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Politics Of Sacrifice

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Politics Of Sacrifice
Mark H. Leff explores the meaning of sacrifice to Americans during World War II in his article “The Politics of Sacrifice on the American Home Front in World War II.” “Sacrifice proved to be symbolically malleable” he concludes by reviewing two different case studies. He first acknowledges Franklin D. Roosevelt’s income regulations and how it applied to both business owners and laborers; next, he analyzes the private sector of advertising and its relationship to propaganda (1318). Through his exploration of these topics, he proposes that the changeability of the meaning of sacrifice was the driving force to get Americans to agree to different policies and bring the world of government advertising to where it is today.
According to Leff, Americans …show more content…
During this time in American history, advertising had a bad reputation in the eyes of the public, so they needed a way to speak “the truth about advertising” (1306). Leff explains how advertisers saw this issue and formed a meeting to talk about the common cause: survival of their agencies. According to Leff and the sources that he quotes, this could be done through focusing on the War that was among them. Although some of the firms were reluctant, this seemed to be the best option at the time. “Then came Pearl Harbor…It was a godsend, a ticket or respectability for a battered industry” (1309). Leff explains that this event was the golden ticket that advertisers needed to get involved with war propaganda. Through the means of propaganda, Americans were given a sense of urgency about the importance of sacrificing something for the war, whether that meant donating blood or donating their lives (1308, 1311). Advertising was an inclusive way to make everyone in the public feel like they were sacrificing something, and this not only made the public content but it also made advertising firms and the government
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