Unlock document.
This document is partially blurred.
Unlock all pages and 1 million more documents.
Get Access
CHAPTER 26
The Second World War, 1933–1945
This chapter covers American foreign policy between the wars, the challenges Germany and Japan posed
to international relations, the tensions between American isolationism and internationalism, and the
origins and early years of the wars in Europe and Asia. It then examines the emergence and then decline
of American neutrality, American aid to Britain in its war against Germany, and the Japanese policies in
China and wider East Asia that led to the attack on Pearl Harbor. It explores the critical battles of the war,
CHAPTER OUTLINE
I. The Rise of Fascism in Europe
A. Italy and Germany
B. The Expanding Axis
II. From Isolationism to Intervention
A. U.S. Neutrality
B. The Axis Alliance
C. Anschluss
D. The Munich Pact (1938)
E. The Conquest of Poland
F. Revising the Neutrality Act
G. War in Europe
H. Preparing America for War
I. The Manhattan Project
J. The Battle of Britain
R. The Storm in the Pacific
i. The Tripartite Pact
ii. The Attack on Pearl Harbor
III. Arsenal of Democracy
A. Military Production
B. Financing the War
C. Economic Controls
D. The Disruptive Effects of World War
i. Women in the War
ii. African-Americans During the War
iii. Racial Tension in the Military
IV. The Allied Drive Toward Berlin
A. War Aims and Strategy
i. The North Africa Campaign
ii. The Casablanca Conference
iii. The Battle of the Atlantic
iv. Sicily and Italy
v. The Tehran Conference
vi. The Strategic Bombing of Europe
vii. Planning an invasion
viii. D-Day and After
ix. The Normandy Landings
x. The Liberation of Paris
xv. Death of a President
xvi. The Collapse of Nazism
xvii. The Holocaust
V. The Pacific War
A. The Philippines
B. Coral Sea and Midway
C. MacArthur’s Pacific Strategy
D. Battles in the Central Pacific
E. A War to the Death
F. The Atomic Bomb
VI. A New Age is Born
A. Why did the Allies Win?
B. A Transformational War
LECTURE IDEAS
1. A lecture on Franklin D. Roosevelt’s foreign policy is the best way to introduce his diplomatic efforts. See
2. A lecture detailing America’s attempts at neutrality in the 1930s, focusing on the initiatives of
Congress and President Roosevelt’s polices, will give the students an opportunity to see how the
3. The election of 1940 saw America elect, for the first time, an individual for a third term. A lecture on
the significance of this election allows you to explore the constitutional arguments about term limits.
4. A good general overview of World War II will give your students the necessary background to
(2000)
• Gordon Wright’s The Ordeal of Total War: 1939–1945 (1968)
5. Alongside the military and economic dimensions of World War II, the relationship among the “Big
Three” (Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin) and the diplomacy their respective nations pursued during
(1992)
• Warren Kimball’s The Juggler: Franklin Roosevelt as Wartime Statesman (1991)
6. Mobilization of the American home front is an important story of U.S. involvement in World War II.
The transformation of the economy, the mobilization of women in the workforce, the rationing of and
price controls on scarce goods, and propaganda are among the issues that pervaded the home front
during World War II. A lecture on the American home front during World War II can provide your
7. World War II had a tremendous impact on American race relations. An examination of this impact can
allow you to address much larger issues of race and ethnicity that have long been part of American
history. A lecture that highlights particular examples from the World War II period can help students
8. One of the most significant moments of the war came at its end: the dropping of the atomic bombs on
Japan. While saving American lives is still the most well-known rationale for the decision to drop the
bombs, historians have since identified a variety of additional factors that influenced Truman and
2004). For a discussion of the end of the Pacific war that goes beyond a close focus on the atomic
bombs, see Thomas Zeiler’s Unconditional Defeat: Japan, America, and the End of World War II (2004).
See also:
• Richard Rhodes’s The Making of the Atomic Bomb (1986)
IN-CLASS ACTIVITIES
1. Break your class up into several groups and have each detail the major causes that led to the outbreak
2. Historian Michael Barnhart described the attack on Pearl Harbor as the culmination of events leading
Japan and the United States to commit to a conflict “neither nation desired, but one that neither could
avoid.” Divide the class into two groups to consider this point. One group should look at the events
leading up to Pearl Harbor from the American perspective, and the other from the Japanese
perspective. Each group should determine whether Barnhart’s statement holds true for the nation
they are researching. At what points did policymakers face choices that might have altered the
trajectory toward war? Were the alternative choices realistic options? Useful sources include:
(1990)
3. Who were the Tuskegee Airmen, and what were their achievements during the war? Ask your
4. It is often said that finding peace can be harder than waging the war itself. What is certain is that in
1945, the Allies did not want to see a repeat of what followed World War I. Divide students into
groups and ask them to detail the various efforts of the Allies in determining the shape of the postwar
world. What conferences were held, and what were their major outcomes? What other steps toward
peace were taken? Have them consider both America and the Soviet Union’s underlying motivations
behind enforcing their unique spheres of influence. How has this helped shape global relationships
throughout the rest of the twentieth century? For some background, see S. M. Plokhy’s Yalta: The
5. Some accounts view the United States as the outright liberators of the Jews in the wake of the
Holocaust. Others, however, recognize the United States as an unwitting accomplice in failing to
confront the atrocities of the Holocaust, despite its increasing awareness of them. Ask your students
to research the knowledge the United States government had regarding the existence of concentration
camps. When did the Allies become aware of the extent of the Holocaust and Hitler’s determination to
eradicate the Jews? Could anything have been done earlier to prevent the genocide? See Barry
Trachtenberg’s The United States and the Nazi Holocaust (2018).
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
2. Analyze the debate in the United States over what role the country should play as the world conflict
grew in the early stages of World War II. How did the United States help the Allied (British) war effort
before it formally entered the war?
3. Discuss the attack on Pearl Harbor and the impact it had on sharpening American public opinion
4. Consider America’s war efforts on the home front. Discuss manpower, the role of minorities, gender
roles, and financing U.S. participation in World War II.
5. What was the D-Day landing? Why was it so important? Consider this question from the viewpoint of the
5. Discuss Truman’s decision to drop atomic bombs on Japan. What were the arguments for and against
such action? What eventually led him to his decision?
6. Why did the Allies win the war? What are the short-term and long-term factors that help explain their
victory?
PRACTICING CITIZENSHIP
This chapter emphasizes the road toward American entry into the Second World War, with a particular
focus on the role of public opinion on foreign policy. At times, public opinion restricted policymakers’
flexibility in responding to the challenges abroad; at other times, policymakers such as Franklin Roosevelt
sought to move public opinion to support the policies deemed essential to American interests. To see how
public opinion and foreign policy intersect, contact the office of your local congressional representative or
senator. Find out what he or she believes are the most pressing foreign policy issues of the day and what
you disagree with your representative, you might consider ways to influence how your elected
representative thinks about the most pressing global issues the United States confronts and/or the policies
he or she supports to address those challenges, such as through a petition or a letter-writing campaign.
Another emphasis in this chapter is the mobilization of American society to fight the Second World War.
Part of the mobilization entailed voluntary efforts by Americans to conserve vital resources and even
grow some of their own food in the face of scarcity. But voluntarism and conservation of resources need
not be restricted to wartime emergencies. Can you think of ways in which you might volunteer your time
and effort in pursuit of a larger goal that might make your community better? Perhaps you can organize a
