Transcripts For CSPAN3 Lectures In History Women During World War II 20240713

Landdeck, speaking about women contributing to the war effort during world war ii. Great to see everybody today. Appreciate you coming to our space here. Today, were going to talk about american women and world war ii. And this is obviously a huge topic, we can spend an entire semester just on this topic alone. So were going to try to break it down into three different spaces and were going to look at a lot of images to kind of fit in with the other things weve talked about. So we are going to talk about american women in three ways. Were going to talk about women at home. Women at work. And women at war. So were going to kind of organize our ideas this way, and again were going to look at a lot of the propaganda, we have been talking about propaganda throughout this semester and watching videos and things like that. We will get a chance to talk about, everybody found that video okay . All right. Its a good one on women at work during world war ii. You can find it on the National Archives website, right . But we will talk about that in this portion, but we will talk about the different parts of women during, american women during world war ii, and again, were just hitting the survey of this. Theres so much that we could talk about, throughout the entire semester, and we do all of u. S. And world war ii except we cant do all of it, so we do our bits and pieces. Weve already talked about some of these things. So some of it will be familiar. Especially when we get to the women at work part. But then well go from there. Be sure to stop me if you have any questions. And well do our thing. So women at home. So when we think about this, one of the biggest things i want you to do today is think about this reality for the homefront. Which was mainly what were talking about today. And the reality of what life meant for women in the war. And one of the first things that we often think about is all of the men going away to war, right . The men are going off. That means whos left behind . The women. Right . The women. And so you know, a lot of the women are married, we talked about there are all sorts of, you know, quick weddings going on, and there are people who have been married for a while, as well. And this idea of how do you get by, right, if youre a household with a husband and a wife, in this time period, you know, its a partnership, and each has their role, and theyre much more defined roles in world war ii than they are say today. So this idea of how are you going to do both your job as the wife, and often the mother, and the job of the husband . How do you do this . So this is a very popular book, this came out in 1942 so your husbands gone to war and this idea of what do you do . How do you get through it . And you can see from the cover here. Tackling male chores. Because chores were defined by a male and female, who is going to do which job. And any single woman, any widow, any woman like that, does everything, right . You guys, if you live on your own, you do your own thing. You put your own blindfolds in and fix your own, make your own repairs but this book gives some guidance, this guide book, to help women know how to do those little maintenance jobs that they needed to. This is my favorite part. The wolves in the friends clothing, right . This idea of weve got wolves, that was the phrase of the day, about, you know, what that means right . They pretend to be helpful, ill come change your light bulb for you, right . Let me help, let me help. But really, theyre, you know, theyre not quite as nice as they seem. How do you distinguish between the wolf and the real friend . And then this part up in the upper right corner is something that is really important. Women had a lot of responsibility. Not just to do their work and things like this, but this is the lost art of letter writing. And this idea that women were responsible for keeping up the morale of men. This is going to be a theme that were going to have throughout this entire section especially, the idea that women are responsible for making men remember what theyre fighting for, making men feel confident, making men feel that its okay for them to be away, but theyre missed and they need to come home. And so this lost art of letter writing of ethyl goreman, writes this whole chapter about how to write your letters to your men. And theres articles in womens magazines, theres articles in mainstream newspapers, all of these editorials about how women should write their letters. So what do you think you want to put in a letter if youre writing to johnny who is away in europe, fighting against the germans, what do you want to put in your letter as youre writing from home . What would you put in there . Dont worry about how things are going here. Just focus on getting the job done. Right. Dont worry about how things are. Focus on getting the job done. Go do your thing. Were good here. Right . Now, youve got to realize that they want you to write multiple letters a week, if you can write daily, thats best. Because imagine your soldiers going and going to get mail, every day, and if there is nothing there, how depressing that is, right . Well, ive got to go fight my war and nobody at home cares about me. Right . Thats the guilt, right . So the pressure is to write every day, three days a week, four, five days a week at a minimum, right . So you write that once, and then what do you write . And then what else do you do . We miss you. We miss you. Please come home. But you cant do too much of that or it will make him too sad, right . Focus on the war. Right. A fun story. Right . So a piece of advice that goreman puts in her book is make yourself interesting. So your letters are interesting. Do interesting things so your letters are interesting. But dont be too interesting because hell think youre having fun while hes at war, right . You got to find that balance between being interesting and not being interesting. So what if they dont have a sweetheart at home like are there women getting together to write letters to strangers of men to help out . Yes, exactly. There is this whole series, this whole campaign, it can be through the red cross, different organizations, where soldiers would give their names and women would write letters to them. You have romances that grow out of that. And this idea of writing letters, talking about what is going on at home, and now, what if, what if your roof gets a leak . Should you write johnny about that . No. I dont know, right . Its this balance between, you know, maybe you wait until the leak is fixed. And then you tell johnny, hey, the roof had a leak, but we got it fixed. But you dont want to seem too efficient, right . Because the roof leaks and the plumbing breaks and all of these things and you just take care of it, why does johnny need to come home, right . So there is a lot of pressure on these women to write these letters in very specific way, high volume, positive, right . You can say you miss him, but you cant be too blue, right . Youve got to find this balance of being responsible and him not needing to worry, but still needing him to come home, because its just, youre just not good at it, right . You can get by, but hurry home. So its this balance, and this pressure on women that gets put, again, youve got whole books about it, but youve got, am different forms of media about womens responsibilities to write these letters. And the men, you know, i read a lot of these letters that are coming back. We dont have as many letters of the women going overseas, right, the letters that the women wrote, we dont see as many because the men dont keep them where as the women kept the letters that the men wrote from overseas. We have more of those and we can figure out what the women were talking about by how the men respond in those letters so thats one of the ways we can determine what went into those letters. And you see a lot of anxiety from the men. Especially about the wolves, right . There is a lot of ideas about the men who dont serve, who arent able to serve, or have different positions, domestically, and that theyre going to try to steal the women. Right . And thats actually a campaign that the germans and the japanese both used in leaflet campaigns, is, you know, the men bam home are stealing your girl, dont you wish that the war was over . And you can go home. Right . Come on in. Come on in. Right . The idea of the letter writing and things like this, and the fact that this is an incredibly popular book in 1942, it says a lot, i think, that women are working on this, and going forward. So other responsibilities that the women had. Weve talked a little bit about the rationing. Were going to talk about it more in another week. But this idea of weve got all this rationing. Because who is the United States responsible for feeding during the war . Pretty much everybody. Lets narrow that down a little. Thats good. So who are we responsible for feeding . Our allies. Our allies, right . The allies, were going to give some food to the russians, the british, and all of that entails, right, who else do we need to feed . Our people. Our soldiers, right . The men women who have gone abroad, theyre not going to pull out fish and chips for our soldiers, we got to supply and who what is the third group were responsible for feeding. People were rescuing. People were rescuing. The homefront. The people back home need to eat as well. So weve got rationing. The men women who have gone abroad, theyre not going to pull out fish and chips for our soldiers, we got to supply and who what is the third group were responsible for feeding. People were rescuing. People were rescuing. The homefront. The people back home need to eat as well. So weve got rationing. So we can get all of that manufacturing that weve talked about already, but then that reality of food, and who is going to eat, and who were responsible for feeding, so theres a lot of emphasis on women growing those Victory Gardens. Ive got a slide of that. Grow those Victory Gardens. Grow vitamins in your kitchen. Theres a huge growth in the study of nutrition in this time period. Because you want to get as much nutrition in as little food as possible. And then this idea of what are women going to do . Well, youve got to can that, right . It is one thing to grow a Victory Garden but it is done by the end of the summer, thats no good, so this idea of canning, and you know, i am, am i proud, im fighting famine, by canning at home. Right . Look, this is hard, but im doing it, right . And then i love this one, with the little girl, well have lots to eat this winter, wont we, mother . Very cute. As we go through these, were going to see a lot of these posters and different images and i want you to be sure to note things like the race of these women that are being portrayed, right . The appearance of them, right . These are pretty perfect, that little girl is so cute, you can just pinch her little cheek, couldnt you . And this idea of who is being represented, which audience are these government posters, governmentsponsored posters trying to reach. Now, another thing thats used, so women get used in a number of different ways, weve got this pressure to try to get women to take action, but weve also got the effort to use women as propaganda pieces to achieve other goals. What do you see in this image . What do you think of this . Sacrifice. Sacrifice. Is she a pretty cleancut gal . Well, she might have used to have been. What is she now . Shes scared. Does she look very happy . No. No, right . The baby is laughing. Right . But the little girl is clinging to her. Not quite knowing whats going on, right . But the woman looks kind of sad and scared. I gave a man. Remember when we talked about the soviets, right, and how the americans are like, you got to do more, theyre like we gave blood, you give money, right . She is saying i gave a man. Right . My children dont have a father. Im alone and scared. Right . You can give at least 10 of your pay to buy a war bond . Thats the very least you can do. Look at the sacrifice my family has made. This is the very least. Right . So women being used to, for guilt, right, to make you feel this pressure, to buy war bonds. Now, review, why did we need war bonds . What are the war bonds for, do you remember . To pay for all of the equipment and the supplies going out. Right. Themselves, right . Thats the impression thats given in so many of these images and, again, we could have ive got about 20 of these that we could look at. This idea that women just cant help themselves gossiping. Right . But her gossip costs lives. Right . Maybe his life. Right . Right . This idea that, you know, she looks perfect, but her careless talk, right, her thoughtlessness, costs lives, right . So this idea of women need to control themselves. Resist their natural urge to gossip. Right . Right . Women are used for sex. Right . This idea of images of women as sexual. Right . You know, this is a whole famous series of prints that im sure you guys have seen before. You can see, shes a wac, right, shes in the military, but not in this moment. Shes not. Right . But this is this is mainstream, right . This is mainstream. This is a picture that came out of life magazine, right . This is a mainstream image of women of these sexualized beings because you got to think about why were fighting. Were fighting so we can get home to the girl. Were fighting so we can get home and because this is what all girls look like, apparently. Right . Right . This reality, right . But they cant be so women are supposed to be sexual. Right . Theyre supposed to be pretty. Theyre supposed to be sexual so the men will know what theyre fighting for. But they cant be too sexual, right . Give you guys a minute to take a look at these. Right . You like these . What do you think . What do you think . Right . So what do you see in these images . How are women being portrayed in these images . Theyre spreading disease. Theyre spreading disease. Right . This one is one of my alltime favorites. She may look clean, but, right . Theres a whole series of these images, these posters, that are given to men at the different bases and overseas. You know, whole classes on venereal disease. This idea that, you know, these goodtime girls and pickups, these are a problem, right . So we want to give you posters like this to hang up, but dont touch. Right . Because theyre probably diseased. Right . So this idea of women are, you know, raising the gardens and saving and feeding everyone, women are sacrificing, women are writing letters and being good for morale, women are these sexual beings, and women are also diseased. Right . All these things all at the same time. Right . This idea of i just think this is right . Right . Right . And, again, you can theres a whole series of these that are out there. And theyre promoted among all these men. Right . So thats our women at home. Is that do you guys have questions about that or okay. All right. Well lets switch to our next topic here, this idea of women at work. Women at work. And we think of this a lot. Right . When we think of women in world war ii, we often think of these working women. Right . This is the section where were a mythbuster. Working. Did women work before world war ii . No. No . Not according to my u. S. History class, no. Really . What about in the factories at the turn of the century . What about those immigrants . Yeah. Some but it wasnt, like, as widespread and it wasnt mothers or okay. Okay. So all those factories that came out through the industrial revolution, all those children, right, child labor, did women not work in those factories . It was, like, young single woman. Right, lots of young, single women. Lots of young single women. Lots of immigrant women. Right . What about women of color . Did they work . You think so . Yeah. A lot of them were teachers. Yeah. Well, women of color didnt get a lot of teaching jobs at, you know, coming up to here, they do, right . Coming out of progressive era, we get more more women of color taking middleclass jobs. Right . But women have always worked. Right . Youve always had workingclass women. Right . Workingclass women. Immigrant women. Women of color. Unmarried women. Right . That have always worked. Right . So which women are we really talking about when we say women began to work during world war ii . Middle class white women. Middle class white women. Right . Were talking about middle class white women. This expansion into this area that people didnt work before. Right . And then a second group tied in there is going to be mothers. All right . More mothers are going to work in world war ii than worked before. Right . So its a shift from workingclass women, immigrant women, women of color working, right, to that expansion of middleclass white women. Right . So whats what we often see portrayed in these posters, right . Look at these women. Right . First of all, their teeth are perfect. Right . Which did not happen in the 1940s. Right . They all look like movie stars. They all have their eyebrows just right. Their hair just right. Right . Theyre beautiful. Right . This is not what most people ever look like. Let alone in the 40s. Right . Right . But this idea of who the target is, right, whos the target for the working because this is the group that we have in excess that we can target to get to work. Right . So thats an important distinction i want to make sure that we understand. Which women were talking about when we say the workforce expanded to women. Its a specific group of women that are going to be expanded. Right . One area that doesnt get talked about in women working in world war ii is women in agriculture. This idea of women in agriculture. So its important to realize that we have over 6 million agricultural laborers and farmers that leave the land during world war ii. Right . Over 6 Million People whod been working the land leave it during world war ii. And these are often going to be men who are going to work in the factories because theyre better paid. These are going to be men who are being drafted or enlisting. Right . The shortage of laborers, agricultural laborers, gets so bad during the war that by the middle and late 1942, it becomes a draft deferred position. Whats draft deferred position . Do y y you remember . You dont have to go over to the war, your job is more critical. Right, your job is more critical so you cannot be drafted. If you leave that job, you may be eligible for the draft, but if youre in that position, youre draft deferred. Agricultural laborers, farmers, they become draft deferred because we need people so badly. That doesnt mean you cant enlist. That doesnt mean you cant go work in a factory. Right . Though by late in the war, there are limits on that, you have to get permission to do that, right . So at the same moment that were expanding the agricultural needs because were feeding people at home, were feeding people, americans, abroad, and were feeding all of our allies. Right . Helping feed our allies. At the same time were doing that, the laborers are shrinking. So theres a huge push to get american women involved in this. Right . And wed seen this before. Wed seen this in world war i. There was a volunteer Organization Called the Womens Land Army of america that was around. We expand that in world war ii. There was a Womens Land Army in Great Britain and we model a lot of a lot of what goes on in the United States after that. But theres this huge push to get american women as part of this. There were other organizations of the Bracero Program. Have you guys read about that . What was the Bracero Program . An agreement between the u. S. And mexico to allow workers to come in and work in the fields. Exactly. The agreement between the United States and mexico to allow laborers to come to the United States and work. This program goes from 1942 to 1951. Its a huge program that well talk about in another class. They try that. The government tries that to expand the number of laborers. They also go to convicts, right, prison labor, which had been used some in the past but gets expanded. They also use p. O. W. S, right . We had p. O. W. S here in texas and had some in oklahoma and different regions of the country where youd have german and italian p. O. W. S that would come to the United States and put them in the farms, right . Let them be laborers. You got all these different groups and this huge push, lets get more women, right . Lets get more women to do this, right . Some basic numbers for you. We end up with Something Like 3. 5 million women working in the agricultural field. Right . 3. 5 million women, right . Which is a much bigger number than you think of, right . You think of world war ii, we think of rosie the riveter, right, or the women pilots because youre here and have me as a professor, right . You know, 3. 5 million women are recruited. Theres some bias against them in the beginning. Read documents about this idea that women arent going to be able to the job, we cant trust them, this idea of urban women, right . Nobody wants a city girl to work on their farm. Theyre going to break their heel and not be able to do it. Very quickly the women prove themselves, theyre able to do the work that needs to be done and make a real difference. Some basic numbers. 1940, women made up 8 of all farm workers. By 1945, it was 23 . Right . Women went from 8 to 23 in agriculture just that quickly. Right . And, again, this is all going to shrink back down after the war just because we arent growing as much after the war. But this is thats a significant amount. Right . 3. 5 million women working on farms. You know, theres a new costume idea for you for halloween, right . Dress up like a farm worker. Womens land army. Right . Everybody does rosie, right . Right . Now, now this idea of women in labor, right, so this is you cant talk about women at work without talking about this. Right . Who do you guys see here . Rosie. Rosie the riveter right . This is the other part of the class that im going to bust some myths. One thing, the army, it started up with, i guess it was supposed to be, like, somebody playing hitler or something . Uhhuh. Talking about how american women spent more on personal stuff than the u. S. Military did for their own supplies . Right. While german women were put to work as baby producers, basically. Uhhuh. Im curious as to how at the time the u. S. Thought about its women becoming part of the labor workforce. I dont think that was really discussed in the video. How were american women treated by american men who were still working in the factories at that time . Right. This is a really good question. How are the women that are working in the factories treated by the men . How did they interpret them or feel about them coming into the war . And i got some numbers for you just to give you some big ideas. The female labor force grows by 6. 5 million during this period. Right . During world war ii. A shift from 25 of american women working in 1940, to 37 of all american women working in 1944. Right . So this is going to be a huge shift. Now, answer your idea about how were they seen . Because women did work, but women are dominating a lot of these factories, especially, and the reality is a lot of the men were put in charge. Right . They were put in supervisory roles. If theyd been working in the factory and had experience, then theyre going to be put into those roles and youre going to have all sorts of different interpretations of them, right . Some are going to be happy to have them as laborers. Some of them are going to not believe they can do the job. Some are going to be, you know, sexist or harassers or whatever. It just it just depended on the time and the place. How they were doing it. The reality is, we couldnt have done the work that we did during the war without them. Right . Just by sheer numbers. Right . Now, you brought up the film that hidden army, i want to give you guys the chance to talk about that. This was a propaganda film done in 1944 before the war is over, and how does it begin . Hitler, Hannibal Lecter talked about i shouldnt have underestimated those american women. Right. Right. Its a strange setup, right, of a prison guard coming down and hitler in a cell writing a memoir, right . Now hes going to write, you know, how i lost the war. Right . And, again, this is before the war is over, so this is how were going to do it. Right . How were going to put hitler in this position. The name of one of his chapters is the hidden army. Right . And its women. Right . Its women. So what pieces do you see this and weve talked about we watched the documentary, Memphis Belle from the war, as a propaganda piece. Weve watched some of frank capras why we fight films as well. Put the hidden army film into the context of propaganda. What pieces did you see that looked familiar, were a little different or focused on women a little bit more . Yeah . I thought it was interesting that they did, like, the interviews, why are you here . I was like, some of that seems very fake. Yes. Yes, right . They interviewed different women and say why are you here in the factory, why are you doing what youre doing . And theyre definitely set up, right . This isnt some random lets walk up on the street to a random worker and say this. You see more of, like, that guilt of not working, like the girl that wakes up in the morning and just goes back to sleep. Because of that, people are dying, like, more of that similar in Memphis Belle they show the dead people. Yeah. You see more of that you get more of that attitude with this film. Uhhuh. Definitely. Yeah. There was an entire sequence of women getting telegrams saying, by the way, your son, husband, brother, is dead. The woman, in particular, just flinging herself on the bed crying when her sons going, mommy, whats wrong . Just you guys are not being subtle at all. I can respect you for that, but wow. Right. Yeah. Theres no subtlety to this film. Its definitely a propaganda piece. Everybody watching it knows its a propaganda piece. Right . And were so cynical today. Right . You got to wonder, were they as cynical then as we are, you know . Did they watch this drama . But, yeah, the obvious slacker who shuts her alarm off and goes back to sleep and then johnny dies because she went to sleep instead of working in the factory. Right . Very dramatic. Very on point. The telegram saying, you know, youve lost your person. The reality is, people are dying. Right . People are going missing in action. People are receiving those telegrams. And weve talked about this in the past when we talked about that manufacturing chapter of david kennedys book, this idea that americans stuff, our tanks, our planes, all those things, helped win the war, right . So there really is a direct correlation between people not going to the factory and people not having the supplies they need. Right . But very, very dramatic. Very, very done. All right. Were there other points of that film that you guys noticed or wanted to make sure we talked about . Its very short. Its, like, seven minutes. But its kind of fun. Right . I think you know, its one of those where you dont want to giggle, but its like, oh my god, its so over the top. But its something that was important and we talked about a little bit when we talked about manufacturing, the idea that people were having strikes and when we talked, i think last week, about censorship, the idea that earlier in the war, the War Department censored photos, right . They wouldnt show men dead on the beach and things like that because it was just too hard. Right . It was too hard. But by 1944, theyre letting those images out. Right . Theyre showing more of those images. Theyre showing more of this drama of the families being affected. Theyre showing more of the violence that was occurring to the soldiers. And why were they doing that . Because people were starting to slack. They thought theyd won the war already. Why go to the factories and work . Right. We werent being bombed. Some exceptions in the northwest and, of course, pearl harbor, most americans werent being impacted as they were in england or france or other places, right . So this idea of i dont want to go to work today, whats the consequence . Who cares, right . Theres also another moment in the film where they show bombed out cities. Im not sure if theres in italy or in britain or anything like that, but it basically says, all right, if you dont go to work and do this thing, we could get bombed here. Please take this seriously. Yeah. Yeah. Weve looked at some of those images of that idea of we want to stop the fighting over there. Right . We want to stop it in europe. We want to stop it in the pacific before it comes here. Right . Because were next. Thats the goal. Right . So go to the factory. Right . Go to the factory. Get the job get the job done. Right . Okay. So this idea of women working was was important. Right . Just to kind of drive home the point of which women are working and how it changed, before the war, only 13. 9 of american women who were married are working. Right . And that number goes up to almost 24 during the war. Right . So its still a pretty small number, isnt it . Right . If you think about it. Now, thats a little warped by the fact that you have so many marriages during world war ii. Right . Those kind of quickie marriages that occur. Weve known each other for two weeks, but youre about to go overseas, lets get married. Right . Now, its important to realize just a sidenote that the divorce rate between 1945 and 1952 is astronomical. Its the highest divorce rate in American History. Its those seven years because everybody comes back from war and its like, oh, i dont really know you, maybe this isnt a good idea, right . But that idea of married women, married women working, right . So weve got this image, this we can do it , we can do it image, which is so popular, and, of course, so important. Right . And the idea of rosie the riveter comes from a song. This is a 1942 song. It is incredibly popular. And well see im going to try to play it for you. Lets see if i can make this work. All right. Just because its so fun. Anything with a ukuleles good, right . All day long whether rain or shine shes a part of the Assembly Line shes making history working for victory rosie brrrr the riveter keeps a sharp lookout for sabotage sitting up there on the fuselage that little girl will do more than a male can do rosie has a boyfriend Charlie Charlie hes a marine rosie is protecting charlie working overtime on the riveting machine she was as proud as she could be theres something true about redwhiteandblue about rosie the riveter all right. Its a longer song than that, but well stop there. All right. Wasnt that fun . Right . Its going to be stuck in your head all day. And its going to be my fault. Thats okay. Right . All right. I know. Its my fault. Im sorry. Thats my job, is to get into your brains. Right . [ laughter ] right . So this san incredibly popular song. It gets covered by everybody. Right . It gets covered by everybody. Four vagabonds make it pop var var popular are in 1942. So popular during the war, its just so popular. This idea of rosie the riveter. Also theres wendy the welder. Right . Another, all of that. Right . This idea of going and working in the factory. Right . So weve got this image, and this is the mythbusting portion of the class. This idea of rosy, the riveter, i am sorry. But this woman was not called rosie the riveter until the 1980s. Right . She was a poster created by Gerald Miller for westinghouse corporations factories, it hung up in their factories for two weeks in february 1943 and that was it. This was not a poster that inspired all of america. Not an image that made people sit up and go to work. All right . Im very sorry. You can still love her. Right . You can still dress up like her for halloween. Right . But but she is she is definitely a worker. Right . Definitely it fits. Its not dishonest to call her rosie. All right . Look at the image from the cover. Right . Very similar. And well have images of real rosies, all right . But she wasnt called that during the war. All right. This is rosie the riveter. Right . You guys recognize norman rockwell, right . From his own paintings of himself. Oh, i know him. Right . Norman rockwell married to a 19yearold, his neighbor. He was a pretty broke artist at the time. He paid her 5 to come to his studio and had a photographer take pictures of her in different poses. He liked to work off the photographs instead of live subjects. Then they had her come back a week later and put on a blue shirt and penny loafers. Rig right . So he could work off that photo. She got 5 for each session. So she got 10 to be rosie the riveter. He wrote to her afterwards or called her afterwards and apologized for making her look so hefty. Right . Rosies got these big, strom arms and a big, strong girl. Right . Mary noel keith is slender, small and slender. Want you to know im sorry about that. But she was okay. You can see rosie, her lunch box has rosie on it. The song came out, was popular and then he did this painting and dubbed her rosie the riveter. This is another, i like trivia for you. Right . To see how this was inspired. Right . Michelangelo, you know, isaiah has dropped his sandwich, i think. Right . Okay. Right . This idea right . So how often does rockwell do this . I dont know enough rockwell history, but i love how, you know, this similarity between the two is obviously what he did, and very popular. Right . So this is the image that gets taken all over the country. Right . This is the image that gets turned into posters, the image people have hanging up and think about as rosie the riveter. Not not our, we can do it, girl. As much as we love her and you can still love her, but shes a creation. Right . We talk about that a lot in here, the idea that that people use the past for Different Things. Right . And then in the 1980s they used that image to inspire women. Right . And called her rosie. But, again, we bust myths in here. So this is rosie. Right . This is rosie. Representing all of those women. The real rosie never actually riveted anything. She was a telephone operator. She never riveted anything. But she posed, and we have this terrific, terrific image. Right . With her lunch box and such. Right . Just one more image. This is her in 2015. With a copy of it. I just think shes great. Right . Just was very nice, a very nice, happy lady. Right . All right. So weve got that this idea of promotion of women working. Weve talked about the fact that the federal government had all of these different commissions, all of these different boards to try to help organize the economy, control the economy. This idea of women doing different jobs, and this is one of my favorite posters. Its not seen quite as often. Its drawn in a different style than some of the others, but this idea of look at all of these different jobs women are doing. Right . We often think of rosie the riveter, wendy the welder, people working in aircraft factories or Naval Shipyards building the ship, but note this one has, has a waitress on there. Right . And theres whole series of advertisements saying, being a waitress is a war job. Right . Because somebody needs to feed the workers. Somebody needs to feed the people who are doing these other jobs. Right . This type of work just as important. We just need you to work. You dont have to be a mechanic. Right . You dont have to weld. But work. Right . And i wanted to point out, too, in this one, you see the one here in the middle has gray hair. This is another target is women in their 40s and 50s, to help them get into the workforce doing these different jobs. You know you know, you can roll bandages, right . But we really need more people in the factories or more people doing these different jobs. Right . And weve talked about the fact that women are working when theyre married and when theyre mothers. Right . Well, whos going to care for the children if youre working a tenhour shift at willow run . Or down here at lockheed . Grandmothers. Right. So theres a huge push, Eleanor Roosevelt, talked a lot about her, how she advocates for different groups. Eleanor roosevelt advocates in this period, one of the things, this idea of governmentsupported child care. Right . This idea of child care. If you want women to work, if you want women to be a part of this war effort, then youve got to have somebody watching their children. Right . We know child care is a problem for families today. Right . Its not just a womens problem. Its a family problem, but affordable child care is a problem. Right . And in the 1940s, its about even bigger problem, because there was even less infrastructure for child care, because women, once you had children, you dont work. You take care of the kids. Again, workingclass women, immigrant women and women of color always did and found ways. But Eleanor Roosevelt says lets have some child care. There are some child care facilities set up across the country but in such small numbers, that its just completely inadequate. So the people that, that are going to watch the children are going to be family. Right . Grandmothers, or this idea of support within the community. So that gets promoted as a war job. Right . If you work as a child care giver, you are enabling someone else to go work in the factory. If youve got arthritis in your elbow and cant rivet, maybe you can feed a baby a bottle. Right . And do your part. So this idea of all these jobs are important, all these jobs help with the war effort, and make a difference to the whole thing. Rig right . We often think of rosie the riveter as the epitome of women working during the war. But the reality is, more women typed than anything else. Right . When we get to the women at war were not going to highlight that, but i want to kind of sneak it in now, thats one of the biggest things that women do, in the military as well. Right . Youve got the Civil Service women working for different parts of the government, as part of Civil Service. Then women in the military, too. Remember, there are no computers. Right . And everybody has orders. Right . And theyre triplicate or quad dro kwau dro druplikate. Every government official, depending on your level would have a stenographer that would listen in and take shorthand, right, the ultimate secret language. Right . Take shorthand of the phone conversation, and then type out the phone conversations. So in the National Archives, we have transcripts of phone calls between generals, between important people, making business decisions. Right . Weve got transcripts of all of those phone calls. Theyre hard to find, because theyre not labeled that way. All right . You have to look through a lot of boxes, but somebody typed those. And thats going to be women. That are typing those. These are on you know, this one one of the things about a lot of these posters is theyre sponsored by different companies. We talked about that before, i think. The idea that they want to promote their company by, you know, sponsoring the bonds or whatever, and so Royal Typewriter Company sponsors this type of ad. Right . You go and serve your country, but do it by typing and wouldnt you rather have a royal typewriter than any other . Right . So its a quiet plug for their own company. But supporting the war. This is another push. Right . This idea of, you know, shes holding his letters, and being all sad, and lonely, crying. Right . Do you see the tears . Isnt it sad . Right . But her lipstick is perfect. Right . Right. Right. But what is this essentially saying to this girl . Or any lonely girl . Dont cry about it. Get to work. Dont cry about it. Get to work. Right . Chin up. Right . Dont be a baby. Go do something about it. Right . This idea that, you can make only you can bring him home. Right . Only you can end this war, by going to work. If youre going to sit home and shut your alarm clock off and sit around and cry, nothings going to happen. You you have to go to work. You have to get this job done. Right . Well, again, this same, similar type of thing. Right . The men would rather be doing this work. The men are probably better at it than you are, but somebodys got to do it . Right . Do the job left behind. Whats with the head wrap . Talk to me about that. We see that in the image of rosie the riveter. Why . Why . The pincurls and stuff. So yeah, yeah. Set up your hair in pincurls. Will you wear your hair in pincurls to the factory . No. And you dont want your hair nu hung in any machinery. You will get scalped. Right. Ima imagery, keep your hey up and simple left way. Put up your hair in pincurls, wrap it up. You dont kill yourself wrapping it around the drill press or something, and then you can go out and go dancing afterwards. Right . So its killing those two birds with one stone. Right . But, again, i want to point out the image weve got here of this woman. Right . Does they look like shes sweating working . Right . Shes perfect. Perfe perfect. Shes beautiful. Got other makeup on. I dont know. Are those fake lashes . Real lashes . I dont know. Right . And, again, the perfect lipstick. Right . So this is this is the image thats being left of these women, was these very perfect images. Right . Now, we talk about this and we look at yall of these different images. This is a very serious effort. Right . A very serious effort. Right . So this is a group of women. Some of them just have hair nets instead of bandannas. Right . But this is important work. These are the noses of bombers. Right . Can you tell, can you see that . Right . Those are going to go on the nose of bombers, and its important. Right . Theres going to be a man sitting in here. Right . And if you dont do it right, he could die. Right . So this is important work. Weve got to get those numbers out there. Now, just to review. Weve talked about this idea of, of the manufacturing. Do you remember when we talked about fdr in 1942 . He said 60,000 new airplanes . Right . We had like 9000 airplanes before we got involved in the war. Were going to build 60,000 new airplanes in 1942 and 125,000 airplanes in 1943 . Think about that reality. How the heck are we going to do that . I mean, how is this even possible that we spooled up so quickly in our factories, and in our manufacturing and that we reached those goals . Right . We built 300 airplanes over the course of the war. Go from 9,000 to over 300,000 during the course of the war. Supplying soviets, supplying british and supplying ourselves. We are completely overwhelming the germans and japanese. Completely overwhelming them, and its because weve got women working in these factories. Right. Women working in these factories. All right. I want to show you some pictures of the real rosie the riveters. This one, which, again, anything with lots of airplanes you know i love. Right . But this is another image of rosie the riveter. Again, i want to make the point even though most of the poster images that we see are targeting those middleclass, white women and this idea that you can still be attractive and feminine if youre working in the factory. The reality is, youve got a lot of women of color who are going to be in these positions, and doing these different jobs. I love this. This is one of my favorite ones. So much so that i have it twice for you, because i like this one, because of the reflection on the plane. Right . You can see her ring in the reflection. And this idea shes still feminine, shes got this beautiful ring. Look at her nails. I dont know if she knew she was going to be photographed the next day or just kept her nails that pretty, because it made her feel feminine while shes doing this work. Right . This idea of, of women doing this work while still being feminine, but the target in a lot of that advertisement isnt women of color, but you see a lot of different women that are taking these jobs. Again, this is why i say we can still call, we can do it woman, call her rosie. Because she looks like a lot of right . This idea of the bandannas to hold their hair up, doing these different types of jobs. The shoes, as always of interest to me. The types of shoes . Right . Penny loafers. They were little loafers. No work boots for this group of, you know, for this generation. Right . I like this one, too. What do you see up there in the corner of that . I guess ive got to right . What do you see here . Working together. Right. The idea of men doing these different jobs. You can see the one on the right is the sailor. So thats the kind of place that we can do it poster would have hung. Right . Just on the back wall of the factory kind of thing. Just to remind people while youre there. All right . Youre not just here doing a job. It gets romanticized a lot. Doesnt it . This idea of, oh, youre building this plane and youre going to save a man and hes going to fly it and kill the germans or kill the japanese and were going to win the war and the going to be because you riveted that. Your rivet saved the world. Right . But its also boring. Right . To do the same thing every day. Its dirty. Its loud. Its mundane. Right . So its how to find that balance between making people realize, you have to keep coming to work. Its important for you to keep coming to work. And getting through the, the boringness of doing the same thing every day. Right . How to find that balance. How to find that balance. Right . Just another one. These are ship fitters. You know, my classes, i show all the airplane picture, but its important to realize we built tens of thousands of ships during world war ii and these are women working in one of the shipyards. I like this because its diverse. Asian woman, probably asianamerican woman, africanamerican woman. White women, all working together. The guy in the back smiling. Nice guy. All right. Huh . Im here, too. Right, right. But, you know, this much of the workers are integrated. Right . This isnt where, while the military was still integrated excuse me. The military was segregated at this time, the workers were integrated. All right . So i think thats important. Right. So youve got all different types of women working. You know, look at that sweater and shirt. Right . Like, youre going to get dirty. Right . Youre going to get dirty. They all have i. D. Badges with photo i. D. S. Right . With photo i. D. S. These are secure facilities. Right . Depends where you are and what youre doing, how secure its going to be, but these are secure facilities. So youre going to need to have, going to have these photo i. D. S. Right . This idea of of photo i. D. S. I like this one. You know, theres a limited series of color photographs during the war. Right . Color film was fairly new, and was fairly expensive. So this whole series of color photographs, which i think is like, wait a minute. Theyre real right . It adds a whole another level of thing. Think of all the different jobs. This woman is literally painting. On the plane. Right . Shes painting the star on the plane. This is fabric. Right . This is a fabric plane. Probably a trainer. But so artists had jobs. Right . All sorts of different jobs. Not just, you know, the factory riveting. Right . Why did it matter . That women went to work. Right . This is the willow run factory up in detroit, near detroit. In bellville, michigan, actually. This, of course, was fords factory that got transitioned into this bomber factory. This is huge. This is one of my favorite photographs. Can you see the person here sticking their head out jt right . Just to give you a scale of the planes that were talking about. These are b24 liberators, the e model obviously. This one factory at willow run builds over 9,000 of the 18,000 b24s built during world war ii. All right . Think about the scale of that. They were building one every every 63 minutes, by 1944. One of those was coming off the Assembly Line every 63 minutes. Think about how complicated that machine is . Right . This is a big, fourengine plane, and incredibly, incredibly important. Right . And then they would go off to war. Right . Again, weve talked about previously in this class, weve talked about the scale of the stuff. Right . The planes, the ship, the tanks, the guns, the trucks, the jeeps, all of these things, and how we just overwhelmed the enemy and this is one example of it. So when you think about, you know, women at work during the war and whether they really needed to do it, this is the result. Right . And its not because theyre women. Right . Its because theyre workers. Right . And able to do the jobs that needed to be done, and make a real difference, make a real difference in the war. Right . Okay. Just some other quick statistics for you. Remember, were reaching our goals of feeding everyone. Right . Both ourselves here at home, our soldiers abroad and our allies overseas. Right . We build over 300,000 planes over the course of the war. Right . 300,000 planes. Now, its going to be everything from trainers to the bombers and the b51s and all of them. But 300,000 planes over the course of the war. Were also supplying 60 of our allies munitions, 40 of the whole worlds arms. Thats enemies, and ours. Right . Were giving 10 of the soviet unions total military needs. That means we gave the soviet union 350,000 trucks. Right . 350,000 trucks. We gave them 956,000 mimes of telephone cable. Right . All of those Little Things that you think, you know, maybe dont think of that we had to give them. Right . And all doing this while our population is healthy and better fed than wed beens in a generation. Right . Because we had that study of nutrition. We had all of the farming going on. Right . So all of those things had to come together. It really did make a difference. Again, look at all of these images and the idea of it being kind of fun and some of it sexist and some of it kind of racist, and but it all comes together. Right . This idea of different people working. Right . Theres a lot of discussion about the jobs that women had before and after the war. And this idea of women working and what happens to women after. I want to make one final point on this idea of women at work. Right . Everyone during world war ii is able to change their opportunities. Right . The work that they do. So youve got women women that are working at this level. Right . Theyre working at this level before the war. And men are working here. Right . Well, as the men are able to move up into different positions, the women are able to move up into the positions the men were. Right . Right. So after the war, as the men come back down in the types of positions and the pay of the positions that they have, the women are going to come back down, too. Right . Theyre always going to stay a notch below when it comes to pay, when it comes to opportunity. Its going to be the same for women of color especially. Right . Theyre going to be below white women on the pay scale. But theyre going to be higher than they were before. Right . Women as domestic laborers drops over 15 during world war ii. The idea of how many people were working at domestic labors and thats a lot of women are color doing those jobs. A lot of immigrant women doing those jobs, during the war, able to take better paying jobs. And then after the war, theyre going to get bumped back down. To which types of jobs they can have. Okay . So questions about women at work . This idea of women working . Okay. Well, well switch to our third, our third topic here. And our third focus, final and third focus today is going to be women at war. All right . This idea of women at war. Okay. One of the biggest things i want you to walk away with today is the idea thatwe have, between 350,000 and 400,000 women that are going to served in the American Armed forces during world war ii. Depends who you count and who you dont we have that discrepancy. Between 350,000 and 400,000 people, women, that are serving in the American Armed forces, and the thing i want you to remember about them is that they were all volunteers. Right . We talk about the millions of men that served in the armed forces during world war ii. The vast majority of those were drafted. Many of them volunteered. But every woman veteran from, from the beginning of time in the United States to today, every woman veteran you meet is a volunteer. Right . I think thats a really important thing to remember about women in the military and women who are veterans. Right . So in world war ii, youve got that 350,000 to 400,000 women that are serving in world war ii. This is my little Public Service announcement, if you will. Have you guys been to Arlington National cemetery . Have you seen this . How many have been there . The womens military service for america right at the doorstep when you pull up to the Arlington National cemetery. You can find it there, and it says womens memorial, but its really a museum and an archive. They gather oral histories and documents of women in world war ii, and its really just a terrific nonprofit organization. It was started by congress, unfortunately not funded. So, of course. So it gets a lot of donations and things like that, but its a really terrific organization. Its the only place in the country thats just for women. Right . Just for womens veterans, recognizing them. So i think thats thats important and kind of a Public Service announcement for you there. Right . So one of the first groups that we think of when we think of women serving in the military is, of course, nurses. Right . This is a fairly idealized promotion. Right . Right. Very pure. Very clean. Whos putting the hand on her . Uncle sam. Right . We dont even need to know. And again a very attractive young woman. Very white. A perfect makeup, all of this. Right . Going to be very intelligent but uncle sam saying, we need you. Become a nurse. Your country needs you. Right . You know, there were women doctors as well. There was a very small group of women doctors as well, bull all in all, we get about 74,000 women who served in the army and Navy Nurse Corps during world war ii. 74,000. All right. So this is a lot. We had only 7,000 active duty army and navy nurses before pearl harbor. So obviously, a huge, huge increase. Again, people still got sick in the United States. Right . People still got sick on the homefront. So finding that balance of adding all of these additional nurses was important. Now, id like to contrast this image of the nurse, you know, being anointed there by uncle sam with this reality. Of what it meant to be a nurse, in world war ii. Right . These are a group of u. S. Army nurses that landed at normandy on dday plus four. Weve talked about the war in europe and the war on dday. A lot of men injured, of course, taken out to the boats, to the ships waiting, where navy nurses would be waiting for them, but then army nurses are finally landing on the beaches at normandy, dday plus four pup see t. You can see the beaches are improvedality but but its still very much a war zone. Throughout the war nurses get closer and closer to the front lines. Right . And are always right in the thick of it, because thats where the injured soldiers are. Right . Theres a group of american women that are captured as p. O. W. S. Were going to talk the second half of our semester were going to cover the war in the pacific, and when the philippines falls, in 1942, both manila and you have a group of american women, navy and army nurses that are there who get captured. Theres about 79 women who are captured by the japanese and held at p. O. W. S for 37 months. So this is just a couple of them that survived eating chocolate. You can see how thin they are. Right . Especially the woman on the left. Right . How thin they are. Starvation, rations, all of that. So when were talking about, you know, whos in combat, whos not. That line gets pretty blurred, especially when it come toos s nurses because theyre so close. Whos captured . Whos not . What happens to women at p. O. W. S . What happens to men as p. O. W. S . Right . So i think thats important to recognize these nurses, of course. All right. So women, women serve in a number of different parts of the military. Right . This one i mean, could you get more, girl next door . Right . Shes just so perfect. Right . But shes a good soldier. Right . When you think of soldier, do you think of this . All right . Is that the image that pops into your head . Not typically. Your grandma was a wax. Thats good, thats good. Thats good well, this idea of women serving in the military, women being soldiers, is something you have to get the public used to. Right . You have to get the public used to. So you have a lot of these im e images. There was a huge a Huge Campaign against these women. I dont know if it was a campaign as much as this idea that being in the military was a mans job. Right . So if a woman wanted to serve in the military, they must just want toing around men. Right . And in a sexual way . Right . Prostitute, camp followers kind of thing or must be he bien lesd wants to be a man. Those few choices. A lot of pushback you would be with unsavory type people if you served in the military. One of the biggest efforts that especially the wac, the womens army corps, one of their biggest pushes is to convince parents that this was a good idea for their daughters to serve in the military, because parents were the ones pushing back a lot. Theres a really good book, lisa meyer has a really good book on women in the army and the campaign against them. Right . So you have all of these different branchs of the military that have women in them. Theres a fierce comp tilgetiti. All have a quota how many women need to become part of their forces. So this campaign to get women to join the navy instead of the army and Different Things like that, and theyve all promote different types of jobs. Right . This is a parachute rigor. What message are they trying to tell women, how are they getting to get women to join the navy with this type of message . By challenging them. Uhhuh. Going to try to challenge them. Its kinds of like anybody can join the wacs, but can you join the waves . Right. This idea, you got what it takes . You think youre good enough . Can push the challenge . All right. Look how important this job is. A parachute rigor. Nobody uses the parachute in world war ii for fun. Right . Thats not a pleasure thing. Right . Or entertainment. So this idea of, this is incredibly important, can you handle it . Right . This challenge. This challenge to women. All right . Then this idea of patriotism. Right jt right . To make men free. This idea youll be part of the gratitude. People will be thanking you. Youll of part of it and able to say that you did it. Right . The waves so this is kind of a silly thing. The womens army corp. Was first. Right . First the womens Army Auxiliary corp. , then shortened to wac when they officially became part of the army, but people made fun of their name. Mainly their acronym. Wac, quack, right . This idea of, what a silly name. As the other branches created their own womens organizations, they worked really lard hard to better names. I know. Right . But its about the names. When competing youre going to work on all levels, right . So the waves, thats nice. Right . Thats thats nice. Acronym. Its the navy, its water. But thats are you a wave . Are you a wac . Right . So you know, its one of those silly things. Their uniforms were important, too. One of the women ive studied said she almost joined the navy because they had such cute hats. Right . You know. It matters. The army, look how brown that is. Right . Thats not pretty. All right. Thats kind of pretty right . All right. Heres the spars. The coast guard. Right . So Semper Paratus their motto and always ready is the English Version of it so spar. Clever. Spar even sounds better than wac. Right . Right. The marines. They were just marines. You got to respect that. Right . The women marines were just marines. Right . But free marine to fight. Thats the whole thing about women serving in the military. This idea, free a man to go do something more important. You cant go to combat but the men can. So lets do it. Right . A lot of promotion of what types of jobs youre going to be doing. A whole series of advertisements that the wac especially has. But it has 239 kinds of jobs for women. Right . Youre not just going to be a typist. You can work in a laboratory. You could do all sorts of think of things. Right . Get work experience. Right . The navy promotes that you can be promoted. Right . That you can, you can get these different positions, right . And talks about the fact youre going to get the same grade and the same pay as men. So were about equality here in the navy. Right . You have this opportunity. All right. And very patriotic. Theres a mansized job for you in the navy. Right. All right. Hes grog oing to go fight. You work here. Right. This is one of my very favorites, of course. The pioneer woman statue on our campus here so i love this image of, you know, the pioneer woman. She was out there defending her wagon with her rifle. Right . Are you as good as she is . Right . Can you live up to this legacy . Right. And, again, in the wac you can work in a hospital. Right . Not as a nurse but separate. Right . This one i think is interesting. So this is a ladies home journal ad for ivory soap but how to winengagement. A play on words. Its about the man. Right . This is what youre fighting for. And you can still get your man even if youre in uniform. All right. She does look sassy. Doesnt she . Doris dayish, i mean. Right . And this is competition as well, right . All of these efforts to get women into the military, but we need women as ordnance workers. Right . They have their spot, but you have yours too. Theyre all equally important. This competition to get women to have women doing these different jobs. Right. Theres a push for africanamerican women as well. This was in, remember, weve got a lot of prominent nube newspapers and africanamerican communities. Chicago and other places. And they would hire artists to draw cartoons to try to promote women of color to be a part of the military as well, to serve as nurses, and they did. Right . This is the postal directory battalion that was in paris, and they did stay segregated. Right. And a group of africanamerican naval nurses. They. Often worked with africanamerican soldiers and sailors. Right . They kept them all segregated. They kept the blood separated and all that. You know my Favorite Group here, right . The Women Air Force Service Pilots of world war ii. The archives are here right in the back corner there. But these women worked to free men up so that they could go fly in combat. We have 25,000 women apply for the training program. The training starts in houston, but you guys have been to houston. Right . The idea that the weathers not great for flying. A lot of fog and a lot of rain. Seasonally. So then they moved out to sweetwater, west of fort worth, of course. And they did their training there. 25,000 women applied. When i started my research i thought that number was made up, Jacqueline Cochran head of it kind of makes stuff up sometimes. She does. She does. But ive seen them. In the National Archives all the letters you can find of women saying, please, i want to fly. Only 1,830 were picked. 80 of the women had at least two years of college. Right . Could be very selective. Apartment a time when only 4 of the american women had college degrees. A selective group. They did a wide variety of jobs. They started as ferry pilots with the air transport command flying the planes from place to place within the continental United States. They did not go overseas. They did not fly in combat. They just stayed within the continental United States. A little peek into canada a couple times and a little peek into the caribbean a few times, but for the most part just within the continent. Then they moved to different jobs. Can you see the target back there . Right . If youre going to send men overseas youve got to teach them how to shoot. Brigh right . Shooting from the deck of a b17 against an airplane is a little different than duck hunting. Youve got to give the men practice. They would get two flights before sent overseas as gunners, but youd have women often who flew these planes. This is a shot of two women flying this b17 while it shoots at the target of the other plane. This is live ammunition, of course. Its no good to use fake. Live ammunition. Colorcoded bullets. They did this with a wide variety of different planes. These women served as civilians, until the 1970s, when they started a Grass Roots Campaign to be recognized as veterans. An incredible, Incredible Campaign and they finally were given, veterans benefits. This is at the congress after they testified this is 1977, when president carter finally recognized them as veterans in the United States. All of their papers are here. If you guys want to serve as interns in the womens collection, we have that. And you could work with their papers directly. But, again, we could have an entire semester on women in war and this is just a quick and dirty version of it, but if youll just, when we walk away from class here as we won collude, think about women in these three ways of working here in the United States, domestically and abroad. And then ill help you kind of organize your thoughts. If you guys have any questions or any final ideas or thoughts about this okay. Well, thank you, guys, very much and well continue our conversation in our regular class on thursday. Good job, guys. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you, you, too. Good job, guys. Thanks. Were featuring American History tv programs this week as a preview of whats available every weekend on cspan3. For our final lectures in history night we swing through the south starting in atlanta at emory university. Professor Carol Anderson discusses efforts in the early 1960s to register africanamerican voters in mississippi. American history tv tonight at 8 00 eastern on cspan3. Follow the federal response to the coronavirus outbreak at cspan. Org coronavirus. Watch congress, without briefings and updates from governors. Track the spread throughout the u. S. And the world with interactive maps. Watch ondemand anytime unfirmted at cspan. Org coronavirus. Up next, a comparison of the american and British Forces during the revolutionary war. Baylor University Professor julie anne sweet compares the advantages and disadvantages of each during this hour 10 minute class. When we last met you all declared independence. So that means we have to go to war. All right. And so in order to do that we need to recruit coup troops, train and drill them and arm them all those sorts of good things. Before we do that i want to talk briefly about military history in general. Were going to set aside our political history for now. Next couple weeks its military history, all fullgo. All right . So heres the thing. Theres certain challenges that folks who study military history are going to encounter. Like what . What can you see military