Robert E. Wood, Colonel Charles A. Lindbergh, Senator
Burton K. Wheeler, Senator Gerald P. Nye, Philip La Fol
lette, John T. Flynn, Kathleen Norris, Lillian Gish, Chester ON THE "date which will live in infamy," December 7
1941, the bursting Japanese bombs and torpedoes left three
and one-half thousand dead and wounded Americans at
Pearl Harbor. Much of the American fleet at Hawaii was
converted into a mass of twisted shambles while military
aircraft went up in flames without even getting into the
air against the enemy. The same Japanese pilots who
wrought this havoc also abruptly terminated the spectacu
lar foreign policy debate which had been provoked by the
outbreak of World War II. Included in the debris left by
the Japanese attack was the shattered corpse of the Amer
ica First Committee, the principal noninterventionist pres
sure group in that "Great Debate." "United States History," Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2007
http://encarta.msn.com © 1997-2007 Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved. The roots of World War II can be found in the debris of World War I, which left
legacies of anger and hardship. After World War I, the Treaty of Versailles
imposed large reparations on Germany. The reparations and wartime destruction
caused severe economic problems in postwar Germany. Other European nations
grappled with war debts, hunger, homelessness, and fear of economic collapse.
Under these circumstances, totalitarianism spread In Germany, the Nazi Party, led by Adolf Hitler, came to power
(see National Socialism). Hitler believed that Aryans were a master race destined
for world rule. He sought to form a great German empire—one that gave the German
people, in his words, “the land and the soil to which they are entitled on this
earth.” Global depression in the 1930s helped bring the Nazis to power. In 1932,
with 6 million Germans out of work, the Nazis won more votes than any other party,
and in 1933, just as Roosevelt took office, Hitler became the German prime minister.
Like Japan, Germany quit the League of Nations. Germany soon revealed its expansionist goals. In 1933 Hitler began to build up the German military, in violation of the Treaty of Versailles.
In 1936 he sent troops into the Rhineland, a demilitarized region in western Germany. The same year, Hitler and Mussolini signed an alliance,
the Rome-Berlin Axis Pact. In 1940 the alliance was extended to include Japan. The three nations—Germany, Italy, and Japan—became the Axis
Powers. The start of World War II was near. | 
