American History Since 1877 - HIST 122 Resource Guide

War between the Central European Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, and allies) on one side and the Triple Entente (Britain and the British Empire, France, and Russia) and their allies...

Agreement, signed Aug. 27, 1928, condemning "recourse to war for the solution of international controversies..."

When World War I ended in 1918, the victorious Allies, led by the UK, France, and the USA, held discussions at the palace of Versailles in 1919 on Germany and how to reorder Europe...

Formulation of a peace program, presented at the end of World War I by U.S. President Woodrow Wilson...

Although it shared the basic characteristics of other such crises (see depression), the Great Depression was unprecedented in its length and in the wholesale poverty and tragedy it inflicted on society...

Broadly, the extension of rule or influence by one government, nation, or society over another...

Payments or other compensation offered as an indemnity for loss or damage. Although the term is used to cover payments made to Holocaust survivors and to Japanese Americans interned during World War II...

A detention site outside the normal prison system created for military or political purposes to confine, terrorize, and, in some cases, kill civilians...

[from Judah], traditionally, descendants of Judah, the fourth son of Jacob, whose tribe, with that of his half brother Benjamin, made up the kingdom of Judah...

Expulsion from a country of an alien who is living there illegally, or whose presence is considered contrary to the public good...

Name given to the period of persecution and extermination of European Jews by Nazi Germany...

Of people, geographical movements of individuals or groups for the purpose of permanently resettling...

Entrance of a person (an alien) into a new country for the purpose of establishing permanent residence. Motives for immigration, like those for migration generally, are often economic, although religious or political factors may be very important...

Systematic manipulation of public opinion, generally by the use of symbols such as flags, monuments, oratory, and publications...

Systematic violence in the furtherance of political aims, often by small guerrilla groups...

War between Germany, Italy, and Japan (the Axis powers) on one side, and Britain, the Commonwealth, France, the USA, the USSR, and China (the Allies) on the other...

US Pacific naval base on Oahu island, Hawaii, USA, the scene of a Japanese aerial attack on 7 December 1941, which brought the USA into World War II...

6 June 1944, the day of the Allied invasion of Normandy under the command of General Eisenhower to commence Operation Overlord, the liberation of Western Europe from German occupation...

The United States used an atomic bomb against the Japanese city of Hiroshima on 6 August 1945. Three days later, on August 9, it dropped a bomb on Nagasaki...

With the discovery of fission in 1939, it became clear to scientists that certain radioactive materials could be used to make a bomb of unprecented power...

Or H-bomb, weapon deriving a large portion of its energy from the nuclear fusion of hydrogen isotopes...

Or A-bomb, weapon deriving its explosive force from the release of atomic energy through the fission (splitting) of heavy nuclei...

Family notable in U.S. industrial history. The Du Pont family's importance began when Eleuthère Irénée Du Pont established a gunpowder mill on the Brandywine River in N Delaware...

German-born US theoretical physicist who revolutionized our understanding of matter, space, and time with his two theories of relativity...

War involving the use of nuclear weapons. Nuclear-weapons research began in Britain in 1940, but was transferred to the USA after it entered World War II...

After World War II, the trials of the 24 chief Nazi war criminals November 1945-October 1946 by an international military tribunal consisting of four judges and four prosecutors...

The Yalta conferees confirmed the policy adopted at the Casablanca Conference of demanding Germany's unconditional surrender...

Economic, military, technical, and financial assistance given on an international, and usually intergovernmental level...

Meeting (July 17–Aug. 2, 1945) of the principal Allies in World War II (the United States, the USSR, and Great Britain) to clarify and implement agreements previously reached at the Yalta Conference...

Association of states for international peace, security, and cooperation, with its headquarters in New York City. The UN was established on 24 October 1945 by 51 states as a successor to the League of Nations...

The State Historical Society of Missouri's World War II digital collection includes photographs and letters from servicemen and servicewomen during the war.

Just before 8 on the morning of December 7, 1941, hundreds of Japanese fighter planes attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor near Honolulu, Hawaii. The barrage lasted just two hours, but it was devastating

Includes information about "Rosie the Riveter"

The instability created in Europe by the First World War (1914-18) set the stage for another international conflict–World War II–which broke out two decades later and would prove even more devastating.

The 338 items, primarily World War II-era posters, featured in this site's database were collected and preserved by the Northwestern University Government and Geographic Information and Data Services Department. Issued by various U.S. government agencies, these posters represent the government's effort, through art, illustration, and photographs, to pull the American people together in a time of adversity for the country and its population.

Primary source materials on the Web.
Original documents regarding all aspects of the war.