Warfare State by Sparrow, James T.;

World War II Americans and the Age of Big Government

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Product details:

Publisher OUP USA
Date of Publication 8 September 2011

ISBN 9780199791019
Binding Hardback
No. of pages344 pages
Size 155x236x27 mm
Weight 522 g
Language English
Illustrations 20 halftones

Short description:

Warfare State shows how the federal government, in the course of World War II, vastly expanded its influence over American society. Equally important, it looks at how and why Americans adapted to this expansion of authority. Through mass participation in military service, war work, rationing, income taxation and ownership of the national debt in the form of war bonds, ordinary Americans learned to live with the warfare state.

Long description:

Although common wisdom and much scholarship assume that "big government" gained its foothold in the United States under the auspices of the New Deal during the Great Depression, in fact it was World War II that accomplished this feat. Indeed, as the federal government mobilized for war it grew tenfold, quickly dwarfing the New Deal's welfare programs.
Warfare State shows how the federal government, in the course of World War II, vastly expanded its influence over American society. Equally important, it looks at how and why Americans adapted to this expansion of authority. Through mass participation in military service, war work, rationing, price control, income taxation and ownership of the national debt in the form of war bonds, ordinary Americans learned to live with the warfare state. They accepted these new obligations because the government encouraged all citizens to think of themselves as personally connected to the battle front, and to imagine the impact of their every action on the combat soldier. By working for the American Soldier, they habituated themselves to the authority of the government. Citizens made their own counter-claims on the state--particularly in the case of industrial workers, women, African Americans, and most of all, the soldiers. Their demands for fuller citizenship offer important insights into the relationship between citizen morale, the uses of patriotism, and the legitimacy of the state in wartime.
World War II forged a new bond between citizens, nation, and government. Warfare State tells the story of this dramatic transformation in American life.

But what he [Professor Sparrow] has accomplished, and it is no small thing, is to show how the Roosevelt administration induced people to buy bonds, pay extremely high taxes, and otherwise support the war effort with a minimum of coercion and a maximum of coaxing. This is an interesting and important story and one that he tells well

Introduction: War and the Popular Foundations of the State
Part I. Ideology, Political Culture, and State Formation
Chapter 1. War Displaces Its Analog
Chapter 2. Morale and the National Moment
Chapter 3. Scapegoating the State
Part II. Encountering the State in Everyday Life
Chapter 4. Buying Our Boys Back
Chapter 5. Work or Fight
Chapter 6. Citizen-Soldiers
Conclusion: The Paradox of Rights in the Warfare State
Appendix
Notes
Index