The American People in World War II: Freedom from Fear, Part Two (The Oxford History of the United States, V. 9)

On October 24, 1929, America Met The Greatest Economic Devastation It Had Ever Known. In This First Installment Of His Pulitzer Prize-winning Freedom From Fear, Kennedy Tells How America Endured, And Eventually Prevailed, In The Face Of That Unprecedented Calamity. Kennedy Vividly Demonstrates That The Economic Crisis Of The 1930s Was More Than A Reaction To The Excesses Of The 1920s. For More Than A Century Before The Crash, America's Unbridled Industrial Revolution Had Gyrated Through Repeated Boom And Bust Cycles, Consuming Capital And Inflicting Misery On City And Countryside Alike. Nor Was The Alleged Prosperity Of The 1920s As Uniformly Shared As Legend Portrays. Countless Americans Eked Out Threadbare Lives On The Margins Of National Life. Roosevelt's New Deal Wrenched Opportunity From The Trauma Of The 1930s And Created A Lasting Legacy Of Economic And Social Reform, But It Was Afflicted With Shortcomings And Contradictions As Well. With An Even Hand Kennedy Details The New Deal's Problems And Defeats, As Well As Its Achievements. He Also Sheds Fresh Light On Its Incandescent But Enigmatic Author, Franklin D. Roosevelt. Marshalling Unforgettable Narratives That Feature Prominent Leaders As Well As Lesser-known Citizens, The American People In The Great Depression Tells The Story Of A Resilient Nation Finding Courage In An Unrelenting Storm. Pt. 1. The American People In The Great Depression -- Pt. 2. The American People In World War Ii. David M. Kennedy. Originally Published As One Vol. In 1999. Includes Bibliographical References And Indexes. Between 1929 and 1945, two great travails were visited upon the American people: the Great Depression and World War II. Freedom from Fear tells the story of how Americans endured, and eventually prevailed, in the face of those unprecedented calamities. David M. Kennedy demonstrates that the economic crisis of the 1930s was more than a reaction to the excesses of the 1920s. For more than a century before the Crash, America's unbridled industrial revolution had gyrated through repeated boom and bust cycles, consuming capital and inflicting misery on city and countryside alike. Nor was the alleged prosperity of the 1920s as uniformly shared as legend portrays. Countless Americans eked out threadbare lives on the margins of national life. Roosevelt's New Deal wrenched opportunity from the trauma of the 1930s and created a lasting legacy of economic and social reform, but it was afflicted with shortcomings and contradictions as well. Kennedy details the New Deal's problems and defeats, as well as its achievements. Yet, even as the New Deal was coping with the Depression, a new menace was developing abroad. Exploiting Germany's own economic burdens, Hitler reached out the disaffected, turning their aimless discontent into loyal support for the Nazi Party. In Asia, Japan harbored imperial ambitions of its own. The same generation of Americans who battled the Depression eventually had to shoulder arms in another conflict that wreaked worldwide destruction, ushered in the nuclear age, and forever changed their way of life and their country's relationship to the rest of the world. In the second installment of the chronicle, the author explains how the nation agonized over its role in the conflict, how it fought the war, and why the U.S. emerged victorious, and why the consequences of victory were sometimes sweet, sometimes ironic. David M. Kennedy analyses the determinants of American strategy, the painful choices faced by commanders and statesmen, and the agonies inflicted on the millions of ordinary Americans who were compelled to swallow their fears and face battle as best they could. - Publisher. Between 1929 and 1945, two great travails were visited upon the American people: the Great Depression and World War II. In a single volume the author tells how America endured, and eventually prevailed, in the face of those unprecedented calamities. He demonstrates that the economic crisis of the 1930s was more than a reaction to the excesses of the 1920s. For more than a century before the Crash, America's unbridled industrial revolution had gyrated through repeated boom and bust cycles, consuming capital and inflicting misery on city and countryside alike. Nor was the alleged prosperity of the 1920s as uniformly shared as legend portrays. Countless Americans eked out threadbare lives on the margins of national life. Roosevelt's New Deal wrenched opportunity from the trauma of the 1930s and created a lasting legacy of economic and social reform, but it was afflicted with shortcomings and contradictions as well. The author details the New Deal's problems and defeats, as well as its achievements. Yet, even as the New Deal was coping with the Depression, a new menace was developing abroad. Exploiting Germany's own economic burdens, Hitler reached out the disaffected, turning their aimless discontent into loyal support for the Nazi Party. In Asia, Japan harbored imperial ambitions of its own. The same generation of Americans who battled the Depression eventually had to shoulder arms in another conflict that wreaked worldwide destruction, ushered in the nuclear age, and forever changed their way of life and their country's relationship to the rest of the world. In the second installment of the chronicle, the author explains how the nation agonized over its role in the conflict, how it fought the war, and why the U.S. emerged victorious, and why the consequences of victory were sometimes sweet, sometimes ironic. The author analyses the determinants of American strategy, the painful choices faced by commanders and statesmen, and the agonies inflicted on the millions of ordinary Americans who were compelled to swallow their fears and face battle as best they could On October 24, 1929, America met the greatest economic devastation it had ever known. In the first installment of his two-part chronicle the author tells how America endured, and eventually prevailed, in the face of that unprecedented calamity, the Great Depression. He demonstrates that the economic crisis of the 1930s was more than a reaction to the excesses of the 1920s. For more than a century before the Crash, America's unbridled industrial revolution had gyrated through repeated boom and bust cycles, consuming capital and inflicting misery on city and countryside alike. Nor was the alleged prosperity of the 1920s as uniformly shared as legend portrays. Countless Americans eked out threadbare lives on the margins of national life. Roosevelt's New Deal wrenched opportunity from the trauma of the 1930s and created a lasting legacy of economic and social reform, but it was afflicted with shortcomings and contradictions as well. Even as the New Deal was coping with the Depression, a new menace was developing abroad. Exploiting Germany's own economic burdens, Hitler reached out the disaffected, turning their aimless discontent into loyal support for the Nazi Party. In Asia, Japan harbored imperial ambitions of its own. The same generation of Americans who battled the Depression eventually had to shoulder arms in another conflict that wreaked worldwide destruction, ushered in the nuclear age, and forever changed their way of life and their country's relationship to the rest of the world. In the second installment of the chronicle, the author explains how the nation agonized over its role in the conflict, how it fought the war, and why the U.S. emerged victorious, and why the consequences of victory were sometimes sweet, sometimes ironic. The author analyes the determinants of American stategy, the painful choices faced by commanders and statesmen, and the agonies inflicted on the milllions of ordinary Americans who were compelled to swallow their fears and face battle as best they could On October 24, 1929, America met the greatest economic devastation it had ever known. In this first installment of his Pulitzer Prize-winning Freedom from Fear, David M. Kennedy tells how America endured, and eventually prevailed, in the face of that unprecedented calamity. Kennedy vividly demonstates that the economic crisis of the 1930s was more than a reaction to the excesses of the 1920s. For more than a century before the Crash, America's unbridled industrial revolution had gyrated through repeated boom and bust cycles, consuming capital and inflicting misery on city and countryside alike. Nor was the alleged prosperity of the 1920s asuniformly shared as legend portrays. Countless Americans eked out threadbare lives on the margins of national life. Roosevelt's New Deal wrenched opportunity from the trauma of the 1930s and created a lasting legacy of economic and social reform, but it was afflected with shortcomings and contradictions as well, With an even hand Kennedy details the New Deals' problems and defeats, as well as its achievements. He also sheds fresh light on its incandescent but enigmatic authors, Franklin D. Roosevelt. Marshalling unforgettable narratives that feature prominent leaders as well as lesser-known citizens. The American People in the Great Depression tells the story of a resilient nation finding courage in an unrelenting storm Even as the New Deal was coping with the Depression, a new menace was developing abroad. Exploiting Germany's own economic burdens, Hitler reached out to the disaffected, turning their aimless discontent into loyal support for his Nazi Party. In Asia, Japan harbored imperial ambitions of its own. The same generation of Americans who battled the Depression eventually had to shoulder arms in another conflict that wreaked worldwide destruction, ushered in the nuclear age, and forever changed their way of life and their country's relationship to the rest of the world. The American People in World War II --the second installment of Kennedy's Pulitzer Prize-winning Freedom from Fear --explains how the nation agonized over its role in the conflict, how it fought the war, why the United States emerged victorious, and why the consequences of victory were sometimes sweet, sometimes ironic. In a compelling narrative, Kennedy analyzes the determinants of American strategy, the painful choices faced by commanders and statesmen, and the agonies inflicted on the millions of ordinary Americans who were compelled to swallow their fears and face battle as best they could. The American People in World War II is a gripping narrative and an invaluable analysis of the trials and victories through which modern America was formed. Contents Maps Preface Acknowledgments Editor's Introduction Abbreviated Titles Used in Citations 1. The Agony of Neutrality 2. To the Brink 3. War in the Pacific 4. Unready Ally, Uneasy Alliance 5. The War of Machines 6. The Struggle for a Second Front 7. The Battle for Northwest Europe 8. The Cauldron of the Home Front 9. Endgame Epilogue: The World the War Made Bibliographical Essay Index A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y Z Illustrations While German dive-bombers screamed over Warsaw and German tanks crunched through the stubble of the freshly harvested grain fields in Polish Silesia, the world briefly and vainly held its breath, hoping against all reason that the war that had come at last might somehow not really have come at all. Like an earthquake, the stock market crash of October 1929 cracked startlingly across the United States, the herald of a crisis that was to shake the American way of life to its foundations.