World War II       on the Home Front

The goal of this class is to “reconstruct the worldview” of the Home Front from 1939-1945,” especially from Pearl Harbor to “V-J” Day.  January Term with its daily classes in only one subject gives us the opportunity to solely and totally concentrate our attention on this goal, making it easier to reconstruct a worldview. Through music, diary entries, correspondence, and Ernie Pyle newspaper columns, in daily, opening exercises we recreate the era. Near Oneonta is the town of Sidney, the site of the WWII defense factory, Scintilla, a division of Bendix.  Using issues of the Scintilla company magazine, oral histories from women who worked there during the war and other resources, we examine the company's impact on the area.  For our reenactment of "The Life and Times of Rosie and Raymond, the Riveter Day,” the students and professor dress in relevant costumes, as depicted in the accompany photographs.  We also examine WWII era magazines, analyzing the messages/propaganda depicted through their covers, advertisements, articles, etc.  Beginning with the professor's collection of WWII Home Front memorabilia and enlarged with students' and colleagues' contributions, we examine the artifacts of the WWII home front  However, this “hands-on” approach to history does NOT exempt us from critically analyzing the events and examining the historiography, especially the debate over WWII as a “watershed” in the 20th Century and WWII as “The Good War.”  We address the question: Was WWII’s impact on society an example of continuity or change?  As we are focusing on The Home Front,” the course is strong on cultural and women’s studies scholarship, rather than military history, and we incorporate race, gender, class, and ethnicity in our analysis.  The students' project for the semester is a research paper focused on their family's experiences during World War II, with special emphasis on The Home Front.  The final papers are placed in the Hartwick College Archives.

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