Articles from 1942
Click here food rationing at U.S. POW camps. Click here to learn more about the American W.W. II home front… KEY WORDS: consumerism in ww2 USA,economic consumption on the ww2 home front 1942,rationing of consumer goods 1942
Restraining The Consumer (American Magazine, 1942) Read More »
During the Second Word War all mail headed out of the country and all inbound mail from foreign locales fell under the discerning eyes of U.S. Post Office censors. The censors, all 15,000 of them, were under the command a U.S. Army cryptologist named Colonel W. Preston Corderman; click the title link above to learn more about him.
Click here to read about censoring the mail during W.W. I.
He Censored The Mail (American Magazine, 1942) Read More »
There were many varieties of posters to be found on the American home front of W.W. II – most depicting sweaty barrel-chested young men. Yet in the factories another type was prevalent, these were the ones that showed the non-heroic faces of the average American worker. Below these images would be found simple quotes declaring their unique patriotic reasons for laboring on the production lines. This article recalls who dreamed them up and how popular they were.
Posters For Encouragement (Newsweek Magazine, 1942) Read More »
Some six months prior to Pearl Harbor FDR signed Executive Order 8802 which made it illegal for defense contractors to discriminate based on race or religious faith. Eight months later the President’s Committee on Fair Employment Practices was convened in New York City to review the evidence at hand indicating that numerous defense contractors were failing to comply with the law.
Fair Employment Laws Enforced (PM Tabloid, 1942) Read More »
The war in the Pacific interrupted the flow of illegal narcotics to the United States. By the Spring of 1942 opioids were becoming scarcer and the prices were predicted to rise. Drug suppliers turned to an untested source closer to home: Latin America.
Click here to read aboutdrug addiction in the Twenties.
The Addict’s Plight (Newsweek Magazine, 1942) Read More »
This was an important article for its time. It seems hard to believe, but it took the Federal Government the full six months after Pearl Harbor to figure out how the home front would be governed and what would be rationed. This article heralds that new day and clarified how the war would affect their salaries, savings, education, shopping, clothing, taxes, leisure time, transportation and their general manner of living:
In 1944, a class of sixth graders wrote General Eisenhower and asked him how they can help in the war effort; click here to read his response…
Click here food rationing at U.S. POW camps.
The New Normal (United States News, 1942) Read More »
This article consists of assorted stories that illustrate the length some American men would go in order to stay out of the military during the Second World War. The article also tells of draft evasion during the First World War.
Click here to read a 1945 article about your average Massachusetts draft board.
The American Draft Dodgers (The American Magazine, 1942) Read More »
The Japanese now are permitted fuel for their homes for only two months of the year and the prices are so high that many homes are without heat the year around.
Shortages (PM Tabloid, 1942) Read More »
When it became clear to the employers on the American home front that there was going to be a shortage of men, their attention turned to a portion of the labor pool who had seldom been allowed to prove their mettle: they were called women. This article recalls those heady days at the U.S. Army’s Aberdeen Proving Ground when local women were trained to fire enormous artillery pieces in order that the Army weapons specialists understand the gun’s capabilities. This column primarily concerns the delight on all the men’s faces when it was discovered that women were able to perform their tasks just as well as the men.
Women Behind the Guns (Assorted Magazines, 1942) Read More »
