The United States in World War II: 1941–1945
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History is dramatic—and the renowned, award-winning authors Christopher Collier and James Lincoln Collier demonstrate this in a compelling series aimed at young readers. Covering American history from the founding of Jamestown through present day, these volumes explore far beyond the dates and events of a historical chronicle to present a moving illumination of the ideas, opinions, attitudes, and tribulations that led to the birth of this great nation.
The United States in World War II provides background on American sentiments prior to US involvement in the war. The authors contend that it may have played out differently if some countries, including the US, had been prepared and/or willing to become involved sooner. Fascist ideology is defined.
Christopher Collier
Christopher Collier is an author and historian. He attended Clark University and Columbia University, where he earned his PhD. He was the official Connecticut State Historian from 1984 to 2004 and is now professor of history emeritus at the University of Connecticut. He is the brother of James Lincoln Collier, with whom he has written a number of novels, most of which are based on historic events. His books have been nominated for several awards, including the Newbery Honor and the Pulitzer Prize.
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The United States in World War II - Christopher Collier
SERIES
PREFACE
OVER MANY YEARS of both teaching and writing for students at all levels, from grammar school to graduate school, it has been borne in on us that many, if not most, American history textbooks suffer from trying to include everything of any moment in the history of the nation. Students become lost in a swamp of factual information, and as a consequence lose track of how those facts fit together and why they are significant and relevant to the world today.
In this series, our effort has been to strip the vast amount of available detail down to a central core. Our aim is to draw in bold strokes, providing enough information, but no more than is necessary, to bring out the basic themes of the American story, and what they mean to us now. We believe that it is surely more important for students to grasp the underlying concepts and ideas that emerge from the movement of history, than to memorize an array of facts and figures.
The difference between this series and many standard texts lies in what has been left out. We are convinced that students will better remember the important themes if they are not buried under a heap of names, dates, and places.
In this sense, our primary goal is what might be called citizenship education. We think it is critically important for America as a nation and Americans as individuals to understand the origins and workings of the public institutions that are central to American society. We have asked ourselves again and again what is most important for citizens of our democracy to know so they can most effectively make the system work for them and the nation. For this reason, we have focused on political and institutional history, leaving social and cultural history less well developed.
This series is divided into volumes that move chronologically through the American story. Each is built around a single topic, such as the Pilgrims, the Constitutional Convention, or immigration. Each volume has been written so that it can stand alone, for students who wish to research a given topic. As a consequence, in many cases material from previous volumes is repeated, usually in abbreviated form, to set the topic in its historical context. That is to say, students of the Constitutional Convention must be given some idea of relations with England, and why the Revolution was fought, even though the material was covered in detail in a previous volume. Readers should find that each volume tells an entire story that can be read with or without reference to other volumes.
Despite our belief that it is of the first importance to outline sharply basic concepts and generalizations, we have not neglected the great dramas of American history. The stories that will hold the attention of students are here, and we believe they will help the concepts they illustrate to stick in their minds. We think, for example, that knowing of Abraham Baldwin's brave and dramatic decision to vote with the small states at the Constitutional Convention will bring alive the Connecticut Compromise, out of which grew the American Senate.
Each of these volumes has been read by esteemed specialists in its particular topic; we have benefited from their comments.
CHAPTER I: THE LEGACY OF WORLD WAR I
WARS DO NOT just happen. They come about because of past events, and the way people react to current events. The causes of World War II are complex, and are still argued over by historians, but the general picture is clear enough.
It was truly a world war, fought in Asia, Africa, Europe, the Middle East, on land, on sea, and in the air. The death and destruction wrought makes World War I, which was horrible enough, look like small potatoes. Although solid figures are hard to come by, some 30 million people died in World War II. Billions of dollars worth of property, including whole cities like Dresden, Hiroshima, and Warsaw, were destroyed. Great empires vanished like morning fog in the sun. Hundreds of millions of people found their lives permanently transformed. One historian has called it the largest single event in human history.
Yet it is becoming increasingly clear that it need not have happened. For some time after the war many people believed that World War II was simply a continuation of World War I, and was probably inevitable. However, historians now believe that the Germans under Adolf Hitler could have been stopped at the beginning. The failure of the democracies, especially France, Great Britain, and the United States, to do so was a major cause of the war. In this chapter we shall see why this happened.
For several centuries before 1900, France was the dominant power on the European continent. After about 1870, Germany began to gain in economic and military power, until the French felt threatened. Over these years France and Germany each entered into defensive alliances with other nations, and when a conflict broke out between small Serbia and great Austria, other European nations were drawn in. By August 1914, Europe was at war. Germany and its allies nearly won, and would have except for the aid Americans gave to France, England, and their allies, first as supplies and loans of money, and, in 1917, with American troops. These tipped the balance, and in November 1918, Germany surrendered. (For the story of the United States in World War I, see the volume in this series called The United States Enters the World Stage.)
World War II left cities, towns, and villages like this town along the Rhine in ruins. Tens of millions were made homeless, perhaps as many as 30 million died from bombs, disease, and famine.
World War I had seen the slaughter of tens of thousands of young men, who would rise from trenches to rush across ruined fields in the face of withering machine-gun fire