World War II
The Home Front
The “Arsenal of Democracy”
• “We must be the great arsenal of
democracy.” FDR, 1940
• US industrial production was a key to
winning the war.
Women & The War
• The War created new opportunities for
women to serve their country and to
disprove sexist stereotypes.
Rosie the Riveter
African-Americans and
World War II
• The War created new opportunities for
African-Americans to serve their country
and to disprove racist stereotypes.
• The war was used as an opportunity for
Civil Rights leaders to push for change.
• The war highlighted the ugliness of hate
and racism.
World War II & African-Americans
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Double V
CORE
A. Philip Randolph
Executive Order 8802
Rationing
• Rationing is the controlled distribution of
resources and scarce goods or services. It
restricts how much people are allowed to
buy or consume.
• Good that were rationed during World War
II include: gasoline, meat, butter, rubber,
steel, coffee, and sugar.
Fashion
• In the spring of 1942, the War Production Board
became the nation's premier clothing consultant
by dictating styles for civilian apparel that would
conserve cloth and metal for the war effort. For
example, menswear rid itself of vests, elbow
patches on jackets, and cuffs on pants.
Women's clothing also relied on fewer materials
and skirts became shorter and narrower. Twopiece bathing suits became patriotic.
Yes
No
Sports—The Pete Gray Example
Ted Williams Lifetime Stats
The Manhattan Project
• The Manhattan Project refers to the project to develop
the first nuclear weapons during World War II by the
United States, the United Kingdom and Canada under
the administration of General Leslie R. Groves, with its
scientific research directed by the American physicist J.
Robert Oppenheimer.
• The project succeeded in developing and detonating
three nuclear weapons in 1945: a test detonation on July
16 in New Mexico; an enriched uranium bomb codenamed "Little Boy" detonated on August 6 over
Hiroshima, Japan; and a plutonium bomb code-named
"Fat Man" on August 9 over Nagasaki, Japan.
Japanese Internment
• 110,000 Japanese were placed in "War
Relocation Centers"
• 62% were US citizens