Hey, say hey.
Thesis based on: Roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote parable of other nations' chase of America's success; they never quite catch up.
Roadrunner: America, America's founding qualities The Allies.
Wile E. Coyote: The Axis and other opposing nations
Acme Products: New "confounded" technologies can't beat the good old qualities of a true American. Scheming vs. Steadfast.
America in the WW2:
-Patriotic, perhaps sense of nationalism.
"http://kclibrary.nhmccd.edu/decade40.html"
--"The 1940's were dominated by World War II."
--"The successful use of
penicillin by 1941 revolutionized medicine. Developed first to help the military personnel survive war wounds, it also helped increase survival rates for surgery."
--"Tscrap drives Automobile production ceased in 1942, and rationing of food supplies began in 1943. Victory gardens were re-instituted and supplied 40% of the vegetables consumed on the home front."for steel, tin, paper and rubber. These were a source of supplies and gave people a means of supporting the war effort. here were
--"The United States emerged from World War II as a world superpower, challenged only by the USSR. While the USSR subjugated the defeated countries, the US implemented the Marshall Plan, helping war-torn countries to rebuild and rejoin the world economy. "
--"Although there were rumors, it was only after the war ended that Americans learned the extent of the Holocaust. Realization of the power of prejudice helped lead to Civil Rights reforms over the next three decades."
--"In 1949, three times as many college degrees were conferred as in 1940. College became available to the capable rather than the privileged few.
--"T1939 World Fair, but the war interrupted further development. In 1947, commercial television with 13 stations became available to the public. Computers were developed during the early forties. The digital computer, named ENIAC, weighing 30 tons and standing two stories high, was completed in 1945. "elevision made its debut at the
"http://www.livinghistoryfarm.org/farminginthe40s/life_07.html"
--"By 1940, radio had become a mass medium. Almost 80 percent of the households in the U.S. owned a radio. Yet before the war, only seven percent of the airtime was devoted to news. By the end of the war, 25 percent of the airtime was news, and audiences had been transported to the battlefront in live and recorded reports.
--"Jazz was the most popular form of music during the war, but there were audiences for country music, western swing, blues and R&B, rhythm and blues. "
--"Even in Germany itself, "swing kids" met in secret, defying the Gestapo, and played records. They tuned in to Allied radio. They danced. In Ken Burns' PBS series "Jazz," Jutta Hipp, a German-born jazz pianist, explained how important the music was. She and her friends felt a tie to America even when Allied bombers were overhead.
"You won't be able to understand this because you were born [in America], but to us, jazz is some kind of religion. We really had to fight for it, and I remember nights when we didn't go down to the bomb shelter because we listened to [jazz] records. We just had the feeling that you were not our enemies, and even though the bomb crashed around us ... we felt safe." "
--"During World War II, the U.S. government was faced with a big problem - how to provide both tanks and tractors. ... Just before Pearl Harbor, they issued a "limitation order." It said that production of civilian farm equipment would be held at 80 percent of 1940's production level, but that the companies should increase production of repair and maintenance parts dramatically. In other words, make fewer new tractors but help farmers repair their old ones. "tractors got smaller and more powerful, self-propelled combines were introduced, hydraulic systems made it possible to control larger implements, the Vise Grip pliers were invented and tractors replaced horses on farms forever."
--
--"But war production didn't stop innovation in agricultural machinery. In fact, it may have spurred new technologies. New challenges created innovation. During this decade,
--"German dictator Adolf Hitler invades Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands , Belgium, Luxembourg, and then France. He devastates opposing forces with "blitzkrieg," a strategy that stresses surprise, speed, and overwhelming force using air planes and mechanized ground forces."
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