1. Reinhardt, Claudia and Bill Ganzel. “Farming in the 1940s.” Wessels Living History Farm. 20 April 2006 http://www.livinghistoryfarm.org/farminginthe40s/farminginthe1940s.html.

• “The war finally brought an end to the Great Depression. People were willing pay more in taxes and buy war bonds to support the war effort. Federal spending helped factories. There was greater demand for farm products, and American farmers shouldered the load of feeding the world.
• Life at home became the "Home Front" where daily existence became part of the war effort. Basic commodities like sugar and gasoline were rationed to support the war. Military bases sprang up in rural areas.
• The war caused a revolution in productivity on the farm and finally brought an end to the horse-drawn era of farming. More and more farm workers left for the cities or the Army, and a tractor became the only way to get things done on the farm.
• The beginning of the war coincided with the end of the 1930s drought, but farmers remembered the dry years and more and more irrigation systems were built.
• Finally, the war effort produced new technologies that after the war revolutionized agriculture as well as urban and rural life. New technology created an explosion in productivity as farmers could do much more work in fewer and fewer hours.” S-1/5

2. Reinhardt, Claudia and Bill Ganzel. “Rural Life in the 1940s.” Wessels Living History Farm. 20 April 2006 http://www.livinghistoryfarm.org/farminginthe40s/life_01.html.

• S-Top
• "Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without." S-Top
• "If you don't need it, don't buy it." S-Top
• “American farm families sent more than 1.8 million young men and women into the armed forces. At a time when the nation faced an unprecedented demand for food, farmers faced a shortage of farm workers, gas, and new farm equipment and parts. Despite the shortage of labor, more production was expected. Each day, eight million soldiers had to be fed in the U.S. military alone, as well as millions of civilians in Great Britain and Russia.
• The war affected food at home. The government rationed supplies of staples such as sugar, coffee, meat, fish, butter, eggs and cheese. Homemakers were challenged to fix nutritious meals on a budget with restricted supplies. Planting a Victory Garden was seen as patriotic.
• The war affected what people wore. Women's stockings were hard to find because silk was used for parachutes. Women working in factories found that wearing slacks and overalls was much more comfortable and practical. When they wore skirts, wrap-around designs were popular because zippers and metal snaps were in short supply. Shoes were rationed, so most people wore long-lasting loafers.
• The war affected where many worked. Soon after Pearl Harbor, new plants to make bombs, tanks or other materiel were built in rural areas across the nation. Rural residents found new jobs off the farm. New military training bases were built far from the coasts where they might be less vulnerable to attack, sabotage or spying.
• The war, obviously, affected who lived and died, who married whom, and where people lived. Many men and women married quickly in the early years of the war. Other couples waited. Some soldiers got "Dear John" letters when the woman couldn't wait any longer. Many Nebraska families made the ultimate sacrifice when their sons, brothers, fathers and husbands were killed during World War II. Others found their loved ones had been forever changed by what they had endured.” S-1/2

3. Feldmeth, Greg. “The Home Front During World War II.” Polytechnic School. 20 April 2006 http://www.polytechnic.org/faculty/gfeldmeth/ww2home.html.

• “A. War Production Board halted non-essential building to conserve materials for war purposes.
• B. Rationing goods to consumers reached major levels as goods became scarce--gasoline, butter, rubber, shoes, sugar, and meat were rationed.
• C. Labor groups made no-strike pledges, but some wildcat strikes broke out, particularly among miners.
• Smith-Connally Anti-Strike Act (1943) made it a criminal offense to tie up industry
• Except for brief work stoppages, American workers chose not to strike (less than 1% of working time during the war was lost, a record better than England's).
• D. Farm income doubled, as in World War I. Victory gardens were replanted.
• E. Industries switched to war production very quickly. One ship was completed by Henry Kaiser's workers in five days.” S-1/3

4. Schultz, Stanley K. and William P. Tishler. “World War II: The Impact at Home.” 1999. Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System. 20 April 2006 http://us.history.wisc.edu/hist102/lectures/lecture21.html.

• “The wartime economy brought about full employment and, in doing so, achieved what New Deal programs had been unable to do. In 1940, there were  8 million Americans unemployed. By 1941, however, unemployment was almost unheard of. There were actually labor shortages in some industries. As a result, more and more women entered the workforce. Women took up jobs in industry that had once been reserved for men, and "Rosie the Riveter" became a popular American icon. By 1945, women made up 36% of the nation's total workforce.” S-1/4
• “The federal government encouraged Americans to conserve and recycle materials such as metal, paper, and rubber, which factories could then use for wartime production. Lots of everyday household trash had value: kitchen fats, old metal shovels, even empty metal lipstick tubes.” S-1/3
• “War Bonds provided a crucial source of revenue for the war effort. By sponsoring public stunts such as celebrity auctions, the federal government used War Bonds to sell the war to the American public instead of relying on American involvement in the war to sell bonds.” S-1/3
• “The federal government also compelled Americans to cut back on foodstuffs and consumer goods. Americans, for example, needed ration cards to purchase items such as gasoline, coffee, sugar, and meat. Rationing eventually frustrated many Americans. For the first time in years, they had money to spend, but there were few goods available for purchase. This frustration kept mounting until the end of the war. When the war finally came to a close in 1945, industries returned to consumer production and Americans went on a buying spree of unprecedented proportions.” S-1/2

5. Cantrall, Dan, Colene Voll, & Larry Landis. “Fighters on the Farm Front.” 1993. Oregon State Archives and Oregon State University Archives. 20 April 2006 http://arcweb.sos.state.or.us/osu/osuhomepage.html.

• “Between 1940 and 1943, the number of farm workers in the United States noticeably decreased because of armed forces manpower requirements and competition with higher paying jobs in the defense industries. At the same time, farmers were asked to increase production as part of the successful prosecution of World War II.” S-1/2 (Introduction)
• “Youth 11 to 17 years of age constituted one of the largest single groups in the Emergency Farm Labor Service work force. They were known as the Victory Farm Volunteers (VFV).
• Youth committees, consisting of growers and youth organization leaders, were formed to plan the youth program in a county. To prepare for the summer's farm work, youth were provided some training in their public schools during the spring. Additional training was provided in the early summer after they were organized into platoons of twenty to fifty youth. Each platoon was placed under the supervision of an adult, often a member of the Women's Land Army. Parental consent and a physical fitness check were required of all youth placed by the Emergency Farm Labor Service.
• Farmers would work with their county extension office's emergency farm labor assistant to get the necessary workers required. Youth also worked on a day-haul basis, and were normally limited to a six-hour work day. Occasionally, schools would close during harvest periods so that the youth could help with harvesting.
• During the program's four and a half years, over 270,000 youth placements were made on Oregon's farms and in its food processing facilities. Farm work had an added benefit -- the Extension Service's 1943 annual report stated that "the Victory Farm Volunteers' movement has been pointed to by juvenile officers as having a very direct and beneficial effect upon juvenile delinquency problems."” S-1/3 (Victory Farm Volunteers)

6. “World War II: The Homefront.” 1998. ThinkQuest Team. 20 April 2006 http://library.thinkquest.org/15511/museum/garden.htm.

• “A poster which was part of a heavy push to get people to make as much of there food as possible.” S-top
• “Another poster trying to increase home food production.” S-1/2
• “A poster aimed at increasing food production.” S-bottom

7. Carnes, Marc C. and John A. Garraty. The American Nation: A History of the United States. 11th ed. New York: Pearson Education, 2002.

• Troops had to be “fed, clothed, housed, and supplied with equipment ranging from typewriters and paper clips to rifles and grenades, tanks, and airplanes.”

 

Students Annotated Bibliographies Index Page