The War in American Culture
Society and Consciousness during World War II
9780226215129
9780226215105
The War in American Culture
Society and Consciousness during World War II
The War in American Culture explores the role of World War II in the transformation of American social, cultural, and political life.
World War II posed a crisis for American culture: to defeat the enemy, Americans had to unite across the class, racial and ethnic boundaries that had long divided them. Exploring government censorship of war photography, the revision of immigration laws, Hollywood moviemaking, swing music, and popular magazines, these essays reveal the creation of a new national identity that was pluralistic, but also controlled and sanitized. Concentrating on the home front and the impact of the war on the lives of ordinary Americans, the contributors give us a rich portrayal of family life, sexuality, cultural images, and working-class life in addition to detailed consideration of African Americans, Latinos, and women who lived through the unsettling and rapidly altered circumstances of wartime America.
World War II posed a crisis for American culture: to defeat the enemy, Americans had to unite across the class, racial and ethnic boundaries that had long divided them. Exploring government censorship of war photography, the revision of immigration laws, Hollywood moviemaking, swing music, and popular magazines, these essays reveal the creation of a new national identity that was pluralistic, but also controlled and sanitized. Concentrating on the home front and the impact of the war on the lives of ordinary Americans, the contributors give us a rich portrayal of family life, sexuality, cultural images, and working-class life in addition to detailed consideration of African Americans, Latinos, and women who lived through the unsettling and rapidly altered circumstances of wartime America.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Lewis A. Erenberg, Susan E. Hirsch.
1: No Time for Privacy: World War II and Chicago's Families
Perry R. Duis
2: Censoring Disorder: American Visual Imagery of World War II
George H. Roeder, Jr
3: Making the American Consensus: The Narrative of Conversion and Subversion in World War II Films
Lary May
4: The Working Class Goes to War
Gary Gerstle
5: Rosie the Riveter Gets Married
Elaine Tyler May
6: Swing Goes to War: Glenn Miller and the Popular Music of World War II
Lewis A. Erenberg
7: Race, Language, and War in Two Cultures: World War II in Asia
John W. Dower
8: The Changing Path to Citizenship: Ethnicity and Naturalization during World War II
Reed Ueda
9: Native Sons and the Good War: Retelling the Myth of American Indian Assimilation
Carol Miller
10: No Victory at the Workplace: Women and Minorities at Pullman during World War II
Susan E. Hirsch
11: Traditions from Home: African Americans in Wartime Richmond, California
Shirley Ann Wilson Moore
12: Zoot-Suiters and Cops: Chicano Youth and the Los Angeles Police Department during World War II
Edward J. Escobar
13: World War II and American Liberalism
Alan Brinkley
List of Contributors
Name Index
Title Index
Subject Index
Introduction
Lewis A. Erenberg, Susan E. Hirsch.
1: No Time for Privacy: World War II and Chicago's Families
Perry R. Duis
2: Censoring Disorder: American Visual Imagery of World War II
George H. Roeder, Jr
3: Making the American Consensus: The Narrative of Conversion and Subversion in World War II Films
Lary May
4: The Working Class Goes to War
Gary Gerstle
5: Rosie the Riveter Gets Married
Elaine Tyler May
6: Swing Goes to War: Glenn Miller and the Popular Music of World War II
Lewis A. Erenberg
7: Race, Language, and War in Two Cultures: World War II in Asia
John W. Dower
8: The Changing Path to Citizenship: Ethnicity and Naturalization during World War II
Reed Ueda
9: Native Sons and the Good War: Retelling the Myth of American Indian Assimilation
Carol Miller
10: No Victory at the Workplace: Women and Minorities at Pullman during World War II
Susan E. Hirsch
11: Traditions from Home: African Americans in Wartime Richmond, California
Shirley Ann Wilson Moore
12: Zoot-Suiters and Cops: Chicano Youth and the Los Angeles Police Department during World War II
Edward J. Escobar
13: World War II and American Liberalism
Alan Brinkley
List of Contributors
Name Index
Title Index
Subject Index