The USA in 1945

Question 1

What legacy did the second world war leave for the USA?

Answer 1

USA was the strongest country in the world

• had 42% of global income
• had 80% of world’s cars
• had 50% of manufacturing output
• strong sense of national unity

Question 2

What social divisions did the USA have after the war?

Answer 2

• war had led to an increase in social mobility: by 1944, 36% of the workforce was female
• however, when the war ended, 12 million soldiers returned expecting jobs, meaning that women who had been liberated by war work would face exclusion from the work force
• African Americans returned to find the Jim Crow Laws still in place and that the GI bill was not applied equally to them
• By 1946, only 1/5 of 100,000 black men who applied for the educational fund had successfully registered for college
• fear of communism growing, e.g. through trade unions