1940s: The Way We Lived

The Great Depression (1929–41) had plunged millions of Americans into poverty. Although New Deal programs had helped many, at the beginning of World War II (1939–45) 40 percent of all American families were living in poverty. The desperate conditions of the Depression left a deep impression on the people living through it. Their personal suffering during the Depression prepared them to endure the mandatory restrictions on food, clothing, and other items that were needed to help the war effort of the 1940s. Americans rallied behind their soldiers and grew their own vegetables in "victory" gardens. They lived frugally even though they could now find jobs and had extra money to spend.

The deprivations during the Depression had caused many people to delay marriage. By the 1940s, many couples rushed to marry before soldiers left for the war. When the soldiers returned after the war, many couples moved into ranch houses in the suburbs and began having children—lots of children. The baby boom had started. By the mid-1940s, the country's economy was prospering; people could find jobs that paid well; families were growing; and people began buying things. Homes, cars (not just family sedans, but hot rods), electric appliances, and other once-luxuries were purchased or financed. People began vacationing more often, going to Las Vegas, Nevada, the gambling capital of the country, or spending spring breaks in sunny locations.

But the postwar period did have a downside. The end of World War II had divided the world in two parts: democratic and communist. Countries with opposing types of governance distrusted one another and encouraged their citizens to be wary of others as well. Fear was a common feeling during what came to be called the "Cold War" (1945–91). No bloody battles were fought between such countries, but each prepared for the worst. People built cement bomb shelters dug into their backyards. In the United States, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents became revered as supersleuths who would keep America safe from communists. The fear and distrust generated by the Cold War would not end until the Soviet Union government dissolved in 1991.