For the United States, World War II and the Great Depression constituted the most important economic event of the twentieth century. The
war's effects were varied and far-reaching. The war decisively ended the depression itself. The federal government emerged from the war as a potent economic actor, able to regulate economic activity and to partially control the economy through spending and consumption. American industry was revitalized by the war, and many sectors were by 1945 either sharply oriented to defense production (for example, aerospace and electronics) or completely dependent on it (atomic energy).
The organized labor movement, strengthened by the war beyond even its depression-era height, became a major counterbalance to both the government and private industry. The war's rapid scientific and technological changes continued and intensified trends begun during the Great Depression and created a permanent expectation of continued innovation on the part of many scientists, engineers, government officials and citizens.
Similarly, the substantial increases in personal income and frequently,
if not always, in quality of life during the war led many Americans to foresee
permanent improvements to their material circumstances, even as others
feared a postwar return of the depression. Finally, the war's global scale
severely damaged every major economy in the world except for the United
States, which thus enjoyed unprecedented economic and political power
after 1945.
Despite the almost-continual crises of World War II, the American economy
expanded at an unprecedented and unduplicated rate. Between 1941 and 1945, The
gross national product of the U.S., as measured in constant dollars, grew from
$88.6 billion in 1939, (while the country was still suffering from the
depression) to $135 billion in 1944. War-related production skyrocketed from
just two percent of GNP to 40 percent in 1943 (Milward, 63).
The organized labor movement, strengthened by the war beyond even its depression-era height, became a major counterbalance to both the government and private industry. The war's rapid scientific and technological changes continued and intensified trends begun during the Great Depression and created a permanent expectation of continued innovation on the part of many scientists, engineers, government officials and citizens.
Similarly, the substantial increases in personal income and frequently,
if not always, in quality of life during the war led many Americans to foresee
permanent improvements to their material circumstances, even as others
feared a postwar return of the depression. Finally, the war's global scale
severely damaged every major economy in the world except for the United
States, which thus enjoyed unprecedented economic and political power
after 1945.
Despite the almost-continual crises of World War II, the American economy
expanded at an unprecedented and unduplicated rate. Between 1941 and 1945, The
gross national product of the U.S., as measured in constant dollars, grew from
$88.6 billion in 1939, (while the country was still suffering from the
depression) to $135 billion in 1944. War-related production skyrocketed from
just two percent of GNP to 40 percent in 1943 (Milward, 63).