Unit: World War II
Big Idea: The involvement of the United States in World War II, while opposed by many
Americans prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor, vaulted the United States into global political
and military prominence and transformed both American society and the relationship between
the United States and the rest of the world.
Unit Description: This unit concentrates on the history of World War II. Attempting to give the
war an ideological meaning and to convince the American public that it had to be prepared,
Roosevelt linked the war’s meaning with the freedoms that Americans had taken for granted for
years. The unit looks at FDR’s foreign policy in Latin America, the road leading up to the
European and Pacific wars, and America’s reluctance to intervene until Pearl Harbor. However,
not everyone was an isolationist. In The American Century Henry Luce advocated a more
influential leadership role for America. Next, the war on the home front is examined. Americans
mobilized quickly, and business and labor worked to make America an “arsenal of democracy”
while the Office of War Information promoted the Four Freedoms to the American public. The
intellectual debates about how the postwar world might define freedom are examined through
the writings of Luce, Henry Wallace, Friedrich Hayek, and FDR’s Economic Bill of Rights.
Ethnic minorities’ experiences during the war were varied. While Native and MexicanAmericans had some opportunities, Japanese-Americans were interned during the war, held as
criminals without evidence or due process. Blacks saw the war as an opportunity to win two
victories, one abroad and one at home. The modern civil rights movement gets its start with the
war, particularly through the work of A. Philip Randolph and through the support of the new
liberalism. The war ends with the dawn of the atomic age, which introduced a technology that
remains controversial to this day. Preparing for the postwar world, meetings at Bretton Woods
and Dunbarton Oaks laid the foundation for a new economic order and international political
structure.
Key Concept(s)
 Economic dislocations, social pressures and economic growth spurred by war led to a
great degree of migration within the United States, as well as migration to the United
States from elsewhere in the Western Hemisphere.
 Questions about America’s role in the world generated considerable debate, prompting
the development of a wide variety of views and arguments between interventionists and
isolationists.
 The mass mobilization of American society to supply troops for the war effort and a
workforce on the home front ended the Great Depression and provided opportunities for
women and minorities to improve their socioeconomic positions.
 Wartime experiences, such as the internment of Japanese Americans, challenges to civil
liberties and debates over race and segregation, and the decision to drop the atomic
bomb raised questions about American values.
 The United States and its allies achieved victory over the Axis powers through a
combination of factors, including allied political and military cooperation, industrial
production, technological and scientific advances and popular commitment to advancing
democratic ideals.
 The dominant American role in the Allied victory and postwar peace settlements,
combined with the war-ravaged condition of Asia and Europe, allowed the United States
to emerge from the war as the most powerful nation on earth.
Key Terms by Historical Theme:
(WOR): Good Neighbor policy, Pan-American conferences, Soviet Union recognized,
independence for Philippines, reciprocal trade agreements, Japanese invasion of Manchuria,
Stimson Doctrine, fascism, Italian Fascist party, Benito Mussolini, Ethiopia, German Nazi Party,
Adolf Hitler, Axis Powers, Spanish Civil War, Francisco Franco, Rhineland, Sudetenland,
Munich, appeasement, Poland; blitzkrieg, isolationism, Nye Committee, Neutrality Acts,
America First Committee, Charles Lindbergh, Quarantine speech, cash and carry, Selective
Training and Service Act (1940), destroyer-for-bases deal, FDR: third term, Wendell Willkie,
Four Freedoms speech, Lend-Lease (1941), Atlantic Charter, escort convoys, oil and steel
embargo, Pearl Harbor, Battle of the Atlantic, strategic bombing, Dwight Eisenhower, D-Day,
Holocaust, island hopping, Battle of Midway, Douglas MacArthur, kamikaze attacks, J. Robert
Oppenheimer, atomic bomb, Hiroshima; Nagasaki, Big Three, Casablanca Conference,
unconditional surrender, Tehran,; Yalta; Potsdam, United Nations
(WXT,POL)
War Production Board, Office of Price Administration, government spending, debt, role of large
corporations, research and development, Manhattan Project, Office of War Information
(POE, POL)
Wartime migration, civil rights; “Double V”, executive order on jobs, Smith v Allwright,
Braceros program, Japanese Interment, Korematsu v U.S., Rosie the Riveter, wartime
solidarity, election of 1944, Harry S Truman