Some Americans remained somewhat ambivalent about all this futurism and throughout the 1920s and 1930s they expressed a deepseated historical yearning. It is estimated that about 16 million Americans served in the armed forces during the course of World War II, including hundreds of thousands … Terrence H. Witkowski (1998) ,"The American Consumer Home Front During World War Ii", in NA - Advances in Consumer Research Volume 25, eds. The War Production Board allocated scarce materials and stopped or limited the production of civilian goods, while the Office of Price Administration imposed price freezes and forced housewives to learn and live with a complex system of rationing. An alarmed industry had the order overturned and soon was working with the military to create a multitude of new packaging materials and applications that eventually were adapted for civilian life. A realistic, three-dimensional style replaced the flat, abstract images typical of the First World War. Advertising agencies had evolved into something close to their present form during the first decade of the century and would reach the height of their influence during the twenties (Fox 1984; Pope 1983). American Tobacco even used purported wartime demands for camouflage paint as an excuse to change the color of its Lucky Strike package from dark green to white and to proclaim that "Lucky Strike Green Has Gone to War!". Encouraged by admen, who Marchand (1985) calls the "apostles of modernity," American consumers were learning to have faith in these and other technologies including commercial canning and frozen foods. Thirty-three percent of all Americans had no running water in 1940, 67 percent had no central heat, 47 percent had no built-in bathing apparatus in their homes, 48 percent had no interior access to automatic or other washing machines, 48 percent had no refrigerator, and 33 percent cooked with wood or coal (Green 1992, pp. In the 1760s and 1770s, colonists organized mass boycotts of British goods in order to force Parliament to rescind objectionable taxes. Manufacturers used rayon for hosiery after silk and nylon were removed from domestic use. Grocers were also held responsible for recycling waste fats. As the large inventories at the end of 1941 were depleted, however, the sale of durable goods at retail dropped 33 percent from 1941 to 1942 and an additional 50 percent from 1942 to 1943 (Williams 1972/orig. 40. Army-Navy surplus stores opened across the country and stayed in business for years. In a guerrilla war on Luzon, Americans and Filipinos fought Japanese occupiers in Philippines before the return of General MacArthur in World War II. Material allocations, price controls, and rationing frequently led to compliance problems and varying degrees of black market activities. American citizens responded to the threats posed by the Third Reich in two main ways. Cowan, Ruth S. (1983), More Work for Mother: The Ironies of Household Technology from the Open Hearth to the Microwave, New York: Basic Books. "Produce and Conserve, Share and Play Square" exhorted one War Food Administration slogan. The story of American consumers between 1941 and 1945 is fascinating and clearly worth retelling for its own sake. People traded straight pins, radio tubes, cooking utensils, garbage can lids, and used vacuum cleaners. By the end of the war, however, the advertising tableaux of these same corporations emphasized a futuristic world-of-tomorrow (Fox 1975; Marchand 1994) that seemed inimical to the quaint, crowded ambience of the local market. There were four different rationing programs. Bakelite, the trade name for phenol formaldehyde, was used to make stylish radio cabinets and streamlined, Moderne-style irons and electric shavers (Katz 1984). The U.S. Treasury offered a series of war bonds citizens could purchase to invest in the country and, ideally, one’s own financial future. Although tied to the automobile and stocked with products (lottery tickets, videos, and condoms) never sold in the 1940s, they still offer convenience at high prices and, like many neighborhood groceries of the past, cater to a largely working class clientele. Henry Ford (Greenfield Village), Henry Francis du Pont (Winterthur Museum), and the Rockefellars (Colonial Williamsburg) assembled great collections of early Americana, while middle-class consumers favored colonial-style furnishings and architecture purchased in stores or through mail-order catalogs (Green 1992; Marling 1988). Finally, gasoline shortages forced consumers to shop closer to home, helping small grocers, and wartime scarcity necessitated changes in product and packaging materials, forms, and colors (Marchand 1994; Sitikoff 1994; Ward 1994). 1943). Never again would big government reach down to individuals with such a personal touch" (Ward 1994, p. 101). Jessie Young, the "radio homemaker" of Iowa station KMA, broadcasting from her own kitchen, suggested recipes like Marbled Macaroni with tomato sauce and Spam, and Mock Hamburgers made of oatmeal and eggs flavored with onions and sage and cooked in tomato juice. Encouraged by admen, who Marchand (1985) calls the "apostles of modernity," American consumers were learning to have faith in these and other technologies including commercial canning and frozen foods. The past fifteen years have witnessed a surge of interest in the field of American consumer history. In addition, conservation messages were printed on much packaging and childrens toys, games, and advertising were infused with patriotic symbols and characters. Share to Twitter. More than 8000 artists, who belonged to "Artists for Victory," designed posters. Just before World War II broke out, Haupt traveled to … Five Hundred thrity-eight million pounds of waste fats, twenty-three million tons of paper, and eight hundred million pounds of tin had been salvaged; and all goals set by the Red Cross and National War Fund had been reached and exceeded (Fox 1975, p. 54). It begins with a brief review of the consumption context established in the 1920s and 1930s. led the city to prohibit the wearing of zoot suits. When rayon also became scarce in the fall of 1942, women complained about the lack of hosiery. The youngest, at 22, was Herbert Haupt. The War Assets Administration launched a vigorous and highly creative marketing campaign to sell this stuff. "When the nation went to war, the rhetoric changed. Williams, Faith M. (1972), "The Standard of Living in Wartime," in The American Family in World War II, Ray H. Abrams, ed. 20 australasian journal of american studies and aEitudes toward women in state and non-state propaganda, and within the comic books were diverse and complex. Gas masks, aircraft tubing, and tank periscopes were recycled as parts in childrens toys (Chiles 1995). Although still quite high at 14.6 percent, unemployment had dropped as the economy gained momentum and began shifting to a wartime footing. The advertising images generated during the war created an image of the meaning of victory as the freedom to indulge in all those luxuries which Americans had been denied during the war. 1943). The "turbans" women wrapped around their hair for safety while working in defense plants (see Daniel 1995, p. 557), started to be worn as an article of fashion. 117-127. Daniel, Clifton ed. Yet, given the American penchant for personal liberty, it is remarkable how stoically most people accepted such control over their lives. This collection of little known photographs at the U.S. National Archives shows American and Soviet soldiers working together in training, sport, meals, and entertainment at the joint US-Soviet base operations in Eastern Europe during World War II. Grocers were also held responsible for recycling waste fats. Barnow, Erik (1975), Tube of Plenty: The Evolution of American Television, London: Oxford University Press. This paper attempts to fill the gap with a brief narrative that addresses the major events of the period as well as some of their antecedent conditions and legacies for postwar consumers. During World War II, American shoppers B. did not buy as many magazines, as part of the war effort. In order to economize on fabric, womens hats became smaller, skirts shorter, and many items of clothing simpler and more informal (Williams 1972/orig. Innovations in marketing management undoubtedly had a great impact on American consumers in the 1920s, but perhaps just as important was the flood of new products first introduced and/or mass produced during this period (see Table 1). To save money, they relearned traditional domestic arts and how to make do with what they had (Hill, Hirschman, and Bauman 1997). Five Hundred thrity-eight million pounds of waste fats, twenty-three million tons of paper, and eight hundred million pounds of tin had been salvaged; and all goals set by the Red Cross and National War Fund had been reached and exceeded (Fox 1975, p. 54).
