How Did The Great Depression And World War's Impact On American Society

The Great Depression and World War II left an imaginable and remarkable mark on America’s history and its citizens. Through these trying times, some Americans were able to unite, come together, support one another and try their best to live the best standard of life they could, while other americans become more divided and began to turn against each other. During the Great Depression and World War II, some American’s became more unified through things such as FDR’s New Deal, the Bonus Army March, the generosity of farmers and the Salvation Army and Rail Riding, while other American’s became more divided due to cultural differences, the implementation of Japanese-American interments camps and the disownment of family members due to a lack of resources to support one another.
During the Great Depression, the government was unable to offer the help citizens the help they were desperately in need of forcing the needy to rely on the generosity of other fellow americans.
Farmers and organizations such as The Salvation Army played pivotal and charitable roles in assisting struggling families and individuals. It wasn’t until 1933 when Franklin D. Roosevelt took office and launched the New Deal which unified the working class with the NRA and WPA. Up until then, and even after that, most citizens had to rely on the kindness of fellow American’s to get by. Even though some people were in the position to be able to assist others, that wasn’t always the case. Some families weren't able to support their own family and it became very common, especially in black families, for teens to be disowned and forced to fend for themselves. A very common practice amongst the homeless was Rail Riding. So even though teens began to lose connection with their families, they created new bonds and formed their own families through Rail Riding alongside other homeless
teens. These trying times also enabled citizens to come together and fight for a common goal— to improve their standard of life. An example of this could be when 15,000 War Veterans marched onto Washington demanding that they receive their bonus payment in 1932 rather than in 1945. These veterans were forced to come together, unite under one cause and demand change. The Bonus Army March protest lasted for weeks, passions ran high, but even with all that said, President Hoover still said no and enlisted the service of the U.S. armed forces to remove veterans from Washington D.C. One of the few positive things World War II did was unite American’s with the use of propaganda. American’s began to desperately despise the Japanese, especially after Pearl Harbor. The American government then used this wide spread hate to encourage the sales of War Bonds in order to fund the war and boost the economy while also opening up many new factory jobs for women since their husbands were now at war. Although World War II created new jobs for women, it also ushered in a new level of racial discrimination through the use and implementation of Japanese-American internment camps. Japanese-American’s began to face a whole new level of scrutiny. Many American’s punished their Japanese-American neighbors due to their own fears of them possibly being spies or saboteurs. This wide spread fear caused American’s to lock up a total of 127,000 Japanese-Americans which greatly emphasized the divide World War II was bringing upon American families and communities. The era of the Great Depression and World War II ushered in a time of unity and division between Americans. Although some people took this opportunity to strengthen the bond they had with their fellow neighbors, it becomes apparent when looking back on history that unity wasn’t always the case for all americans. So even though these times are seen as a great victory in the citizenship of americans, some groups of people weren’t fortunate enough to receive the same treatment.