The Darkest Year: The American Home Front, 1941 - 1942 by William K. Klingaman
The Darkest Year: The American Home Front, 1941 - 1942 by William K. Klingaman
For Americans on the home front, the twelve months following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor comprised the darkest year of World War II. Despite government attempts to disguise the magnitude of American losses, it was clear that the nation had suffered a nearly unbroken string of military setbacks in the Pacific; by the autumn of 1942, government officials were openly acknowledging the possibility that the United States might lose the war.
Appeals for unity and declarations of support for the war effort in the aftermath of Pearl Harbor made it appear as though the class hostilities and partisan animosities that had beset the United States for decades -- and grown sharper during the Depression -- had suddenly disappeared. They had not, and a deeply divided American society splintered further during 1942 as numerous interest groups sought to turn the wartime emergency to their own advantage.
A series of disturbing blunders by the Roosevelt administration -- at a time when the government was exercising unprecedented powers over its citizens -- added to the sense of anxiety and uncertainty that hung over the nation. The Darkest Year is a study of the nation under the pressure of total war, focusing on Americans' state of mind as revealed not only in what they said but in the day-to-day details of their behavior. William Klingaman blends these psychological effects with the changes that the first year of the war wrought in American society and culture, including upheavals and shifts in family roles, race relations, economic pursuits, popular entertainment, education, and the arts. His first-rate research has unearthed myriad primary sources that include stories of hoarding, fake news, prejudice, rumormongering, and xenophobia that will sound familiar to today's readers.
St. Martin's Press, Hardcover, 1st Edition, 2019
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