myth of WWII
Michael C. C. Adams' book, The Best War Ever: America and World War II, attempts to dispel the numerous misconceptions of the Second World War. As the title suggests, Americans came out of the war with a positive view of the preceding five turbulent years. This myth was born from several factors. Due to the overseas setting of both theaters of the war, intense government propaganda, Hollywood's glamorization, and widespread economic prosperity, Americans were largely sheltered form the brutal truth of World War II.Even to this day, the generation of World War II is viewed as being superior in morality and unity. The popular illusion held that "there were no ethnic or gender problems, families were happy and united, and children worked hard in school and read a great number of books." (115) It was a golden era when all Americans set aside their differences and united for a common cause which everyone put above all other priorities. The United States Army was thought of as more advanced in fighting ability, weapons, and supposedly held to a higher standard of ethics on the front. Americans that did die, died in "an antiseptic, clean, neat way . . . gloriously." (100) Soldiers weren't blown apar
" (101) Americans never witnessed the carnage. However, "it [advertising] is by nature emotional, rather than intellectual; it sells feelings rather than ideas. " (126) The complaints of the youth are strikingly similar to the ones heard today. [that] created teen culture" which in the end "skewed the high school from a seat of learning into a social center. However, we should also not forget that despite the myth, that was the generation which saved the world from tyrannical military dictators. "Garbage was dumped on the enemy dead, and men urinated into their mouths. " (124) "The war's most serious impact on the young was through prosperity and enhanced job opportunities. "GIs fathered tens of thousands of illegitimate children" and "took advantage of women's desperate need for food, cigarettes, and even clothing to trade them for sex. Hollywood made films where "people get blown up with their clothes and fall gracefully to the ground. the coast was littered with shattered boats, tanks, trucks, rations, packs, buttocks, thighs, torsos, hands, heads. "Only the United States was not both a destroyer and a victim of the destruction in the war.
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