Westward, But Not by Choice

1
Westward, But Not by Choice

• Migrant Workers, Concentration Camps and
  Thermonuclear Warfare

2

• Modern Times
• Charlie Chaplin film (1936)
• Urban factory workers seen as dehumanized, mere
  cogs in machine

3

• Grapes of Wrath
• John Steinbeck novel (1939)
• John Ford film (1940)
• Academy Award, Best Director (1940)
• New social significance for American film?
• Sanitized Hollywood version of novel?

4
Urban vs. Rural, Again

• 1920 Census reports first urban majority
• 1930 Depression hits farm economy hardest
• John Steinbecks Grapes of Wrath (1939)
• 1940s-50s rural US still depressed army of
  hoboes
• Late 20th century Cesar Chavezs agrarian
  workers union, the United Farm Workers
• Did FDRs New Deal . . .
• Save U.S. from violent working-class revolution
  (or fascist counterrevolution)?
• Socialize American economy government?
• restore protect corporate capitalism?
  (Casper/Davies)
• Fail to do enough to produce full economic
  recovery?

5
Plenty of Money to be MadeSelling the Army Its
Tools of Trade

• Entry into WWII jumpstarts both U.S. economies
• Women good! Japs bad!
• Rosie the Riveter the West Coast internment
  camps
• Total war unconditional surrender
• Aftermath a long atomic shadow over the 1950s
• Eisenhower after WWII
• military-industrial complex warning
• Cold War Red Scare cause or effect of
  defense spending?
• Women after WWII
• out of the factories and back into the kitchen
• Returning GIs flood schools, suburbs the BABY
  BOOM!!!