War and Peace, 1941–1945War and Peace: 1941–1945 27

CONTENTS

■Ed Reep’s Anzio Harbor Under Bombardmentwas sketched out as American

troops invaded Sicily in 1942. Initially, Reep was too frightened to work on the

frontlines, but eventually he painted while under fire.

713

clicked along without personal loss or even higher fed-

eral taxes.” “Marines are at war,” one general com-

plained, “America is at the mall.”

Such remarks underscored how different the current

conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan are from World War II, a

monstrous global war among advanced industrial

nations. Of every five American males between the ages

of twenty and twenty-five, four served in World War II. At

the beginning of World War II, 4 million Americans paid

income tax; by its end, 43 million did so. Over 85 million

Americans—half the nation’s population—spent $185 bil-

lion to buy war bonds. Food and gasoline were rationed.

World War II required the mobilization of the entire

nation. Even painters such as Ed Reep (see the accompa-

nying artwork) and 100 other artists were conscripted

into the war effort. Their job was to paint the war as

experienced by the citizen-soldiers who fought it.

World War II transformed society, too. In the absence

of so many young men, women assumed new roles and

worked at different types of jobs. African Americans,

Hispanics, American Indians, and other minorities found

new opportunities even as they encountered persistent dis-

crimination. Americans of Japanese extraction were relo-

cated against their will to isolated camps. Technological

change—culminating in the atom bomb—transformed

everyone’s lives. It was a war unlike any other. ■

■The Road to Pearl Harbor

■Mobilizing the Home Front

■The War Economy

■War and Social Change

■Minorities in Time of War:

Blacks, Hispanics, and Indians

■The Treatment of German and

Italian Americans

■Internment of Japanese

Americans

■Women’s Contributions to the

War Effort

■Allied Strategy: Europe First

■Germany Overwhelmed

■The Naval War in the Pacific

■Island Hopping

■Building the Atom Bomb

■Wartime Diplomacy

■Allied Suspicion of Stalin

■Yalta and Potsdam

■Re-Viewing the Past:

Saving Private Ryan

■Debating the Past:

Should A-Bombs Have Been

Dropped on Japan?

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