Total war engulfed the world powers once again during World War II, and the United States was certainly no exception in this regard. In western democracies, people were not nearly as ready for another 20th century bloodbath as were the people of the angry, disillusioned Axis powers. Thus, President Roosevelt’s first address to Congress in January 1942 shows him trying to rally the American people for what he warns will be another “all-out” war to counter the aggression of the Axis nations (you can read the speech by clicking here). Notice how he links “modern methods of warfare” with “working and producing” as well as “shooting and fighting” and calls for all-out economic mobilization, conceding that “it will mean the dislocation of the lives and occupations of millions.” How much diversion of national labor and income does he say the war will require? Pay attention to his final call for “total victory.” Do either the means he proposes for fighting the war or this end suggest concern with limiting the war?The poster above and song (you can see the sheet music and lyrics to the song by clicking here) dealing with Rosie the Riveter, represents one effect of this all-out effort: To compensate for the fifteen million people, mostly men, who were drafted into the armed forces, six million American women were drawn into war work. According to these materials, what were they asked to do? How might such work have affected conventional ideas about gender roles and women’s rights? Your thoughts…
5 comments:
Roosevelt's declaration of war states early that Japan is planning their attack on a peaceful sunday in the pacific, information they have obtained through their crack codes. Even though they have all this information they are still unable to prepare because they were prepared at the wrong port.. Rosie is an icon for the American woman who is now looked at to work in the assembly line and keep manufacturing war goods smoothly while the men are out fighting. The poster shows that women are now strong and useful.
Also, I keep forgetting to ask you when we are able to rewrite our essays?
Wow. Roosevelt realy raised the bar on the army materials needed. He wants citizens to be ready to work much more because "on the speed and efficiency of their work depend the lives of their sons and their brothers on the fighting fronts". It's like he's playing a guilt card.
Looking directly from the lyrics it seems like a lot of women worked right on the assembly line. They were also, like everyone, told to "keep a look out for sabatoge". I'm sure this brought on a boost in women's rights, or at least ppl fighting for it.
The increase in production he wants is astounding. It also reminds me of another program designed to dramatically increase the countries industrial output at the expense of the individual: the five year plan in Russia. I think it is really ironic that the U.S. pretty much did the exact same thing Russia did even though the communists are supposed to be the "bad" guys. All Rosie is is straight up propoganda to try to get people to work harder.
total war again. have we not learned our lesson the first time. since we had this decoding system and learned of the Japanese planning to attack the U.S. of course we expected it in the Phillipines because they were the closest US territory to Japan. We were still unprepared for the attack lying ahead. we were more prepared at the wrong place at the wrong time.
and for rosie, she represnted women can do a man's job. during wars women would work in factories, while the men were fighting in the war.
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