- July, 1943: American and British forces land in Sicily and begin to move north, up through the Italian mainland. Mussolini's government collapses, he flees to Germany and Italy now joins the Allies. But it took another year for the Allies to drive German forces out of Italy. - America and the Holocaust: by 1942 the U.S. government had incontrovertible evidence of the Holocaust. Pleas for the U.S. to bomb railroad leading to the death camps were rejected as "militarily unfeasible"... The U.S. also resisted pleas to admit Jewish refugees attempting to escape Europe.
- The American people in wartime: WWII was the most consuming military experience since the Civil War. U.S. forces engaged in combat around the world for 4 years. - War-induced economic recovery ended the Great Depression. - The U.S. govt invested $40 billion into military and transportation facilities, highways and power plants in CA....so much so that by the end end of the war, CA and much of the west coast had been transformed. - Wartime science & technology: early development of the computer, improvements in mass production, aviation and naval technology, radar and sonar technology, combined Allied intelligence and code-breaking... - Racism in the U.S. military: racial segregation was prevalent at the beginning of the war, but began to evolve by war's end. Native American "Code Talkers" were a huge asset to U.S. gains in the Pacific Theater. - Women and the war effort: "We Can Do It!," Rosie the Riveter, most women were employed in service-sector, not factory jobs.