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CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
America in a World at War
Chapter Summary
The United States entered World War II unified in spirit to defeating the Axis powers, but militarily unprepared to
accomplish this goal. A corporate-government partnership solved most of the production and manpower problems
in rapid order. Concerns of balanced federal budgets were suddenly irrelevant and public spending soared. As a
result, not only was a refurbished American army able to make a creditable contribution to the fighting as early as
1942, but the surging American output of war materials finally spelled an end to the generation-long Great
Depression. As would be expected, a world at war brought great changes to American society. The war brought
the return of wages and consumerism to many. Plenty of jobs allowed labor unions to quickly grow. The status
and activities of women and minorities were deeply affected. There were shifts toward equality and there were
blatant abuses of civil rights. Overall, however, there was the unifying effort for victory. The Roosevelt
administration made a critical decision early on that the defeat of Germany took precedence over the defeat of
Japan. But much to the dismay of the Soviet Union, locked in a desperate battle against the Nazis on the eastern
front, an Allied invasion of Europe was put off in favor of campaigns in Africa and then Italy. The Soviet’s
bitterness would haunt the United States in the post-war. Gradually, the Soviets won the offensive in the east. The
United States and Britain, aided immensely by a series of stunning technological achievements in intelligence
gathering and enhanced strategic capabilities, turned the tide on the western front. The final key to victory was the
Allied invasion of France on June 6, 1944. Less than a year after the D-Day invasion, Hitler was dead and the war
in Europe was over. While somewhat less a focus, the war in the Pacific turned in favor of the United States even
more rapidly but at a very high cost. Seven months after Pearl Harbor American forces had stopped the Japanese
advance and, in the Battle of Midway, had sunk the Japanese carrier fleet. After this, the American strategy for
victory involved leaps from island to island that drew progressively closer to mainland Japan. These battles saw
determined US forces meet ferocious Japanese resistance. The casualties were staggering. Meanwhile, American
planes pulverized Japanese cities with conventional bombs and the devastating firebombing of Tokyo in
anticipation of an eventual invasion of the islands. Those forces were being readied when the new atomic bombs
obliterated large sections of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Atomic weapons brought an end to World War II but also
began a new and troubled chapter in world history.
Objectives
A thorough study of Chapter 28 should enable the student to understand:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
The American military strategy and contributions to Allied victory in the Pacific.
The American military strategy and contributions to Allied victory in North Africa and Europe.
The key areas and uses of new technology developed by the Allies and the role it played in the war effort.
The efforts of the federal government to mobilize the nation’s economy for war production.
The effects of American participation in the war on the Great Depression and on New Deal reforms.
An assessment of the changes that American participation in the war brought for women, as well as for racial
minorities.
7. The moral vs. strategic arguments regarding the United States’ decisions toward Japanese Americans,
European Jews, and the nation of Japan during World War II.
8. The effects of World War II on American society both during and after the war.
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Main Themes
1. That the vast productive capacity and technological superiority of the United States was the key to the defeat
of the Axis.
2. That the war had a profound effect on the American home front.
3. How three major western offensives combined with an ongoing Russian effort to defeat Germany.
4. How sea power contained the Japanese, and how Allied forces moved toward an invasion of Japan until the
atomic bomb ended the war in the Pacific.
Points for Discussion
1. How did World War II increase the role of government in American society and in the nation’s economy?
Why did entry into World War II quickly end the Great Depression when years of New Deal programs could
not do so?
2. Identify and explain the overall Allied strategy and the key battles that shifted the momentum of the war in
the direction of the Allies in both the Pacific and in Europe in 1942 and 1943.
3. Why was the United States so unified during this war? What were the differences between World Wars I and
II on this issue? Why did these differences exist? What challenges to conformity and tradition arose during
each war? What forces worked to retain traditional values and practices during World War II?
4. What was the response of the American government to the information it received in 1942 on the Holocaust?
Why did it act as it did? What other options were open? Why were they not taken? What actions should have
been taken? Why?
5. Discuss the political, social, and economic advances and/or setbacks suffered by American laborers, women,
and minorities during World War II.
6. Describe the military action in Europe from mid-1943 to 1945 that resulted in an Allied victory. What
differences were there among the Americans, British, and Soviets on matters of wartime strategy and
political/military goals?
7. Discuss the key technological developments by the Allies in intelligence. In sea warfare. In air warfare. Pick
the one single technological advance that you believe made the greatest difference in bringing an Allied
victory.
8. Describe the military action in the Pacific from mid-1943 to 1945 that resulted in an Allied victory. Was the
“Europe first” strategy a good one in retrospect?
9. Why did President Truman decide to drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki? What other options did
he have? Explain the controversy surrounding this decision at the time—and later. Is it really a debate
between morality and strategy? Why has the firebombing of Dresden, Germany and Tokyo not drawn the
same attention as the atomic bombings?
10. What caused ongoing tension between the United States and the Soviet Union during World War II? How
important was the eastern front to the outcome of the war in Europe? Why did the United States not provide a
second front in Europe earlier than D-Day? What were the consequences of that decision? Were the origins of
the Cold War buried in the wartime tensions between the two countries?
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Map Exercises
1. Note the farthest extent of Japanese expansion (August 1942).
2. Trace the American “island hopping” offensive against the Japanese, and identify the major battles.
3. On European and North African maps, identify the countries during World War II, and the major cities in
each. Also locate the Suez Canal, Sicily, the English Channel, Normandy, and Vichy, France.
4. Note the farthest extent of Axis conquest.
5. Trace the Allied advance against the Axis in North Africa, Italy, and the western and eastern fronts. Identify
the major battles.
Interpretative Questions Based on Maps and Text
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
What were the two broad offensives planned to turn the Japanese tide? How successful were they?
Why did Winston Churchill desire a North African offensive? Why did Roosevelt agree?
How did developments on the Russian front impact Anglo-American decisions in the Mediterranean region?
To what extent did the Sicilian and Italian campaigns succeed in their objectives? Why do some military
historians regard the invasion of Italy and the taking of Rome as a strategic mistake?
Where did the war in Europe begin? What areas did Germany attack after the so-called phony war?
What challenges were posed by the cross-Channel invasion and how did the Allies prepare for them? How
successful was the invasion when it finally came?
Why was the submarine so crucial to the German war effort? How did the Allies overcome the threat?
Why was the Soviet Union so concerned about the Anglo-American decision to launch North African and
Italian campaigns before an invasion across the English Channel?
What were the Soviets doing while the Anglo-American forces were liberating Paris and driving toward the
heart of Germany? Why was the taking of Berlin so controversial?
Essay Questions
These questions are based on the preceding map exercises. They are designed to test students’ knowledge of the
geography of the area discussed in this chapter and of its historical development. Careful reading of the text will
help students answer these questions.
1. Why did the United States decide to concentrate on Germany first in the two-front war? Was this a wise
decision? Why was it not entirely a popular one?
2. Describe the relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union that emerged during the 1930s and
World War II. What seeds for future discord were planted despite the concerted effort against Germany and
later Japan?
3. What geopolitical forces drew the United States into World War II? How did the American attitude toward
the world change as a result of the war?
4. Compare the Allied European advance in World War II with that in World War I (see Chapter 23 of the text).
Why did France and Russia suffer the most in both wars?
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Bibliography
Gar Alperovitz, The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb and the Architecture of an American Myth (1995)
Stephen Ambrose, D-Day: June 6, 1944 (1994)
Karen Anderson, Wartime Women: Sex Roles, Family Relations, and the Status of Women During World War II
(1981)
John Morton Blum, V Was for Victory: Politics and American Culture During World War II (1976)
Alan Brinkley, The End of Reform: New Deal Liberalism in Recession and War (1995)
Roger Daniels, Prisoners Without Trial: Japanese Americans in World War II (1993)
John W. Dower, War Without Mercy: Race and Power in the Pacific War (1986)
Lewis A. Erenberg and Susan E. Hirsch, The War in American Culture: Society and Consciousness During World
War II (1996)
Doris Kearns Goodwin, No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II
(1994)
Susan Hartmann, The Homefront and Beyond: American Women in the 1940s (1982)
John Hersey, Hiroshima (1946)
Margaret Hoyle, A World in Flames (1970)
Geoffry Perret, There’s a War to Be Won: The United States Army in World War II (1991)
Richard Steele, Propaganda in an Open Society (1985)
David S. Wyman, The Abandonment of the Jews: America and the Holocaust, 1941–1945 (1984)
Neil Wynn, The Afro-American and the Second World War (1976)
For Internet resources, practice questions, references to additional books and films, and more, see this book’s
Online Learning Center at www.mhhe.com/unfinishednation4
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General Discussion Questions for Chapters 24–28
These questions are designed to help students bring together ideas from several chapters and see how the chapters
relate to one another. Some will also help students explore how changes in the landscape and in geopolitical
conditions are significant to the understanding of American history.
1. Were the 1920s a real return to normalcy, or was the decade a forward-looking period of modernism? What
on-going forces of change since the late nineteenth century helped spur a conservative reaction within the
country during this period?
2. Did the causes of the Great Depression lie in the economy of the 1920s, or did they lie more in the
fundamental nature of American capitalist-industrialist society as it had developed since the Civil War? In
other words, were there actions that could have been taken by either business or government in the late
nineteenth century which could have prevented the Great Depression?
3. To what extent can the origins of World War II be traced to the nature of the World War I peace? Why was
the United States so hesitant about entering both World Wars?
4. To what extent did the Great Depression and World War II combine to increase the role of government in
American society and the nation’s economy? What were the benefits and the costs of this increased role?
5. How had the status of working class and middle class women changed between 1920 and 1945?
6. What were the dominant forces of social and cultural conformity that operated on the American people from
1920 to 1945? What challenges to conformism and tradition arose? Why did traditional values and practices
prevail for the most part?
7. What mechanical, technological, and scientific developments of the 1920s were applied to waging war in the
1940s?
8. What changes in the geographic patterns of American politics occurred from 1920 through the 1930s? To
what extent were these changes the product of demographics and to what extent were they the result of the
policies of Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal?
9. What caused the Dust Bowl? How was the environmental problem intertwined with economic changes and
troubles?
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