Coronet/MTI Film and Video offers, in film or videocassette format, a World War II series organized in segments of approximately a quarter-hour. They are called The Roots of Aggression, 1929-1939; The Inevitable War: 1939-1940; The Expanding Conflict: 1940-1941; and A World at War: 1942-1945. Another fifteen-minute production focuses on the cataclysmic event that ended the war, Truman and the Atomic Bomb. Still another general overview in five parts, World War II, is available from the American Heritage Media Collection. A thirty-three-minute treatment in video format, World War II, beginning with the invasion of Poland and ending with the Japanese surrender, is available from Films for the Humanities and Sciences. The same source offers another video with the same title, World War II (thirty-nine minutes), featuring FDR's declaration of war on Japan and speeches by other notables; 1945: Year of Victory (twenty minutes); and two videos that include the Second World War and beyond. They are a History of the Strategic Air Command (fifty minutes) and America at War (thirty-five minutes), a fifty-year survey from Pearl Harbor to Desert Storm.

Episodes of the old March of Time newsreel series have been edited and linked together topically in video format. Show Business: The War Years, 1939-1945 (seventy-three minutes) shows American entertainers keeping up morale and generating support for the war effort. The American Family: The War Years, 1941-1945 (eighty-nine minutes) deals with immigration, the diversity of the American citizenry, the impact of rationing, and support for the war effort. That diversity also had its dark side. Without Due Process, a fifty-two-minute account of the internment of Japanese-Americans, is available from New Dimension Media of Eugene, Oregon.

PBS Video provides two notable productions of approximately an hour each. The Story of Rosie the Riveter presents five women who describe their experiences during the war, revealed visually through old newsreel footage, photographs, and clips from propaganda films. They speak of the opportunity that the war provided for entry into the world of work; the difficulties that they faced, particularly those who were African-American; and ultimately their replacement by returned servicemen. Another videotape, World War II: The Propaganda Battle, shows how support for the war effort was raised, especially through the use of patriotic films. PBS also has a three-part series entitled America: The Way We Were that touches on a broad array of American experiences from 1940 to 1945. From the same source, America in the Forties (three hours) offers a kaleidoscope of music, GIs, zoot suiters, and war coverage--and then homecoming.

PBS Video also has a ten-part series, America in World War II: The Home Front. Beginning with the time when war was merely on the horizon and ending with V-E and V-J days and hints of the Cold war to come, the thirty-minute episodes focus on production efforts, race relations, fads, and major social changes, all while the nation strives against the enemy. PBS also offers ninety-minute examinations of Pearl Harbor and The Battle of the Bulge as well as D-Day (fifty-eight minutes), all part of the generally excellent American Experience series. The same series offers Liberators: Fighting on Two Fronts in World War II, an account of the entry of the fighting 761st, an African-American tank battalion, into Hitler's concentration camps. Touching and revealing nostalgia is present in Films for the Humanities and Sciences' From D-Day to the Rhine (ninety minutes) as it accompanies a group of World War II veterans revisiting the battlefields on which they fought decades before. PBS Video in The Price of Peace (sixty minutes) salutes the personal sacrifices of three Americans during the war.

Between 1943 and 1945, Frank Capra produced and directed propaganda films, calling on the services of a number of Hollywood luminaries. The series, Why We Fight, is now available on videotape in six segments. The first five tell the story of the developing war in Europe and Asia and its importance for the United States. The last segment (sixty-seven minutes) explains how War Comes to America. Consult the Educational Film & Video Locator. Frank Capra is one of those interviewed in a Bill Moyers special from PBS Video, World War II: The Propaganda Battle (sixty minutes).

International Historical Films can provide other examples of propaganda. The Negro Soldier (forty minutes), prepared under the supervision of Frank Capra in 1944, is a striking film available on videocassette. Combat America (sixty-two minutes), made in 1945, provides a dramatization of bomber training and a bombing mission. Target Tokyo (twenty-two minutes), also made in 1945, shows the actual training of a B-29 crew and a mission over Tokyo. For photographs see Joshua Stoff, Picture History of World War II American Aircraft Production (1993).

Films for the Humanities and Sciences provides a quarter-hour biography on videotape of Robert Oppenheimer,the leader of the Manhattan Project. The American History Slide collection has a 151-slide series, America at War, of which about 60 deal with the Second World War.

Chapter 257 in the text refers to several important novels and feature films. The instructor may wish to consider several others as well. Wake Island (1942), directed by John Farrow and starring Brian Dunlevy, appeared at a time when all the war news was bleak. It told the story of the heroic and ultimately unsuccessful defense of Wake Island in the face of unrelenting Japanese attack. Audiences were swept up by the patriotic fervor that the film awoke. Other movies during the war celebrated the citizen soldier and American diversity. One of the best in this style appeared after the war, in 1949. Battleground, directed by William Wellman and starring Van Johnson, is a taut and exciting story of soldiers trapped at Bastogne in 1944. It is notable for its skillful handling of the soldier stereotypes--the hillbilly, the rich boy, the Mexican-American, the tough sergeant, and others. Also made in 1949 was one of the best of all war films. Sands of Iwo Jima starred John Wayne in an outstanding performance as a tough-as-nails marine sergeant who gives his all to ready his men for combat. In 1998 director Steven Spielberg starred Tom Hanks in Saving Private Ryan. In some respects the film is just a gesture of respect to the valor of those who fought, but the opening scenes of the landing on D-Day are astonishingly realistic and stunning in their impact. Celebrating the home front is Tender Comrade (1943). With their husbands at war, Ginger Rogers and several other women defense-plant workers live together. The story is staunchly patriotic and more than a little sentimental. Interestingly, director Edward Dmytryk and writer Dalton Trumbo were later called before the House Un-American Activities Committee as members of the "Hollywood Ten," and this film was used to demonstrate their predilection for collectivist living and working. In another vein, Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator of 1940 provides a satiric look at those who would soon become serious enemies.
Document Set 257-1

Hollywood's Foreign Policy: Interventionism in American Films, 1939-1940

1. Warner Brothers Declares War on the German-American Bund, 1939
2. Pare Lorentz Assesses the Warner Brothers' Attack, 1939
3. Walter Wanger and Alfred Hitchcock Call for Preparedness, 1940
4. A Friend Supports Wanger's Use of Propaganda in Films, 1940
5. Burton K. Wheeler Takes Aim at Hollywood, 1941
6. Gerald P. Nye Attacks Propaganda in Films, 1941
7. Wendell Willkie Defends Freedom of the Screen, 1941This chapter offers an unsurpassed opportunity to explore the historian's task and the historical process. Instructors might begin with an introductory lecture-discussion session on the nature and uses of historical evidence, emphasizing the cautions and techniques employed in working with all historical sources.Moving from this background to the interpretation of film as evidence, the instructor could reemphasize the intellectual rigor that must be brought to the analysis of any historical document. Student-scholars might be urged to ask several questions of the documents:
8. What is the essential content of the source?
9. What was the historical content in which the film-document was produced and viewed?
10. What was the document's influence?Although the documents may be read and analyzed independently, the ideal approach to the material would be to use one of the films in class (either excerpted or in its entirety) so that students may immerse themselves in the ethos of the prewar era. The best results will be obtained if instructors provide students with a few lead questions. Then, while viewing the film, they will be exposed to the fullness of the filmmaker's message and the political content of the movie. Following the screening, instructors might introduce reviews and explore with students public reaction to the film at the time of its release. Students might also be asked to identify propaganda content themselves, thus sharpening their critical faculties.A further stimulus to discussion will be the sharp interchange between Senator Nye and Wendell Willkie, both of whom are discussed in the text. Instructors may also provide students with further background on the Senate Interstate Commerce Committee's attack on Hollywood in 1941. By affording students a glimpse of the isolationism-interventionism controversy, the documents themselves provide an opening for discussion of an issue stressed in the text. One possibility would be to use the documents to stage a classroom debate on the issue, including the isolationist charges against the media.This chapter prepares students for a broadened definition of documentary evidence and a closer encounter with the historian's method. Moreover, its concentration on isolationism addresses one of the crucial problems of the late 1930s. The end result is an exercise designed to sharpen students' critical skills in dealing with both written and visual materials.

Recommended Readings for Document Set 257-1


Wayne S. Cole. Roosevelt and the Isolationists (1983).

Bernard F. Dick. The Star Spangled Screen: The American World War II Film (1985).

Robert Divine. The Reluctant Belligerent (1965; rep., 1979).

Clayton R. Koppes and Gregory D. Black. Hollywood Goes to War: How Politics Shaped World War II Movies (1987).

James J. Lorence. "The 'Foreign Policy of Hollywood': Interventionist Sentiment in the American Film, 1938-1941," in Robert Brent Toplin, ed., Hollywood as Mirror: Changing Views of "Outsiders" and "Enemies" in American Movies (1993).

Steven Mintz and Randy Roberts, eds. Hollywood's America: United States History Through Its Films (1993).

John E. O'Connor. Teaching History with Film (1987).

Eric J. Sandeen. "Confessions of a Nazi Spy and the German-American Bund," American Studies 20 (Fall 1979): 69-81.

Robert Sklar. Movie-Made America: A Cultural History of American Movies (rev., 1995).

Richard W. Steele. Propaganda in an Open Society: the Roosevelt Administration and the Media, 1933-1941 (1985).
Audiovisual Resources for Document Set 257-1


Arsenal of Democracy. From The Great Depression Series (videotape--60 min.). PBS Video, 1320 Braddock Place, Alexandria, Va. 22314-1698.

Confessions of a Nazi Spy (feature film--102 min.). United Artists, 16, 729 Seventh Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10019.

FDR, Part 2 (videotape--135 min.). PBS Video, 1320 Braddock Place, Alexandria, Va. 22314-1698.

FDR: War Comes to America (film--24 min.). Aims Media, Inc., 626 Justin Avenue, Glendale, Calif. 91201.

Foreign Correspondent (feature film, videotape--82 min.). University of Illinois Film/Video Center, 1325 S. Oak Street, Champaign, Ill. 61820.
Document Set 257-2

War and Society: Outsiders on The Inside

1. A. Philip Randolph States African-American Goals, 1942
2. African-American Doubts About the War for Democracy, 1944
3. Walter White Describes Racial Tension in Wartime Detroit, 1944
4. The Women's Bureau Recommends Improved Conditions for Female Shipyard Workers, 1944
5. The Women's Bureau's Assessment of Women's Progress in the Work Place, 1944
6. Dellie Hahne Recalls the War's Impact on Women's Attitudes, ca. 1945
7. Memories of War as Opportunity, ca. 1942-1945
8. Images of the War at Home: Women as a National Resource, 1942-1945This chapter allows instructors to establish continuity between the documents and evidence examined in earlier chapters (see Chapter 23). It will be possible to compare African-American and female aspirations at the end of World War I with the purposes set out by the NAACP and other African-American commentators during World War II.More significantly, however, the documents record the experiences of "outsiders" who effectively took advantage of wartime opportunity to establish a firm foothold in the economic structure of the United States. The documents are intended to complement the rich social history in the text account of World War II at home. However, to lay the groundwork for classroom discussion, instructors may wish to lecture on the new economic and geographic mobility, with emphasis on job opportunity as a stimulus to population movement.Perhaps the central question raised by the documents involves the long-term significance of wartime social change. Instructors may wish to highlight the rise of black militancy, including the Detroit riot of 1943. Moreover, the civil-liberties implications of both the Reynolds and Randolph statements offer an excellent opportunity to establish continuity with the rise of the modern civil-rights movement.Equally provocative will be the issue of the war's long-term effects on American women. Instructors might introduce the historiographic debate over the relationship between wartime opportunity, especially for married women, and the rise of the modern women's movement. In so doing, students should be encouraged to consider the connection between rapid social change and sweeping social movements. The documents, including contemporary accounts, illustrations, and oral-history memoirs, provide ample evidence on which students might base an argument on this question.A related problem involves the motives that produced the wartime rise in female labor-force participation. Instructors might provide background on government efforts to attract women workers, using Leila Rupp's analysis as a point of departure (see "Recommended Readings"). Students might compare insights drawn from the documents with Rupp's assertion that OWI missed its opportunity to make an appeal based on the lure of income.Like the Great Depression, World War II may be studied through oral history. This chapter relies on some of Studs Terkel's work, and it offers another opportunity for students to conduct their own interviews with survivors. The student projects would provide valuable context for discussion of the war's social impact.Finally, excellent audiovisual materials on the wartime experience are available. These range from feature films like Since You Went Away (1944) to government productions such as Women at War (1944), both of which reflect home-front developments and the temporary character of changes in the sexual division of labor. Similar questions are addressed in the retrospective documentary The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter. Audiovisual supplements can be very valuable in re-creating for students the "feel" of another historical era and giving them an understanding of decisions made by men and women of another generation.

Recommended Readings for Document Set 257-2


Michael C. C. Adams. The Best War Ever (1994).

Karen T. Anderson. Wartime Women: Sex Roles, Family Relations, and the Status of Women During World War II (1981).

M. Joyce Baker. Images of Women in Film: The War Years, 1941-1945 (1981).

Joyce Morton Blum. V Was for Victory: Politics and American Culture During World War II (1984).

Dominic J. Capeci, Jr. Race Relations in Wartime Detroit (1984).

Maureen Honey. Creating Rosie the Riveter: Class, Gender, and Propaganda During World War II (1984).

John W. Jeffries. Wartime America: The World War II Home Front (1996).

Ruth Milkman. Gender at Work: The Dynamics of Job Discrimination by Sex During World War II (1987).

Geoffrey Perrett. Days of Sadness, Years of Triumph: The American People, 1939-1945 (1973, rep. 1985).

Leila J. Rupp. Mobilizing Women for War: German and American Propaganda, 1939-1945 (1978). A shortcut is Rupp, "Women's Place Is in the War: Propaganda and Public Opinion in the United States and Germany, 1939-1945," in Carol Ruth Berkin and Mary Beth Norton, eds., Women of America: A History (1979): 343-359.
Audiovisual Resources for Document Set 257-2


America in the Forties, Series, Parts 1, 2 (videotape--60 min. each). PBS Video, 1320 Braddock Place, Alexandria, Va. 22314-1698.

The Black Press (videotape--86 min.). Half Nelson Productions, 149 Ninth Street, San Francisco, Calif. 94103.

The Home Front (film--90 min.). Churchill Films, 662 N. Robertson Street, Los Angeles, Calif. 90069.

The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter (film--60 min.). New Day Films, 22D Hollywood Avenue, Ho-Ho-Kus, N.J. 07423.

Live Goes to the Movies, Episode 2, The War Years (film, videotape--34 min.). Time-Life Films, 110 Eisenhower Drive, P.O. Box 644, Paramus, N.J. 07652.
Document Set 257-3

Coalition Warfare: New Friends in A Grand Alliance

1. The Soviet Invasion of Finland Shocks American Liberals, 1939
2. Roosevelt Denounces Soviet Dictatorship, 1940
3. Joseph E. Davies Defends the Soviet Union as a Reliable Ally, 1942
4. OWI Endorses Warner Brothers' Mission to Moscow, 1943
5. Mission to Moscow Presents the Soviet Case, 1943
6. Mission to Moscow Attacked as Propaganda, 1943
7. The American Perception of the Soviet Ally, 1945
8. Images of the Soviets and Their Leadership, 1939-1945The expansion of governmental functions during World War II was one of the most significant outcomes of the American involvement in total war. In no area was this transformation more evident than in a new commitment to the management of public opinion through efforts to control the media messages projected at the general public. By focusing on shifting American attitudes toward the Soviet Union, this document set offers an opportunity for students to comprehend wartime restrictions and the modern government's power to influence public opinion.In view of the recent termination of the Cold War and the dramatic changes under way in Russia, these documents also touch on a matter of intense topical interest. Because of the potentially confusing series of changes in Soviet-American relations between 1933 and 1947, an introductory lecture will provide essential background against which students may enter into informed discussion of the wartime opinion formation process. This discussion could emphasize the relationships among domestic opinion, internal affairs, and foreign policy developments. Preliminary discussion might focus on the public perception of communist activity in the United States, the impact of the Nazi-Soviet Pact, and the wisdom of Roosevelt's decision to extend lend-lease assistance to the Soviets in 1941.Because World War II is a part of the recent past, students should also be able to take advantage of community and family resources to gain an appreciation of the wartime experience, particularly life on the home front. Students could be asked to conduct interviews with persons who participated in the war effort at home. Although the interviews may be wide-ranging, students should be asked to focus on questions that explore the impact of the media on public opinion, including the importance of film, radio, and poster art. Interviewees should be asked to comment on images of the Soviet Union and how they changed between 1939 and 1945.Still another opportunity to examine opinion formation might involve the screening of one or more Hollywood films that focus on the Soviet Union. Among the possibilities are Mission to Moscow (1943), The North Star (1943), Song of Russia (1943), and Days of Glory (1944). In addition, the Why We Fight film Battle of Russia (1943) provides clear evidence of the army's entry into the propaganda field. Many of these films, but especially Mission to Moscow and Battle of Russia, contain substantial distortion of the historical record. By stressing historical accuracy, instructors can assist students in becoming critical evaluators of documentary evidence. A discussion of the historical discrepancies and omissions should also help students to understand the nature of propaganda and the impact of total war. Furthermore, students' definition of documentary evidence can expand as they learn to relate the filmed record to the historical context in which it was created.Although the evidence explored in this unit focuses on the domestic scene, it also deals with the diplomatic and military problems created by coalition warfare. One way to emphasize these issues would be to have students engage in a role-playing exercise examining the varying perceptions of the war expressed by the Allied leaders. Students may be asked to assume the identities of Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin for a discussion of the diplomacy of coalition warfare. Using the text as background, they could discuss key points of difference at various stages of the war. Emphasis might be placed on their efforts to cooperate in planning for the postwar era, despite the many points of conflict among them. A good point of departure would be an examination of the Fortune poll and the search for an explanation of its results. This discussion should take students into a review of the events that preceded the successful conclusion of this coalition war.

Recommended Readings for Document Set 257-3


Edward M. Bennett. Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Search for Victory: American-Soviet Relations, 1939-1945 (1985).

David Culbert, ed. Mission to Moscow (1980). (Note: Culbert provides essential background for teaching the film, Mission to Moscow, as well as the use of this document set.)

David Dallek. Franklin D. Roosevelt and American Foreign Policy, 1932-1945 (1979).

Thomas Doherty. Projection of War: Hollywood, American Culture, and World War II (1993).

Lloyd Gardner. Spheres of Influence (1993).

Maurice Isserman. Which Side Were You On? The American Communist Party During the Second World War (1982).

Warren Kimball. The Juggler: Franklin Roosevelt as Wartime Statesman (1991).

Clayton R. Koppes and Gregory Black. Hollywood Goes to War: How Politics, Profits, and Propaganda Shaped World War II Movies (1987).

George H. Roeder, J. The Censored War: American Visual Experience during World War II (1993).

Melvin Small. "How We Learned to Love the Russians: American Media and the Soviet Union During World War II," The Historian 36 (May 1974): 455-478.
Audiovisual Resources for Document Set 257-3


Battle of Russia (videotape--83 min.). National Audio Visual Center, National Archives and Records Service, General Services Administration, Order Section JL, Washington, D.C. 20409.

Mission to Moscow (film--124 min.). Swank Motion Pictures, Inc., 350 Vanderbilt Motor Parkway, Hauppauge, N.Y. 11787.

1945: Brave New World, The People's Century Series (videotape--60 min.). PBS Video, 1320 Braddock Place, Alexandria, Va. 22314-1698.

Our Russian Front (videotape--60 min.). Film Classics Exchange, 1914 S. Vermont Avenue, Los Angeles, Calif. 90007.

Seeing Red (videotape--100 min.). New Day Films, Inc., 22D Hollywood Avenue, Ho-Ho-Kus, N.J. 07423.

World War II: The Propaganda Battle (videotape--55 min.). From A Walk Through the Twentieth Century with Bill Moyers Series. PBS Video, 1320 Braddock Place, Alexandria, Va. 22314-1698.