The Great WarMilitary
America enters World War I
After German submarine attacks, the United States enters World War I. Fresh American troops help break the stalemate and tip the balance toward Allied victory in 1918.
American History · Chronicle VIII of X
The World Wars & the Great Depression
Arsenal of Democracy · 1917-1945
Two world wars, the Great Depression, and the New Deal.
- Span
- 1917 – 1945
- Entries
- 7
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- Cold War America
Entry 1 of 7
The Roaring TwentiesCultural
Women's suffrage and the Jazz Age
The Nineteenth Amendment gives women the vote as the nation plunges into the Jazz Age — a decade of prosperity, automobiles, radio, and Prohibition-era excess.
CollapseEvent
The Wall Street Crash
The stock market collapses in October, wiping out fortunes and triggering the Great Depression — a decade of mass unemployment, bank failures, and hardship.
The New DealPolitical
Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal
President Franklin D. Roosevelt launches the New Deal, a sweeping program of relief and reform — from Social Security to public works — that reshapes the role of government.
Roosevelt's fireside radio chats reassured a frightened public, and agencies like the WPA and the CCC put millions back to work, though full recovery would come only with the war.
A Day of InfamyMilitary
Pearl Harbor and entry into World War II
Japan's surprise attack on Pearl Harbor draws the United States into World War II, mobilizing the nation's vast industrial power as the 'arsenal of democracy.'
The Tide TurnsMilitary
D-Day and the liberation of Europe
American, British, and Canadian forces storm the beaches of Normandy on D-Day, opening the Western Front that will help crush Nazi Germany.
Victory and the AtomMilitary
Victory and the atomic bomb
Germany surrenders in May; in August atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki end the war with Japan, leaving the United States the world's foremost military and economic power.