World War II

Part 1

I have selected this topic for my work because it is a unique and interesting topic for every young man. It gives us detailed information about a major historic event. My knowledge about this topic supported me to conduct further research on the WWII debate. As Blum explains, United States participation in World War II entailed an unprecedented level of social, economic, and military mobilization (Blum, 7-14) and affected gender roles in ways that both reinforced and undermined traditional concepts of maleness and masculinity. Newfound economic and social mobility for both men and women challenged traditional male and female roles, while at the same time these shifts triggered anxieties relating to changing gender standards. The World War II era was a time of gender confusion, and the resulting tensions have had lasting consequences.

Traditional images of men and women pervaded popular wartime culture, and the male role of warrior and protector received powerful reinforcement. American cultural norms had portrayed military service both as a rite of passage from boyhood to manhood and as a fulfillment of a man's obligations to his family, community, and country. Thus, during the war, government and media propaganda presented the war as an opportunity for boys to prove their manhood. Marketing experts used recruiting posters and advertisements to appeal to the male's self-image as protector. Men classified as physically unfit for military service were pitied and often despised. Conscientious objectors and others avoiding the draft were deemed unmanly and unpatriotic, and these individuals faced scorn, social ostracism, and, frequently, imprisonment. Likewise, wartime propaganda, such as movies, radio programs, and advertising, emphasized the domestic measures that women could take to aid the war effort.

Part 2

Introduction

Hitler

Adolf Hitler was born in Braunau, on the Austrian side of the border with Bavaria, on 20 April 1889 (he did not acquire German citizenship until 1932). (Fest, 3-8) The rising leader of the National Socialist German Workers' (Nazi) party, a man named Adolf Hitler, attributed German defeat in World War I to a stab in the back. Hitler won much popular support by vowing to amend the outrage committed at Versailles. Named Chancellor of the Reich in January 1933, Hitler helped suspend substantial elements of the Weimar constitution. He also directed German rearmament in violation of the peace agreements from 1935 onward, and that same year he reclaimed the Saar region, which had been ceded to France after World War I.

In 1936, Germany, Japan, and Italy signed the anti-Comintern pact, which provided a basis for the Axis alliance. Facing little opposition, each country pursued particular strategies of expansionist rule, including Hitler's anschluss (union) with Austria to fulfill his dream of reuniting German-speaking peoples under one Reich (Honey, 22-44). In September 1938, Hitler negotiated with representatives from Great Britain and France and gained control of the Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia (Fest, 3-8). The western powers hoped that Hitler would be appeased by these concessions. Instead, he effectively took over the rest of Czechoslovakia in early 1939. A nonaggression pact between Germany ...