Campbell, Tracy

OUR SYNOPSIS: Tracy Campbell recreates the American experience of the year 1942, which began in the aftermath of the attack on Pearl Harbor with the United States newly at war. The federal government mobilized the war economy, which led to disagreements about the relationships between capitalism, democracy, and war. Pearl Harbor brought the nation together around a common enemy to an extent, but war anxieties also exacerbated racism. Japanese Americans were incarcerated in prison camps by the U.S. government. The president refused to integrate the armed forces, building Black resentment as African Americans mobilized for both the war and its economy. The executive order for racially unbiased hiring in war industries was ignored in practice by many employers. Meanwhile, conversion to a total war economy increasingly expanded to rationing of consumer products and other austerity measures. American women faced increased economic expectations. FDR and company also cracked down on free speech at home, creating the Office of War Information. Labor unrest due to frozen wages and racial unrest due to wartime manifestations of systemic racism put many Americans on edge. Yet, on the one-year anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack, “the United States found itself fundamentally transformed.” (298) The war economy firmly ended the Great Depression, mobilizing a massive national workforce. While national GDP skyrocketed, consumer spending plummeted and the U.S. experimented with central economic planning. Closing out her calendar year timeline, Campbell argues the reshaped U.S. found some stability: “As 1943 dawned, the relentless fear that had gripped the nation since Pearl Harbor had somewhat lessened, and although most understood the most difficult days of the war still lay ahead, many worst-case scenarios had been avoided.” (309) Overall, the year 1942 brought economic recovery while also laying bare social divisions and anxieties.