Forgotten Men and Fallen Women

Holly Allen

Description

During the Great Depression and into the war years, the Roosevelt administration sought to transform the political, institutional, and social contours of the United States. One result of the New Deal was the emergence and deployment of a novel set of narratives-reflected in social scientific case studies, government documents, and popular media-meant to reorient relationships among gender, race, sexuality, and national political power. In Forgotten Men and Fallen Women, Holly Allen focuses on the interplay of popular and official narratives of forgotten manhood, fallen womanhood, and other social and moral archetypes. In doing so, she explores how federal officials used stories of collective civic identity to enlist popular support for the expansive New Deal state and, later, for the war effort.These stories, she argues, had practical consequences for federal relief politics. The forgotten man, identified by Roosevelt in a fireside chat in 1932, for instance, was a compelling figure of collective civic identity and the counterpart to the white, male breadwinner who was the prime beneficiary of New Deal relief programs. He was also associated with women who were blamed either for not supporting their husbands and family at all (owing to laziness, shrewishness, or infidelity) or for supporting them too well by taking their husbands' jobs, rather than staying at home and allowing the men to work.During World War II, Allen finds, federal policies and programs continued to be shaped by specific gendered stories-most centrally, the story of the heroic white civilian defender, which animated the Office of Civilian Defense, and the story of the sacrificial Nisei (Japanese-American) soldier, which was used by the War Relocation Authority. The Roosevelt administration's engagement with such widely circulating narratives, Allen concludes, highlights the affective dimensions of U.S. citizenship and state formation.

Sujets

• Histoire
• USA
• Social group
• World War II
• History of the Americas
• États-Unis
• Gender studies

Informations

• Publié par: Cornell University Press
• Date de parution: 11 août 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780801455841
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 3 Mo

Extrait

c FORGOTTEN MEN AND FALLEN WOMEN

FORGOTTEN MEN AND FALLEN WOMEN T HE CULT URAL POL I T I CS OF f NE W DE AL NARRAT I VES

H o l ly A l l e n

CORNELL UNIVERSITY Ithaca and London

Cover image:Alexander Oja,Nite in North St. Paul (1941). Courtesy of the Minnesota Historical Society.

Copyright © 2015 by Cornell University

All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or parts thereof, must not be repro duced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher. For information, address Cornell University Press, Sage House, 512 East State Street, Ithaca, NewYork 14850.

First published 2015 by Cornell University Press

Printed in the United States of America

Library of Congress CataloginginPublication Data

Allen, Holly, 1965– author.  Forgotten men and fallen women : the cultural politics of New Deal narratives / Holly Allen.  pages cm  Includes bibliographical references and index.  ISBN 9780801453571 (cloth : alk. paper)  1. New Deal, 19331939—Personal narratives. 2. United States—Social conditions—1933–1945. 3. Politics and culture—United States—History—20th century. 4. Sex role—United States—History—20th century. 5. United States—Race relations—History— 20th century. I. Title.

E806.A44 2015 973.917—dc23

2014039031

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Cloth printing

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To the memory of my mother, Candace Claire Mueller

and to her granddaughters, Maisie, Claire, and Lily

c Co n t e n t s

 “More Terrible than the Sword”: Emotions, Facts, and Gendered New Deal Narratives 1. The War to Save the Forgotten Man: Gender, Citizenship, and the Politics of Work Relief 2. “Uncle Sam’s Wayside Inns”: Transient Narratives and the Sexual Politics of the Emergent Welfare State 3. “Builder of Men”: Homosociality and the Nationalist Accents of the Civilian Conservation Corps 4. “To Wallop the Ladies”: Woman Blaming and Nation Saving in the Rhetoric of Emergency Relief 5. Civilian Protectors and Meddlesome Women: Gendering the War Effort through the Office of Civilian Defense 6. The Citizen-Soldier and the Citizen- Internee: Fraternity, Race, and American Nationhood, 1942–46  Stories of Homecoming: Deserving GIs and Faithless Service Wives

Notes211 Index247

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c FORGOTTEN MEN AND FALLEN WOMEN