US History: Resources by Decade: 1940s

This captivating anthology gathers historic New Yorker pieces from a decade of trauma and upheaval--as well as the years when The New Yorker came of age, with pieces by Elizabeth Bishop, Langston Hughes, Joseph Mitchell, Vladimir Nabokov, and George Orwell, alongside original reflections on the 1940s by some of today's finest writers.   In this enthralling book, contributions from the great writers who graced The New Yorker's pages are placed in historical context by the magazine's current writers. Included in this volume are seminal profiles of the decade's most fascinating figures: Albert Einstein, Walt Disney, and Eleanor Roosevelt. Here are classics in reporting: John Hersey's account of the heroism of a young naval lieutenant named John F. Kennedy; Rebecca West's harrowing visit to a lynching trial in South Carolina; and Joseph Mitchell's imperishable portrait of New York's foremost dive bar, McSorley's. This volume also provides vital, seldom-reprinted criticism, as well as an extraordinary selection of short stories by such writers as Shirley Jackson and John Cheever. Represented too are the great poets of the decade, from William Carlos Williams to Langston Hughes. To complete the panorama, today's New Yorker staff look back on the decade through contemporary eyes. The 40s: The Story of a Decade is a rich and surprising cultural portrait that evokes the past while keeping it vibrantly present. Including contributions by W. H. Auden * Elizabeth Bishop * John Cheever * Janet Flanner * John Hersey * Langston Hughes * Shirley Jackson * A. J. Liebling * William Maxwell * Carson McCullers * Joseph Mitchell * Vladimir Nabokov * Ogden Nash * John O'Hara * George Orwell * V. S. Pritchett * Lillian Ross * Stephen Spender * Lionel Trilling * Rebecca West * E. B. White * Williams Carlos Williams * Edmund Wilson   And featuring new perspectives by Joan Acocella * Hilton Als * Dan Chiasson * David Denby * Jill Lepore * Louis Menand * Susan Orlean * George Packer * David Remnick * Alex Ross * Peter Schjeldahl * Zadie Smith * Judith Thurman

The 1940s are remembered as a time of war and the beginning of the atomic age. Essays examine the events leading to World War II, the war itself, the home front, and the motion picture industry.

The 10-volume, illustrated series considers the film industry from its early roots in the 19th century through the 1980s. It examines the development of film and the film industry, analyzing both the genres, themes and technology that defined each decade and the political and economic background that gave rise to them. Each volume focuses on a separate decade, providing a narrative on the evolution of both the business and the art of film in America. Each volume is heavily illustrated and ends with several indexes, notes, a bibliography and a variety of appendixes of top-grossing films, stars and Oscar winners, and more.

This book is a study of a crucial period in the life of American jazz and popular music. Pearl Harbor Jazz analyses the changes in the world of the professional musician brought about both by the outbreak of World War II and by long-term changes in the music business, in popular taste and in American society itself. It describes how the infrastructure of American music, the interdependent fields of recording, touring, live engagements, radio and the movies, was experiencing change in the conditions of wartime, and how this impacted upon musical styles, and hence upon the later history of popular music. Successive chapters of the book examine the impact of these changed conditions upon the songwriting and music publishing industries, upon the world of the touring big bands, and upon changing conceptions of the role of jazz and popular music. Not only the economic conditions but also ideas were changing; the book traces a movement among writers and critics which created new definitions of 'jazz' and other terms that had a permanent influence on the way musical styles were thought of for the rest of the century. The book deals in some depth with the work of a number of important artists in these various fields, including, Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker, Johnny Mercer and Frank Sinatra, looks at the growing presence of bebop, the rise of country music, and the contemporary musical scenes in such locations as New York and Los Angeles. The book combines detail of the day to day working lives of musicians with challenging views of the long-term development of musical style in jazz and popular music. Peter Townsend lectures at Manchester Metropolitan University and in the School of Music at the University of Huddersfield, England

Defining Documents in American History: Post War 1940s This collection will introduce students and educators to a diverse range of genres, including journals, letters, speeches, government legislation, and court opinions. Documents represent the diversity of ideas and contexts that define social, political and cultural subjects throughout American history. This important resource provides students and researchers with many new ways to explore the 1940s, as the country was affected by World War II. The text provides in-depth analysis of more than forty primary documents that help shed light on this historical time. Defining Documents in American History: Post War 1940s offers in-depth critical analysis of more than 40 primary source documents important to this significant decade in American History. Articles begin by introducing readers to the historical context, followed by a description of the author's life and circumstances in which the document was written. A document analysis, written by professional writers and historians, guides readers in understanding key elements of language, rhetoric, and social and political meaning that define the significance of the author and document in American history. Defining Documents in American History: Post War 1940s provides detailed analysis of a wide array of topics, including: Occupation of Japan Foreign Policy Technology Red Scare Communism Integration Atomic Energy The Government This collection will introduce students and educators to a diverse range of genres, including journals, letters, speeches, government legislation, and court opinions. Documents represent the diversity of ideas and contexts that define social, political and cultural subjects throughout American history.

Who was Rosie and who was Mrs. America? They weren't specific individuals; rather, they were symbols that defined perceptions of women during the 1930s and 1940s. the jubilance of the previous decade--the Roaring Twenties--was silenced by the stock market crash of 1929. Now the Great Depression challenged women in their homes, as Mrs. America had to learn how to ''make do'' with less. and as men left for battle fronts, World War II propelled women to take their place in factories, becoming Rosie the Riveter. As girls and women of the 1930s and 1940s searched for their own identities, the media of the times tried to influence their paths. Magazine advertisements and mail-order catalogs showed women how to be both fashionable and frugal. Screwball comedies on the movie screen and the romantic soap operas on the radio portrayed women who took life lightly. But many women ignored these stereotypes and forged paths that women had never pursued before, in careers as pilots, foreign correspondents, musicians, and social activists. Learn more about the images and issues that framed perceptions about women in these difficult decades.