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FACTS about this decade.
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The 1940's were
dominated by World War II. European artists and intellectuals fled
to the United States from Hitler and the Holocaust, bringing new ideas created in
disillusionment. War production pulled us out of the Great Depression.
Women were needed to replace men who had gone off to war, and so the
first great exodus of women from the home to the workplace began.
Rationing affected the food we ate, the clothes we wore, the toys with
which children played.
After the war, the
men returned, having seen the rest of the world. No longer was the
family farm an ideal; no longer would blacks accept lesser status. The
GI Bill allowed more men than ever before to get a college education.
Women had to give up their jobs to the returning men, but they had
tasted independence.
The purpose of this web / library guide is to help the user gain a broad understanding and appreciation for the culture and history of the 1940-1949 period in American history. In a very small way, this is a bibliographic essay. To see the whole picture, we encourage users to browse all the way through this page (and the other decades as they come online) and then visit the suggested links for more information on the decade. As you can see, the best way to immerse oneself in a topic is to use both Internet and the library. Some information is best viewed or read in books. This is where the real depth of information can be found. Then there is information that will be found only on the Internet. If you can add a valuable site or information to this page, we invite you to write. Thanks for the visit. ENJOY!
Art & Architecture | Books & Literature | Fashion | Fads | Historic Events | Music & Radio | Sports | Television
| Theater & Film
The
forties are pretty well defined by World War II. US isolationism was
shattered by the Japanese
bombing of Pearl Harbor. As President Franklin D.
Roosevelt guided the country on the homefront, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower
commanded the troops in Europe. Gen. Douglas MacArthur
and Adm. Chester
Nimitz led them in the Pacific. The successful use of an antibiotic, penicillin,
by 1941 revolutionized medicine. Developed first to help the military
personnel survive war wounds, it also helped increase survival rates
for surgery. The first eye bank
was established at New York Hospital in 1944. Unemployment almost
disappeared, as most men were drafted and sent off to war. 
The government reclassified 55% of their jobs, allowing women and blacks to
fill them. First, single women were actively recruited to the
workforce. In 1943, with virtually all the single women employed,
married women were allowed to work. Japanese immigrants and their
descendants, suspected of loyalty to their homelands, were sent to internment camps.
There were scrap drives for
steel, tin, paper and rubber. These were a source of supplies and
gave people a means of supporting the war effort. Automobile
production ceased in 1942, and rationing
of food supplies began in 1943. Victory gardens
were re-instituted and supplied 40% of the vegetables consumed on the
home front. In April, 1945, FDR died,
and President Harry
Truman celebrated V-E Day
on May 8, 1945. Japan surrendered only after two atomic bombs were
dropped on Hiroshima
and Nagasaki.
The United States emerged from World War II as a world superpower,
challenged only by the USSR. While the USSR subjugated the defeated
countries, the US implemented the Marshall Plan,
helping war-torn countries to rebuild and rejoin the world economy.
Disputes over ideology and control led to the Cold
War. Communism
was treated as a contagious disease, and anyone who had contact with it
was under suspicion. Alger
Hiss, a former hero of the New Deal, was indicted as a traitor and
the House
Un-American Activities Committee began its infamous hearings.
Returning GI's created the baby boom, which is still
having repercussions on American society today. Although there were
rumors, it was only after the war ended that Americans learned the
extent of the Holocaust.
Realization of the power of prejudice helped lead to Civil Rights
reforms over the next three decades. 
The Servicemen's
Readjustment Act, commonly known as the GI Bill of Rights,
entitled returning soldiers to a college education. In 1949, three
times as many college degrees were conferred as in 1940. College
became available to the capable rather than the privileged few.
Television made its debut at the 1939 World Fair, but the war interrupted further development. In 1947, commercial television with 13 stations became available to the public. Computers were developed during the early forties. The digital computer, named ENIAC, weighing 30 tons and standing two stories high, was completed in 1945.
As Adolf Hitler systematically eliminated artists whose ideals didn't agree with his own, many emigrated to the United States, where they had a profound effect on American artists. The center of the western art world shifted from Paris to New York. To show the raw emotions, art became more abstract. Abstract Expressionism, also known as the New York School, was chaotic and shocking in an attempt to maintain humanity in the face of insanity. Jackson Pollock was the leading force in abstract expressionism, but many others were also influential, including Willem de Kooning, Mark Rothko, Ad Reinhardt, Robert Motherwell, Lee Krasner, Franz Kline, Piet Mondrian, Arshile Gorky, Adolf Gottlieb, and Hans Hofmann. Andrew Wyeth, the most popular of American artists, didn't fit in any movement. His most popular work, Christina's World, was painted in 1948. Sculpture, too, became abstract and primitive, utilizing motion in Alexander Calder's mobiles, and modern materials such as steel and "found objects" rather than the traditional marble and bronze.
In architecture, nonessentials were eliminated, and simplicity became the key element. In some cases, such as Ludwig Mies van der Rohe's famous glass house, even practicality was ignored. Modern glass-and-steel office buildings began to rise after the war ended. Pietro Belluschi designed the prototype Equitable Savings and Loan building, a "skyscraper" of twelve stories. Eliel Saarinen utilized contemporary design, particularly in churches. The dream home remained a Cape Cod. After the war, suburbs, typified by Levittown, with their tract homes and uniformity, sprang up to house returning GI's and their new families. The average home was a one level Ranch House, a collection of previously unaffordable appliances surrounded by minimal living space. The family lawn became the crowning glory and symbol of pride in ownership.
Like
art, music reflected American enthusiasm tempered with European
disillusionment. While the European émigrés
George
Szell, Bela
Bartok, Arnold
Schoenberg, Paul Hindemith,
Kurt Weill, and Nadia Boulanger introduced classical dissonance,
American born composers remained more traditional, with Aaron Copland's
Rodeo (1942) and Appalachian
Spring (1944). William
Schuman wrote his symphonies #3(1941) through #7(1949).
At the beginning of the decade, Big Bands dominated popular music. Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey, Duke Ellington and Benny Goodman led some of the more famous bands. Eventually, many of the singers with the Big Bands struck out on their own. Bing Crosby's smooth voice made him one of the most popular singers, vying with Frank Sinatra. Dinah Shore, Kate Smith and Perry Como also led the hit parade. Be-Bop and Rhythm and Blues, grew out of the big band era toward the end of the decade. Although these were distinctly black sounds, epitomized by Charlie Parker, Dizzie Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, Billy Holiday, and Ella Fitzgerald, Woody Herman also performed blues and jazz.
Radio was the lifeline for Americans in the 1940's, providing news, music and entertainment, much like television today. Programming included soap operas, quiz shows, children's hours, mystery stories, fine drama, and sports. Kate Smith and Arthur Godfrey were popular radio hosts. The government relied heavily on radio for propaganda. Like the movies, radio faded in popularity as television became prominent. Many of the most popular radio shows continued on in television, including Red Skelton, Abbott and Costello, Jack Benny, Bob Hope, and Truth or Consequences.
American Popular Music
1900-1950 | A look at the music and the times.
Lyrics Database
| 61,000 song lyrics. Search by keyword.
Music in the Public Domain
| Includes song lists - with links to some lyrics.
History of Radio | Arranged chronologically.
American Pop Culture | Songs, fads and inventions from the first half of the century.
The decade opened with the appearance of the first inexpensive paperback. Book clubs proliferated, and book sales went from one million to over twelve million volumes a year. Many important literary works were conceived during, or based on, this time period, but published later. Thus, it took a while for the horror of war and the atrocities of prejudice to come forth. Shirley Jackson wrote The Lottery to demonstrate how perfectly normal, otherwise nice people, could allow something like the Holocaust. In The Human Comedy, William Saroyan tackles questions of prejudice against the setting of World War II. Richard Wright completed Native Son in 1940 and Black Boy in 1945, earning acclaim, but government persecution over his communist affiliation sent him to Paris in 1945. Nonfiction writing proliferated, giving first-hand accounts of the war. The first edition of Dr. Benjamin Spock's Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care is considered by some to have changed child rearing.
World War II as Seen through Children's Literature | Overview and bibliography of books written during or about the war.
Books That Define the Time
|
Newbery
Award Winners - Began in 1922 (award for
the most distinguished child's book of the previous year)
1940: Daniel Boone by James Daugherty
1941: Call It Courage by
Armstrong Sperry
1942: The Matchlock Gun by
Walter Edmonds
1943: Adam of the Road by
Elizabeth Janet Gray
1944: Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes
1945: Rabbit Hill by Robert Lawson
1946: Strawberry Girl by Lois Lenski
1947: Miss Hickory by Carolyn Sherwin
Bailey
1948: The Twenty-One Balloons by William
Pène du Bois
1949: King of the Wind by Marguerite
Henry
Caldecott
Award Winners -
Began in 1938 (award
for the most distinguished child's picture book of the previous year)
1940: Abraham Lincoln
by Ingri & Edgar Parin d'Aulaire
1941: They Were Strong and Good,
by Robert Lawson
1942: Make Way for Ducklings
by Robert McCloskey
1943: The Little House by
Virginia Lee Burton
1944: Many Moons,
illustrated by Louis Slobodkin; text: James Thurber
1945: Prayer for a
Child, illustrated by Elizabeth Orton Jones; text: Rachel
Field
1946: The Rooster
Crows by Maude & Miska Petersham
1947: The Little
Island, illustrated by Leonard Weisgard; text: Golden MacDonald,
pseud. [Margaret Wise Brown]
1948: White Snow,
Bright Snow, illustrated by Roger Duvoisin; text: Alvin Tresselt
1949: The Big Snow by Berta
& Elmer Hader
In
popular dancing, the Jitterbug made
its appearance at the beginning of the decade. It was the first dance
in two
centuries
that allowed individual expression. GI's took the dance overseas when
they to war, dancing with local girls, barmaids, or even each other if
necessary. Rosie the Riveter
was the symbol of the working woman, as the men went off to war and the
women were needed to work in the factories. GIs, however, preferred
another symbol, the pin-up girl, such as Rita Hayworth or Betty Grable. Pictures
were mounted on lockers and inside helmets to remind the men what they
were fighting for. Wherever American soldiers went, even the first to
arrive would find a picture of eyes and a nose, with the message, Kilroy was Here. After they
returned, Kilroy began to mark his place on the walls and rocks of
public places. More than one pregnant woman came into the delivery room
with "Kilroy was here" painted on her belly.
Working
mothers, combined with another new phenomenon, the refrigerator, led to
the invention of frozen
dinners. With the advent of television later in the decade, they
became known as TV Dinners. Tupperware
and aluminum foil
eased the postwar housewives' burden, and diners, originally
horse drawn carriages with a couple of barstools, became a stationary,
respectable staple of the postwar culture. The Slinky was invented by a
ship inspector in 1945. Teenagers became a recognized force in the
forties. With the men off to war, teenagers - boys and girls - found
employment readily available, and so had money to spend. Seventeen
magazine was established in 1944. Advertisement began to be aimed at
teens. With fathers away and mothers at work, another new phenomenon
arose - the juvenile
delinquent.
Department restricted the amount of fabric that could be
used in men's garments. The same restrictions led to the popularity of
the women's convertible
suit, a jacket, short skirt, and blouse. The jacket could be shed
for more formal attire at night. Silk stockings were unavailable, so,
to give the illusion with stockings with their prominent seam, women
would draw a line up the backs of their legs with an eyeliner. At work,
as "Rosie
the Riveter" took on a man's work, slacks became acceptable attire.
When the war and it's restrictions ended, Christian Dior introduced the New Look, feminine dresses with long, full skirts, and tight waists. Comfortable, low-heeled shoes were forsaken for high heels. Hair was curled high on the head in front, and worn to the shoulders in the back, and make-up was socially acceptable. Glamorous Rita Hayworth made the sweater look popular. It took time to put the New Look together, time the women now had as the men returned to their jobs in the factories and offices.
The
forties were
the heyday for movies. The Office of War declared movies an
essential industry for morale and propaganda. Most plots had a fairly
narrow and predictable set of morals, and if Germans or Japanese were
included, they were one-dimensional villains. Examples are Casablanca,
Mrs.
Miniver, Lifeboat,
Notorious, Best
Years of our Lives, Wake Island,
Battle
of Midway, Guadalcanal
Diary, and Destination Tokyo. Citizen Kane,
not fitting the template, was one of the masterpieces of the time.
Leading actors were Gary Cooper,
Humphrey Bogart, Katharine
Hepburn, Cary
Grant, Bette
Davis, Marlene Dietrich, Joan
Crawford, Judy Garland,
Ginger Rogers, Jimmy Stewart, Marlon Brando,
Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth
Taylor, Lana
Turner. Walt
Disney's career began to take off, with animated cartoons such as Fantasia
(1940), Dumbo
(1941), and Bambi
(1942). During the war years, the studio produced cartoons
for the government, such as Donald
gets Drafted (1942), Out
of the Frying Pan into the Firing Line (1942) and Der
Fuehrer's Face (1943).
The Emergency Committee of the Entertainment Industry, composed of both black and white actors, fought for better roles for blacks. Lena Horne, Hattie McDaniel, and Cab Calloway, among others, made small inroads. The boom years of movies faded with the advent of television in 1948.
Kukla, Fran & Ollie kicked off children's television as Junior Jamboree in 1947,
followed by the Howdy Doody
Show.
The sitcom
made its appearance in January, 1949, with The
Goldbergs.
Before 1941 when two-platoon football was
allowed, all eleven players on a football team played the entire
game. Only injury was an excuse for substitution. That
changed in 1941, when free subs were allowed, enabling weakened college
teams to continue playing. Because of travel
restrictions, the 1942
Army Navy game was played in Annapolis, and half the midshipmen
were assigned to cheer for West Point. Sixty years later, Bill
Williams, a Navy midshipman (Class of 1945), remembered that game. "We yelled the cheers and sang the songs
but I don't remember being very energetic. Also when Navy scored, we forgot whose side we were supposed to be on. We won fourteen to nothing." The penalty
flag, first used in 1941, became official in 1948. Elaborate playbooks
were introduced by Paul Brown,
turning football into a game of strategy. Some of the northern college football
teams began to integrate blacks. Organization of American Historians - Baseball and World War II
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1999 [Lone Star College-Kingwood Library]
Design by: Peggy Whitley. Written by: Sue Goodwin Updated: 07/09 sg
Twentieth
Century
Decades
Lone Star College - Kingwood