Marking a momentous period in American history, Radio 4 charts the development of the United States, exploring three key themes: Empire, Liberty and Faith. (In three series) The mid-1920s saw an unprecedented economic boom in America. Unemployment was under 2% in 1926 and share values on the New York Stock Exchange increased fifteen-fold between 1923 and 1929. The bubble burst in October 1929, when the value of the market fell by one-third. Few people owned shares so the crash of the over-inflated stock market wasn't in itself decisive but it represented a barometer for the whole economy. The resulting uncertainty led to a cutback in spending. Throughout the 1920s consumer goods were the growth area, as advertising spread the message that Americans needed fridges, radios and above all cars, often bought on credit. So when Americans started tightening their belts in the winter of 1929, there was a massive knock-on effect throughout the economy. Factories closed and workers were laid off and, as prices collapsed, farmers suffered too. Many couldn't keep up payments for goods or mortgages, which in turn undermined the rickety banking system, leading to banks collapsing. Millions lost their savings, their jobs and their homes. The President, Herbert Hoover, seemed unable to cope and the actions he did take were too little, too late. He was defeated in the 1932 presidential election by Franklin D. Roosevelt, known as FDR. When Roosevelt was inaugurated in March 1933, America was in the grip of its deepest depression. A quarter of American workers were unemployed and 38 of the 48 states had closed their banks. Roosevelt himself had faced considerable personal adversity after his lower body was paralysed by polio in 1921. He knew that confidence was what the American people needed, and it became the watchword of his first 'Hundred Days' and of his presidency. He introduced regular radio talks, his 'Fireside Chats' and in his first, explained his plans for resurrecting the banking system. This helped to restore trust in American banks. FDR also honoured the Democrats' election pledge to end Prohibition. By April 1933 the national mood was more positive - testament that the Depression was in part psychological. In 1935, the Federal Government embarked on a massive programme of work relief. By the end of 1938 it employed an eighth of the workforce on construction projects - roads, hospitals and airports - while professionals were paid to overhaul libraries and become schoolteachers. The United States' libertarian tradition meant it lagged far behind Europe in welfare provision, but the Social Security Act of 1935 established national unemployment compensation and old-age pensions. To allay fears that this went against the tradition of American self-help, it was financed through payroll taxes rather than by Federal government. The National Labor Relations Act of 1935 gave, for the first time, Federal backing to workers' rights to organize unions. Another initiative was the Rural Electrification Administration, or REA, representing one of the most fundamental transformations of American life in the period. When Roosevelt became president, one farm in ten had electricity; by 1939 this was up to one quarter, and, by 1950, nearly all did, revolutionising the lives of farming families. In a piecemeal way, in the second 'Hundred Days' the Democrats and the New Deal were reallocating Federal largesse to those groups that had missed out before. It was little wonder that in 1936 Roosevelt was re-elected by a landslide. Supporters of Roosevelt's New Deal saw it as America's salvation; opponents regarded it as a socialist-style threat to their liberties. Roosevelt's decision to wage war on the Supreme Court, attempting to appoint additional members to support his policies, played into the hands of his adversaries. And in the autumn of 1937 the New Deal seemed to have run out of steam, as the economy took a nosedive and unemployment soared. Roosevelt was convinced he would not win a third term, but events in Europe would change everything. The mid-1930s marked the depths of American isolationism. Fearing the entanglements which had dragged the U.S. into the Great War, Congress passed a series of Neutrality Acts banning Americans from selling arms or making loans to belligerent countries in any future war. Although Roosevelt detested Nazism, he believed responsibility for confronting Hitler lay with France and Britain. When the Munich Agreement signalled their unwillingness to do this, Roosevelt became more assertive, developing a new foreign policy position that, on grounds of security and ideology, America could not be indifferent to events in Europe. When war broke out 1939, FDR proclaimed U.S. neutrality but persuaded Congress to amend the Neutrality Acts to a "cash-and-carry basis", which was essentially covert aid to Britain. His hope that Britain and France would fulfil their roles as America's frontline was dashed in May 1940, when Germany occupied Western Europe. Privately FDR did not rate Britain's chances of survival but publicly he supported Britain with the September 1940 destroyers-for-bases deal. The crisis caused by the Fall of France gave FDR a credible reason to run for a third term (George Washington had set the precedent of no more than two). In November 1940 he was re-elected, giving him more freedom of manoeuvre to help Britain. Roosevelt's main foreign policy objective was now helping Britain stay in the war. Britain was short of funds, but politically Roosevelt could not be seen to be giving them supplies. The solution was Lend-Lease which was passed by Congress in March 1941. In the course of the war, it would cover over half Britain's total balance of payments deficit - a huge contribution to Britain's war effort. Meanwhile, in the Pacific, with the British and Russians fighting for their lives, the US remained the only significant obstacle to Japanese expansion. On December 7th 1941 the Japanese launched a surprise attack on the US fleet at Pearl Harbor in the Hawaiian Islands. 2,400 Americans were killed and 8 battleships sunk or badly damaged. Roosevelt described it as 'a date which will live in infamy' and Congress declared war on Japan. Three days later Hitler declared war on the U.S. On the West Coast there was panic, and nearly 120,000 Japanese-Americans were moved to camps in remote parts of the interior. On the East Coast, the danger was complacency. It took months for a proper convoy system to be established, and a blackout imposed on coastal towns - German U-boats took the opportunity to sink 3 million tons of Allied shipping in the first 7 months of 1942. In the Pacific too, the war initially went badly. After Pearl Harbor, the Japanese drove the Americans from the Philippines, the British from Malaya and Burma and the Dutch from the East Indies. It looked as if India and Australia might fall. But pioneering a new kind of seaborne air warfare, in June 1942 the Americans won their first significant victory against the Japanese at Midway. This marked the high tide of the Japanese advance across the Pacific. On the home front, the war pulled America out of the Depression: between 1940 and 1944 unemployment dropped from 15% to just over 1%. Much of this was due to conscription in the armed forces, but war production also had a massive effect on the economy. Shipyards and factories in cities across the South and the West Coast boomed, drawing in workers from all over the U.S. One of the biggest migrations was of blacks from the rural South into Northern cities, where discrimination remained but paid jobs were available. Discrimination in the armed forces meant blacks served in segregated units with inferior facilities and low-quality white officers. The military authorities ruled out integration, arguing that their job was to win the war, not engage in social engineering. Across the Atlantic, Britain remained the senior partner in the military alliance. Fearing the Western Allies were not yet prepared for a cross-Channel attack, the fighting was concentrated first in North Africa and then in Italy, much to the frustration of the Americans who were pushing for the invasion of France. In 1944 the United States became the senior partner and the Allied landings in Normandy, which eventually came in June 1944, were headed by an American general, Dwight Eisenhower. American dominance at the front reflected the massive arsenal of democracy at home - by 1944 the United States was producing 40% of the world's armaments. The most striking testimony to America's industrial might was the development of the atomic bomb. In that period, no other nation could have found the vast tracts of land and the resources (nearly 2 billion dollars) for the project. The Bomb was intended for possible use against Germany but the Nazi regime surrendered in May 1945. By then America had entered a new era. In April Roosevelt died from a cerebral haemorrhage. U.S. forces had gradually been driving the Japanese out of the Pacific, but an invasion of Japan itself would face savage resistance. So a new and inexperienced president, Harry Truman, made the decision to drop the atomic bombs on Japan, which surrendered unconditionally a few days later. In the new jargon of the time, the United States was now a 'superpower'. Episode summaries by Victoria Kingston.
Monday - Fridays 3.45pm
Omnibus - Friday 9pm
Series 2 - 19 January - 27 February 2009
Listen to the latest omnibus edition (27 Feb 2009).
Watch The jazz age hits Main Street (audio-video slideshow).
Watch The Great Depression (audio-video slideshow).Week 11 - War & Peace
From Boom to Bust
New Deal
'A War for the Survival of Democracy'
Floundering into War
'A Hell of a War'
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Saturday, 28 February 2009
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