American Cultural History 1940 – 1949

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.

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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.

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HISTORIC EVENTS

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.

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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.

WEB SITES

• American History 1860 to the present   |  Lone Star College – Kingwood Library history page for this period.
• World War II   |  Historical text archive.
• Women and the Home Front during World War II | Rosie the Riveter, WASPS, WAVES and nurses.
• Historical Atlas of the 20th Century   |  Collection of maps and stats of the 20th century.
• Biography Index   |  Biographies of over 25,000 famous persons, from the History Channel.
• Genealogy Guide   |  Helpful in locating past people, places and events.
• The 1940’s | Film, fashion, radio and music, with video clips.

BOOKS

REF E169.12 .A419   American Decades 1940-1949

Business, government, education, arts, science and sports .

REF E178.5.A48  Album of American History  Vol V and VI

This is a great book to give the reader the real flavor of the decade because it is made up of photographs, captions, and brief entries.

REF E174.D62  Dictionary of American History

From very brief to multi-page signed entries on topics in American history. Also available through NetLibrary.

 REF E740.7 .E53  Encyclopedia of the United States in the Twentieth Century

Articles evaluating the trends in American politics, people, economics, culture.

REF E169.1 A471872  America in the 20th Century 

1940-1949 is covered in volume 5.  Information is readable and concise, covering the War, the homefront, labor and the arts. 

REF E173.A793 The Annals of America

Use volume 16.  Set contains essays and excepts from important writers and on important topics of the time.  Most valuable for this research.

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ART & ARCHITECTURE

 

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.

WEB SITES

• Skyscrapers  |   A look at some of the skyscrapers in New York City.  While not necessarily designed in the 1940’s, they are a result of the 1940’s innovations. Twentieth Century Art Links    |    Worldwide
• Great Buildings Online | Important architecture of the 1940s. Descriptions included.
• Library of Congress. American Memories | Interiors and exteriors of American homes, stores, offices, factories and historic buildings; photographs taken from 1935-1955

BOOKS

NA712 .L 20th Century American Archicture

Photographs and descriptions of the key buildings of the era.

REF NA6512 .A578 American Artists

Brief entries and representational pictures of the artists’ work.

ND213.5 .R4 W36 American Realist Painting 1945-1980

Post-war trends

REF N6490 .O94 Oxford Companion to Twentieth-Century Art

Medium length entries on the major artists of the century, worldwide.

REF NA680 .E495 Encyclopedia of 20th Century Architecture

People, places and trends, worldwide.

 

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MUSIC & RADIO

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.

WEB SITES

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.

BOOKS

REF ML200.H15 A Chronicle of American Music 1700-1995

Arranged by year, historical highlights, world cultural highlights, American art and literature, music – commercial and cultural. 

REF ML197.S634 Music Since 1900 

Arranged by day, includes important premiers and musical events.

REF ML128.S37L4 The Great Song Thesaurus

Arranged by year, summary of world and musical events, list of important songs.

REF ML390.S983 Show Tunes 1905-1985

Features important composers.  Lists their shows and the published music for each show.

REF ML102 .M88 H593 Oxford Companion to the American Musical.

Brief entries on the best known shows and entertainers

REF ML200 .C36 Cambridge History of American Music

Several volumes.

REF ML128 .P63 T95 Hit Songs 1900-1955

Interesting background about popular tunes.

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BOOKS & LITERATURE

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 Norman Mailer’s The Naked and the Dead Irwin Shaw’s Young Lions John Hershey’s A Bell for Adano William Saroyan’s The Human Comedy Richard Wright’s Black Boy Dr. Spock’s Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care

 

Books About Books

REF PN50 .L574  Literature and its Times

Examines literature in light of the events and prejudices of the day.  Vol. 4 covers works about,  but not necessarily written during, the forties.

REF PS21 M34   Magills Survery of American Literature

Gives author background and a synopsis of significant works, including those listed as “defining the time.”

REF PS221 .T835 Twentieth Century American Literature 

An 8 volume set with long essays and criticism of twentieth century works.

REF PS350 .A53 American Playwrights since 1945

Gives an overview of each playwright’s life and works, including criticism.

Children’s Book Award winners of the forties:

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 

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FADS

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.

BOOKS

REF E169.1.P19   Panati’s Parade of Fads, Follies and Manias 

Arranged by decade, includes fads, dance crazes, radio, TV, popular books and songs.

E 69.1.R7755 Mass Culture: The Popular Arts in America 

Important essays analyzing mass culture in American history. 

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  FASHION

  The Zoot Suit was the height of fashion among daring young men until the War Production 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.

WEB SITES

• Solemates: Century in Shoes | Shoe styles and other fashion trends of the 1940’s.  Includes film clips.
• Vintage Blues – History of Fashion 1940-1950
• The Costume Gallery – Women’s Fashions 1940’s

BOOKS

GT615 .H86  The Way We Were: Styles of the 1930’s and 1940’s

Clothing of the decade worn on screen by actress Marsha Hunt.  Hairstyles and hats are also featured.

GT605 .W5  Five Centuries of American Costume

Chapter 9 discusses the dress of men and women from 1940-1949.  Illustrations included.

GT605 .H35 Common Threads: A Parade of American Clothing

Includes an overview of the 20th century,  then chapters on contributors to changes in fashion. It has photographs of people at work, in college, and at play.

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THEATER and FILM

The theater, too, turned to abstractionism. Thornton Wilder’s The Skin of our Teeth (1942) was bizarre and difficult to understand but won the Pulitzer Prize. Tennessee Williams wrote of self-disillusionment and futility in the Glass Menagerie (1945) and Streetcar named Desire (1947). In contrast Musical Theater was reborn, with Agnes de Mille’s technique of dancing in character in Oklahoma (1943). Carousel (1945), and Annie get your Gun (1946).

 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.

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TELEVISION

At the end of the war, only 5,000 television sets, with five inch black & white screens, were in American homes. By 1951, 17 million had been sold. The Original Amateur Hour, a revival of a popular radio show, was the first top-rated show in 1948 . Milton Berle’s slapstick comedy, Texaco Star Theater, was credited with creating the demand for televisions. Its greatest rival was Ed Sullivan’s Toast of the Town.

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.

WEB SITES

• Broadway 101 – History of theater on Broadway, by decade
• E-Online movies and stars
• Starbuzz: Guide to Stars Online
• Television History – The First 75 Years
• Movie Timeline – Search for “current events” in the movies by date
  

BOOKS

REF PN2189.L65 Twentieth Century Theatre 

A theater buff’s bible.  This book lists and describes by year premiers, productions, revivals, events, births/death/debuts in both America and Great Britain.

REF PN1992.18 .E53 Encyclopedia of Television

Photographs and information about the stars and the shows.

REF PN1993.5 .U6 H55 History of the American Cinema: Boom and Bust.

Stars and trends. Volume 6 covers the forties.

REF ML390.S983 Show Tunes: 1905-1985

Limited because it only covers only Richard Rodgers and Irving Berlin  from this era.  Worth a look for these two – because it lists plays, performances, theater information, and published songs.

 

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