1)The United States in 1945 and the legacies of WWII

• The United States participated in the Second World War from December 1943 to August 1925 and emerged as the most militarily and economically powerful nation in the world

  1945
• Powers of the presidency

  • Greatly increased under the Democrat President Franklin D. Roosevelt from March 1933 to April 1945 due to the Great Depression and the Second World War
• Increase in presidential powers during the Great Depression

  1. Roosevelt asked Congress for unprecedented power and money for federal government programmes to help American economic recovery

  2. Congress responded positively because this was an emergency

  3. Limitations on presidential power: conservative Supreme Court declared some New Deal legislation unconstitutional, public and some Democrats opposed Roosevelt's attempt to pack the Supreme Court, Congress grew reluctant to accept Roosevelt's proposed legislation
• Increase in presidential powers during World War II

  1. As head of state, Roosevelt represented and embodied the nation in a time of great national peril

  2. As commander-in-chief, Roosevelt chose where to deploy American forces and resources

  3. As commander-in-chief and head of state, Roosevelt negotiated with America's most important allies, the Soviet Union and Great Britain, which greatly affected the post-war world and America's role in it
• Composition of Roosevelt's Democrat Party

  • Urban (mostly Catholic) ethnic voters in the North, eg. Irish-Americans, Polish-Americans
  • Workers and the unemployed across the nation
  • The 'Solid South' where whites traditionally voted Democrat because Abraham Lincoln's Republican Party had ended slavery in the Civil War era
• Characteristics of the Republican Party

  • Greatly influenced by big business and the rich
  • Generally preferred an economy unregulated by the federal government
  • Hated Roosevelt's New Deal because it was pro-labour unions and used taxes on the wealthy to help poorer Americans
• The United States was the world's wealthiest nation in 1945 because it was rich in natural resources, the war stimulated an economic boom as factories worked flat out to produce war material
• In 1942, the United States had 7 per cent of the world's population but 42 per cent of its income, produced half the world's manufactured goods (57% of the steel, 62% of the oil and 80% of the cars), and had an average per capita income nearly twice that of the other most prosperous nations, eg. Canada
• In the 1940s, unemployment never rose above 4 per cent and the average American earned more in real money than previous generations. Greater disposable income led to a boom in consumer goods, eg cars, vacuum cleaners and refrigerators. That created many jobs and raised the purchaser's standard of living. It was easy to believe that hard work would bring even greater prosperity-the 'American Dream'.