Afterword

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Wuthnow
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Great Depression ◽  
World War ◽  
Telephone Service ◽  
Social Transformations ◽  
The Great Depression ◽  
The Social ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
Middle West

This afterword summarizes the book's main findings about the social transformations that the Middle West has experienced since the 1950s. It explains how the decade after World War II presented a multitude of problems for nearly everyone. Roads, electricity, telephone service, and machinery had all been put on hold by the Great Depression and the war. Marginal farmers were unable to make the transition. They did not have the capital to purchase additional land, to mechanize, or to invest in livestock. Ultimately, their failure nevertheless served the region and the nation. Farming became better capitalized and more efficient as a result. The heartland was redefining itself, and the author believes that the Middle West's emphasis on friendliness, hospitality, and native ingenuity owes much to the reinvention of its heritage that occurred in the 1950s and 1960s.

Remaking the Heartland

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Wuthnow
Keyword(s):  
Great Depression ◽  
Social Institutions ◽  
Small Towns ◽  
Rapid Expansion ◽  
Social Transformations ◽  
The Great Depression ◽  
Objective Observer ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
Changing Times ◽  
Middle West

For many Americans, the Middle West is a vast unknown. This book sets out to rectify this. It shows how the region has undergone extraordinary social transformations over the past half-century and proven itself surprisingly resilient in the face of such hardships as the Great Depression and the movement of residents to other parts of the country. It examines the heartland's reinvention throughout the decades and traces the social and economic factors that have helped it to survive and prosper. The book points to the critical strength of the region's social institutions established between 1870 and 1950—the market towns, farmsteads, one-room schoolhouses, townships, rural cooperatives, and manufacturing centers that have adapted with the changing times. It focuses on farmers' struggles to recover from the Great Depression well into the 1950s, the cultural redefinition and modernization of the region's image that occurred during the 1950s and 1960s, the growth of secondary and higher education, the decline of small towns, the redeployment of agribusiness, and the rapid expansion of edge cities. Drawing arguments from extensive interviews and evidence from the towns and counties of the Midwest, the book provides a unique perspective as both an objective observer and someone who grew up there. It offers an accessible look at the humble yet strong foundations that have allowed the region to endure undiminished.

Recovering from the Great Depression

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Wuthnow
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Rural Communities ◽  
Great Depression ◽  
Dust Storms ◽  
World War ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
The Great Depression ◽  
Middle America ◽  
Middle West ◽  
Smith County

This chapter examines how the Middle West recovered from the ill effects of the Great Depression. The Great Depression was something Americans hoped they would never experience again. In the rural Midwest, foreclosures and sheriff's auctions were common. The worst drought years devastated the land. Dust storms blew with such intensity that crops failed and machinery broke down. World War II sparked the economy, revived agriculture, and coincided with better weather. However, the war took millions of men and women away from their families, necessitated mandatory rationing, and drove up prices. When it was over, rural communities faced continuing challenges. The chapter considers the case of Smith Center, Kansas, to illustrate the challenges rural communities faced as they overcame the setbacks of the Great Depression and prepared for the era ahead. Recovery from the Great Depression varied across middle America, but many of the dynamics evident in Smith County occurred elsewhere.

Introduction

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Wuthnow
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Medical Research ◽  
Great Depression ◽  
Half Century ◽  
Elementary And Secondary Education ◽  
The Great Depression ◽  
The Social ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
Middle West ◽  
North And South

This book examines the resilience shown by the American Middle West—Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, Minnesota, Missouri, North and South Dakota, Arkansas, and Oklahoma—despite going through profound social upheavals during the half century that began in the 1950s. It shows that the Middle West has undergone a strong, positive transformation since the 1950s—a time when many families were still recovering from the Great Depression. The transformation is surprising because it took place in the nation's heartland. The region's economy fared surprisingly well; agribusiness was flourishing; elementary and secondary education was among the best in the nation; the region was known for innovative medical research and biotechnology. The chapter suggests that one precondition for the social change that has happened in the Middle West is the fact that the region largely comprised rich land with vast potential for crops and livestock as well as mineral wealth.

War and the Next Lesson

Money ◽  
2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Kenneth Galbraith ◽  
James K. Galbraith
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Monetary Policy ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
Fiscal Policy ◽  
World War I ◽  
Great Depression ◽  
The United States ◽  
World War ◽  
John Maynard Keynes ◽  
The Great Depression

This chapter examines the lessons of World War II with respect to money and monetary policy. World War I exposed the fragility of the monetary structure that had gold as its foundation, the great boom of the 1920s showed how futile monetary policy was as an instrument of restraint, and the Great Depression highlighted the ineffectuality of monetary policy for rescuing the country from a slump—for breaking out of the underemployment equilibrium once this had been fully and firmly established. On the part of John Maynard Keynes, the lesson was that only fiscal policy ensured not just that money was available to be borrowed but that it would be borrowed and would be spent. The chapter considers the experiences of Britain, Germany, and the United States with a lesson of World War II: that general measures for restraining demand do not prevent inflation in an economy that is operating at or near capacity.

The Great Depression and World War II, 1930–1945

Texas ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 367-395
Author(s):  
Rupert N. Richardson ◽  
Cary D. Wintz ◽  
Angela Boswell ◽  
Adrian Anderson ◽  
Ernest Wallace
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Great Depression ◽  
World War ◽  
The Great Depression

Food-Crop Marketing Boards in Tropical Africa

1987 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 375-402 ◽  
Author(s):  
William O. Jones
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Great Depression ◽  
Food Crop ◽  
World War ◽  
Tropical Africa ◽  
Agricultural Marketing ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Great Depression ◽  
African Populations ◽  
Made In

Agricultural marketing boards in tropical Africa are heirlooms of the Great Depression and World War II, when colonial governments found their principal sources of revenue severely reduced and both European and African populations financially distressed. Marketing boards are of British origin, but similar efforts were made in French and Belgian Africa. The rationale for intervention is clouded; some of the principal reasons have faded into the past or were never openly expressed.1

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