March+Journals

World War Two: The War to End All Wars, //The American Journey,// Chapters 26-27, and //The Conquerors//, Journal Entries:

=**Charzeta Richardson, Hueytown Middle School**=

No Ordinary Times – Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II Doris Kearns Goodwin

I was happy to finally read a book from a woman’s perspective of great figures in history. No Ordinary Time is a wonderfully well written biography which tells the story of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt. Goodwin manages to tell the story of the war through the Roosevelt’s and their circle of White House family members. She even takes the time to touch on the broader historical themes of the times. In a lot of ways the relationship between FDR and his complex but compassionate wife makes a perfect lens through which to view the times. Goodwin takes a really interesting approach on what is essentially the biography of a couple. Writing a biography of a couple is fairly unique starting point, but Goodwin does not stop there. She gets more creative, by using the era of World War II to breathe life into her subjects. Goodwin clearly admires her subjects and does an excellent job of keeping a balanced perspective about their character traits and their actions. The genesis of the American Civil Rights movement and the feminist movement are interesting to witness and seem to owe a great deal to Eleanor based on my reading of the book. In conclusion, I came away from this book understanding that even massive historical figures are human beings with failings that go along with their strengths. Franklin and Eleanor were quite different, but this book also shows that they depended on each other. I would suggest book if you love history or a great story, because it is both. It is hard to believe that these events happened only 60 years ago. It appeared to be a whole different world.

=**Jerme Kirk, Hillview Elementary School**=

No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt The Home Front in World War II By: Doris Kearns Goodwin

The story of America's role in WWII has been recorded in countless books and to date continues even today to inspire hundreds of writers. However, less has been said about how that same war profoundly changed America. The re-creating a new social order and revolutionizing nearly every facet of life. In this book, Doris Kearns Goodwin brilliantly recounts how the United States in 1940, an isolationist country divided along class lines and suffering the ravages of a depression, became unified under the leadership of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt to become the preeminent power in the world. Goodwin's biography of the Roosevelt and his extraordinary coterie of friends, family, and advisers tells the story of a determined man who understood that the war could not be won without the cooperation of the American people. The biography, also describes an equally determined woman who felt that war was not worth winning if things did not change radically on the home front. Presenting an aspect of American history that has never been fully told, Doris Kearns Goodwin writes a brilliant narrative account of how the United States of 1940, an isolationist country divided along class lines, still suffering the ravages of a decade-long depression and woefully unprepared for war, was unified by a common threat and by the extraordinary leadership of Franklin Roosevelt to become, only five years later, the preeminent economic and military power in the world. At the center of the country's transformation was the complex partnership of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt. Franklin's main objective from the war's onset was victory and he knew the war could not be won without focusing the energies of the American people and expanding his base of support - making his peace with conservative leaders and gaining the cooperation of big business. According to Goodwin: Eleanor, meanwhile, felt the war would not be worth winning if the old order of things at home prevailed and was often at odds with her husband in her efforts to preserve the gains of the New Deal and achieve reforms in civil rights, housing, and welfare programs. While Franklin manned the war room at the White House and held meetings with Winston Churchill, Joseph Stalin, Mackenzie King, and other world leaders to discuss strategy for the war abroad, Eleanor crisscrossed the country, visiting the American people, seeing how the war and policies her husband made in Washington affected them as individuals. Using diaries, interviews, and White House records of the president's and first lady's comings and goings, Goodwin paints a detailed, intimate portrait not only of the daily conduct of the presidency during wartime but of the Roosevelt’s themselves and their extraordinary constellation of friends.

Sabrina Porrill February 9th, 2008 Summary of Chapters 25-26 //__The American Journey__//

“Chapter 25: The Great Depression and the New Deal 1929-1939” examines how the United States fell suddenly into the Great Depression and slowly had to fight their way out. The stock market crash of 1929 did not start the depression, but it did mark its entrance. Many factors led to the Depression including oligopolies dominating industries, controlling prices, overproduction, and not giving employees purchasing power. Agricultural overproduction and falling prices, big banks controlling the economy, high tariffs, and even government policies led by Hoover helped bring about the world wide depression. Hoovervilles sprung up all over America. Women and minorities suffered greatly and were shut out from jobs. Hoover had hoped that private volunteer groups could aid needy Americans, but the needs were simply too immense. With the election of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932, the people spoke loudly that the government needed to take a more active role in the recovery process. Roosevelt quickly enacted the New Deal to aid Americans. He created jobs with the PWA, helped farmers through the AAA, and set up dozens of government agencies, including Social Security, to fight the Depression. He was easily reelected in 1936. Labor unions finally got the government support they so desperately needed to increase worker rights, safety, and purchasing power. The South and West seemed to get the most benefit from New Deal programs, but were also among the hardest hit. When Roosevelt started challenging the Supreme Court’s overruling of his programs, he tried to “pack the courts”. This led to a backlash by Congress and the public and his New Deal support waned. But now Roosevelt had other, more pressing problems facing him from across the oceans with the spread of fascism in Asia and Europe. “Chapter 26: World War II 1939-1945” looks at our involvement in the Second World War. America desperately wanted to remain neutral and uninvolved after what happened in World War I. But after the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, we could no longer afford to stay out any longer. With the U.S. now in the war, the Allies had a chance to defeat the Axis nations because of our troop strength and huge mobilization efforts made by our industries. We fought in two theaters, Europe and the Pacific, and on many fronts including North Africa, Northern France, and islands throughout the Pacific. The huge mobilization gave Americans jobs, money, and finally a way out of the Great Depression. With victory first in Europe with the defeat of Hitler, and then with Japan with the use of the atomic bomb, soldiers headed home to begin life fresh and anew from war or economic depression.

April Lufkin Miller, Ed. D. Teaching American History Grant Jefferson County February 8, 2008

// The American Journey // Chapter 25: The Great Depression & The New Deal //The American Journey’s// treatment of the years 1932 – 1939 is adequate, but it seems to leave out so many of the stories that I am accustomed to passing along to my students. It does personalize the era with accounts of hardship (as seen in letters in the opening) or with specifics of aid amounts given out in NYC, however there is precious little written about Eleanor Roosevelt (ER from our reading this month) or the dust bowl. So, for this installment, I think that I will share just a bit about the Dust Bowl that I think the students enjoy learning (and which I’ve gathered from books and a two-week seminar on America Between the Wars). Students have heard of the Dust Bowl, but they do not get a real feeling for the climate change from the text. There is only a map showing the area affected – and while it is an enormous territory, it is difficult to grasp its dustiness. When you explain that there were varying types of dust storms and that the dust could be fine gray mist or dark brown or red clumps it comes more alive. Showing pictures of a storm which looks like it’s a mile high and wider than the camera can capture helps provide more scope than a map. And then the little stories of families having to sleep with dampened cloths over their noses and mouths to try and keep some of the dust out, or talking of plates that have had their patterns worn away from the dust that comes in the house – that brings home the struggle more vividly. I will be happy to share more if anyone’s interested, but this one page limit has brought me to an end today.

April Lufkin Miller, Ed. D. Teaching American History Grant Jefferson County February 8, 2008 // The American Journey // Chapter 26: World War II

I hate to sound like I do not like The American Journey. In many respects it provides excellent coverage, however in condensing a World War to just under 25 pages, there are certain nuances that are lost. Obviously, Japanese-Americans suffered uprooting and discrimination after December 7, 1941. //The American Pageant// does a fine job conveying the humiliation and dislocation that was heaped upon the Isei and the Nisei soon after the beginning of the war. They were summarily rounded up and condensed their homes and lives into 2 suitcases a piece and relocated under armed guard behind barbed wire. This was a terrible excuse for racist competitors to take over businesses and homes. The fear of future attacks could probably be found somewhere within the internment camp rationale, but it becomes harder to make that argument convincingly when it becomes known that Hawaii’s governor refused to implement the internment camps (Japanese-Americans comprised something like one-third of Hawaii’s workforce). And while Congress did approve payments to survivors in 1988, it specifically refrained from making an apology for the forced internment. The camps provide an important story for our students who often think that such things couldn’t happen here, or even for those students who think that all of “those people” (whoever that is this year) should just be rounded up and put somewhere. There are things that happen in our history of which we’re not proud, that’s one reason to study history – to ensure that those things don’t happen again, otherwise known as learning.

Robert M. Adams Textbook Review, Chapter 25 The Great Depression and the New Deal The time period in American history between World War I and World War II fundamentally altered the role of the United States in world affairs and drastically changed the domestic landscape of the country as well. The United States emerged from World War I with arguably the strongest economy, its infrastructure in tact, and the ability to dictate policy. The post-war jubilation led to an economic boom within America and a decade of  euphoria and decadence referred to as the Roaring Twenties or the Jazz Age. However, the end of the decade would lead to a benchmark moment in American History, 29 October 1929, also known as Black Tuesday. The crash of the stock market of 1929 dramatically thrust the American population into the reality of the Great Depression. The stock markets crash not only affected the United States, but it would negatively impacted the world economy as well. The Great Depression was not an isolated American event, but rather a worldwide catastrophe. Domestically, the U.S. had to deal with staggering unemployment rates and soup kitchens, homelessness, and shantytowns known sarcastically as “Hoovervilles” became a common site. President Herbert Hoover’s philosophy regarding the government’s role in alleviating the nation’s economic problems was to encourage the private sector to aid and assist the population, the federal government would play a limited role. In the 1932 Presidential Election, it was apparent that Hoover’s philosophy was not going to be accepted by the American populate, and they elected Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Roosevelt entered office with loft goals of utilizing the Federal Government to stimulate the economy and assist the American people during The Depression. During Roosevelt’s first three months in office, referred to as the Hundred Days, he introduced a series of programs known as the New Deal. Roosevelt’s New Deal programs were unprecedented attempts at aiding almost every aspect of American society. After declaring a bank holiday in an attempt to regulate banks, Roosevelt introduced legislation to help farmers, establish jobs for workers which would in turn benefit American infrastructure, created legislation that stabilized and regulated the banking industry, formed relief agencies to assist almost every aspect of the population, and utilized “fireside chats” on the radio which attempted to ease the fears and develop morale among Americans. As history would determine, the unprecedented legislation would indeed set the country on the road to financial recovery, but even so, it was initially not without controversy and debate and arguably, there were segments of the American population that did not receive proportional and sufficient aid. Domestically, Roosevelt’s New Deal Policies established the groundwork upon which the economic recovery of the country depended, but would eventually be phased out by Republicans and Southern conservatives in Congress. Internationally, a majority of Americans desired to maintain an isolationist role in world affairs; however, Roosevelt had to address growing problems in Europe. Roosevelt continued to respect the Good Neighbor Policy for all countries in the Western Hemisphere, but economic instability led to the rise of dictatorships, including Fulgencio Batista (later replaced by Fidel Castro) in Cuba. Across the Atlantic Ocean, economic volatility led to the rise of Fascist governments in, Spain (Franco), Italy (Mussolini), and most aggressively Hitler in Germany. In the late 1930s Hitler began his quest to take back lands he believed to be German, France and Britain adopted a policy of “appeasement” hoping that each acquisition would be Hitler’s last. As these events transpired in Europe, the US adopted a policy of neutrality, yet allowed American businesses to operate on a “cash and carry basis”. As Hitler continued re-acquiring land throughout Europe, began persecuting groups in his country, and violating basic agreements such as the Munich agreement, it was evident to Roosevelt that the American policy of isolationism would be futile. Hitler’s actions in Europe, especially his invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939, combined with Japanese aggressions in Asia would eventually lead the United States to once again rethink its isolationist policies. Robert M. Adams Textbook Review Ch 26 World War Two The outbreak of World War II placed the United States in a unique quandary. Due to its juxtaposition, it had the luxury of adopting an isolationist position at the genesis of the conflict, but as hostilities intensified, once again the US found itself debating its policy of neutrality. As the textbook points out, President Roosevelt’s biggest dilemma was how to lead the country toward rearmament and support for Great Britain and China without alarming a reluctant public. It also points out that the origins of World War II can be traced directly to the aftereffects of World War I.   The Treaty of Versailles created numerous small, indefensible countries in Eastern Europe, vulnerable to aggression from an aggressive Germany and Soviet Union. In addition, Italy and Japan believed they were being treated as second-rate countries by the rest of the world. The emergence of totalitarian governments in Germany, the Soviet Union, Japan, and Italy is not a coincidence. Japan’s desire to control and influence the Pacific realm, Italy’s aggression into Northern Africa, and Germany’s reoccupation of many parts of Eastern Europe would lead to common goals and the development of the Tripartite Pact, also known as the Axis Powers. As Hitler employed his blitzkrieg tactics to occupy strategic locations in Eastern Europe, occupy northern France, and turned to attack the Soviet Union in 1941, only after failing to surmount Great Britain, the US had to re-evaluate its isolationist stance. Although the US officially adopted a neutrality stance in the early 1940s, they continued to “aid” the British through the auspices of the controversial “lend-lease program” and even fought an undeclared war against the British in the North Atlantic. Even as early as August 1941, Churchill and Roosevelt had agreed to the Atlantic Charter stating the defeat of Germany would be the “priority”. The irony of all these agreements and negotiations was they occurred long before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, 7 December 1941, a date which will, “live in infamy”. The attack would lead to a congressional declaration of war on Japan and on 11 December 1941 Germany and Italy declared war on the United States. The US would find itself fighting a two front war, one in the Pacific Ocean (Japan) and one in the Atlantic Ocean (Europe and North Africa), but the priority remained in the Atlantic theater. While the US fought along side British troops in Europe, they would fight a majority of the battles in the Pacific theater by utilizing their naval strength in an island-hopping campaign against Japanese possessions. From a domestic and economic standpoint, World War II was a windfall for America. Wartime production would finally bring the United States out of the decade-long economic depression it had been experiencing. As men went off to battle, capable women took their place in the workforce. In addition, African Americans realized advances in employment and economic opportunities as well. While advances were made, African-Americans did not achieve equality and interment of Japanese Americans symbolized the ongoing struggle for equality and civil rights for minorities. The tide of war turned in 1943 as the United States was able to fully mobilize and commit troops and supplies to the European theater. Operation TORCH developed a foothold in the North African continent. In June 1944, Operation OVERLORD commenced with the D-Day landings in Normandy, France and the Allied push toward Berlin was underway, eventually culminating with the occupation of the German capitol in April 1945. Nazi Germany’s official surrender occurred on 8 May 1945. It was not until after the German capitulation that the extend of the Nazi’s extermination of the Jewish population, referred to as the Holocaust, was fully realized. Able to turn its attention to the Pacific Theater, American forces continued their island-hopping campaign which would make until then, unknown islands like Midway, Iwo Jima, Marshal, Wake, and Okinawa infamous. The Pacific Theater would also be the location of one of the most controversial decisions of the entire war: President Harry S Truman’s decision to utilize the new Atomic Bomb to force unconditional Japanese surrender. This decision achieve surrender, but launches the world into the nuclear age, resulting in the Cold War, arms races, and spheres of influence led by the west (U.S. and England) and the Soviet Union.