V Was for Victory: Politics and American Culture During World War II

by John Morton Blum

A distinguished historian examines the nation’s involvement in a war that most americans thought necessary and righteous. He focuses on the home how our culture and politics affected the course of the war and how the war in turn affected us. Index.

Genres: History, American History, World War II, War, Nonfiction, Military History

384 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1976

About the author

John Morton Blum was an American historian, active from the 1950 to 1991. He was a specialist in 20th-century American political history and a senior advisor to Yale officials.

Reviews

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Blum in this book ( published in 1976 ) focuses on the politics and culture of the US home front during WWII. But I feel it was more about the politics than the culture. He emphasizes the role of the government in selling the war and organizing the economy to win the war.
One chapter is titled "Holiday for the Trusts." The progressive movement to break up "trusts" or monopolies was dropped as the government relied increasingly on Big Business to supply its needs. This was a good example of Franklin Roosevelt's determination to let nothing get in the way of winning the war and having reforms take a backseat for the duration. Big Business was certainly the biggest winner of the war.
Another example of putting the war first was in race relations. Liberals like Eleanor Roosevelt pushed for integrating the armed forces, but FDR felt it would be disruptive of the war effort. There were a few hesitating steps--the Navy integrated the crews of twenty-five ships. Some camps were desegregated, but not in the South. The government also took some actions to stop discrimination against blacks in employment and housing. But tensions frequently rose between whites and blacks. In June of 1943, a riot occurred in Detroit in which 25 blacks and 9 whites were killed. Harlem also exploded, but Mayor La Guardia moved through the streets to calm things down. Six black people died. The problem of racism in American society would have to be faced in the postwar society.
Blum touches on the internment of the Japanese-Americans and this has been covered in many other books by now. What should be better known is how reluctant the US government was to take in Jewish refugees. A small number of Jews were saved by the end of the war but far more were killed. Again, while anti-Semitism was a factor, the priority was winning the war and everything else--including saving Jews--was secondary.
The last third of the book is about politics. In the 1942 election, the Republicans gained in both the House and Senate. An alliance of Republicans and conservative Southern Democrats dominated Congress and this effectively ended any expansion of the New Deal. In the 1944 election, FDR won an unprecedented fourth term, defeating Thomas Dewey, with almost 55% of the popular vote, a smaller margin than in any of his previous elections. Significantly, with his approval, FDR's progressive Vice-President Henry Wallace had been dumped at the Democratic convention and the more moderate Harry Truman became his running mate and then V.P.-- and the man who would succeed FDR upon his death in office.
Blum's book ends with the war over. One great achievement by war's end was FDR's signing the GI Bill which helped returning veterans receive a college education and to get loans for housing and setting up businesses. Women had to give up jobs they had gotten during wartime. Blacks felt there had been no victory for them on the home front and their struggles against discrimination and segregation would have to continue....

[Frank Stein · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fairly informative but consistently infuriating. According to Blum, what was wrong with American culture during the Second World War was that it wasn't socialist enough or as enlightened as a college professor would have liked it to be. Any references to movies, comic books, or literature produced during the war are accompanied with the adjectives "banal" and "trite", unless they advocated a new one-world government or a cooperative republic, in which case they were "insightful." Politicians who he disagrees with are "simple-minded" or "craven", but he praises the "efficient" Soviet Union (this book was written in 1976), and celebrates the efforts of the communists under Mao (as did former Republican Presidential Candidate Wendell Willkie, oddly enough, in his 1944 bestseller "One World"). In the Epilogue, as if in peroration, he sporadically inserts the lyrics to "Little Boxes" by Malvina Reynolds (what could be more banal than that already tired trope!).

The title refers to Blum's contention that the nation's only goal during the war, as articulated by Roosevelt, was to win, and not to reshape the postwar order in Blum's vision. This is unarguably true.

So, ignoring the mini-aneurysms this book constantly sparked in my head, what did I learn? I learned about the extensive battles surrounding the Office of War Information (OWI), which disseminated propaganda at home and abroad (at least until Congress cut off its domestic funding in 1943). Blum critiques former newspaperman Elmer Davis, its director, for relying too much on private ad-men and not enough on its own, governmental copy, but mentions off-hand that the Domestic Branch once had 12 separate regional headquarters and received millions in funds. That sounds like an extensive operation. (Blum also reviews each press release as if it was an attempted European art-film, and declares them uniformly "simple-minded.") I also learned about some interesting attempts by businesses to profit from the war. Gimbel's department stores, for instance, borrowed $21 million to buy up nylon and silk hose in 1942 before they were rationed, then sold them off for two years in a market bereft of competitors. Coca-Cola and Wrigley's Gum got their products listed as "war essentials," so they could be sold directly to soldiers and not be subject to materials limits.

Overall though, unless you're a college professor from the 1970s, I imagine this book will be more agitating than stimulating.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Blum attests early on that “this book is not a history of the American people during the years of
WWII… but that it examines selected facets of the history of American politics and culture during those years.” That acknowledgement by Blum grants the reader a better understanding of
the books strengths and short comings.

Racism, isolationism, and extreme xenophobia were all social issues at the forefront of
the American society during the first half of the 20th century. Despite attempts by the Roosevelt’s, and Eleanor in particular, to make society safer for all individuals, these issues still weighed heavily on the American people as the European conflicts threatened to draw the American military out of the role of supplier into the role of official combatant. The racism and terror that the people experienced at home was magnified by the popular image of a militant
Japan and the perpetual aggression of the Germans. The goal wasn’t to solely vilify the aggressors but to justify the questionable actions of the American’s both abroad and at home.
While the Greatest Generation survived and succeeded under circumstances that have rendered future generations unable to repeat they were not without their faults. The natural fear of the exotic other within society plays out in the political sphere affected the lives of everyday citizens. The Japanese internment was one of the lowest points in terms of American social equality. Seventy thousand Japanese Americans were uprooted from their lives and shipped off to internment camps under the guise of protecting them. Part of this is explained away by the fear on the west coast that a repeat of Pearl Harbor could happen at any point along the western coast of the United States. The policies that allowed this event were born out of the lack of political power held by the Japanese Americans and the relatively small size of their population in the country at the time. It was easier for the average American to identify a Japanese individual than a German or Italian.

[Cindy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Learned new terms, but it was a hard book to read. Chapter 3 was the only interesting chapter.

[Austin Gisriel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Written 45 years ago, Blum's work remains relevant today as much of policy debates have their origins in WW II. The book is well-written and well-researched and will appeal to students of WWII politics and politics in general. Given the cover, which features both Frank Sinatra and Betty Grable, I expected material regarding how both "our culture and politics affected the course of the war." There was very little of the former. Excellent for what it is, but not quite as advertised.

[Jay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very little of the battle field's action here. This book gets behind, under, and all around the "war at home." Public relations and selling the war. Law enforcement, including anti-trust law, during war in an economy being managed to win the war. The frustrating and ultimately unsuccessful effort to manage a reconversion from war to peace. The never absent opposition of some to Roosevelt and the New Deal.

[Marcie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Actually, skimmed. Some interesting information about politics and the tenor of public opinion at the time. But too detailed in some places for my preference.

[Nate Hendrix · Rating 1 out of 5]

Didn't like it didn't finish it.

[James Crawford · Rating 4 out of 5]

The subtitle is Politics and American Culture during World War II. The emphasis in the book is really on the politics of the time.


The Office of Facts and Figures was established in October of 1941 '...to disseminate...factual information on the defense effort and to facilitate a widespread understanding of the status and process of that effort.' The Office of War Information was established in June of 1942 'to coordinate the dissemination of war information by all federal agencies and to formulate and carry out, by means of the press, radio and motion pictures, programs designed to facilitate an understanding in the United States and abroad of the progress of the war effort and of the policies, activities, and aims of the government.'


There was a lot of disagreement about what should be shown and what shouldn't, and how tings should be shown. There is even a part of the book that goes in the discussion about the role of the comic books published in those days.

The anti-Japanese hostility is discussed, and how this was reinforced by reports of Japanese cruelty. The Japanese stereotype was widely used by the mass media of the time.


The role of a fountain pen company, Parker Pens, is discussed.


The effect of the war on Italian-Americans is discussed, as well as the effect on Japanese-Americans. The incarceration of the Japanese Americans is discussed, as well as the segregation of the 'disloyals' at the Tule Lake camp.


The book also discusses Jews in England, Black America, and the economy of the war and the post-war times.

The book is a good one if you are primarily interested in the politics of what happened during that time. As I noted, though, it is heavy on politics and lighter on culture.

[Mark Bowles · Rating 4 out of 5]

I. John Morton Blum, V Was For Victory: Politics and American Culture During WWII (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1976)
A. Intro
1. This book examine only selected facets of the political and cultural WWII story. They indicate some ways in which culture and politics interacted. Taken together they show how the wartime experience of Americans, nurtured in their culture and expressed in their politics, shaped American expectations about the postwar period at home and abroad.
B. War propaganda
C. The American soldiers
D. Wartime consumer
E. Business in war
F. Black America during WWII

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

A major work on America's home front during WWII. The section on minority groups is particularly good, and both the introduction and epilogue are masterfully written.

[AskHistorians]

Classic history of the home front during WWII.