Back to exercise contents Back to exercise 4 Exercise 4-Comma splices, fused sentences, and sentence fragments Possible Revision World War II is recognized as a watershed period in U.S. history, not only because of the political and economic consequences in the European and Pacific arenas, but also because of tremendous social change on the homefront. Most textbook accounts of the war focus mainly on events overseas. To understand more fully the currents of consumer culture, accelerated technological advances, racial intolerance, workplace changes, and suburbanization that transformed American society, however, students also need to examine the effects of World War II at home. Food-related documents offer an effective way to learn about the homefront, serving as a recognizable link to a time and way of life that must seem far away to students today. The documents provided here are meant to introduce students to four different wartime phenomena: wartime shortages, fear of invasion, victory gardens, and Rosie the Riveter. The documents convey a "you are there" quality that will help students to have a more complete understanding of what life was like for Americans at home. They also reveal some of the pressing social issues facing U.S. citizens, including young ones, at the time. Whether their relatives served in the armed forces or their mothers worked the swing shift, whether their families were uprooted to a U.S. military camp or an internment camp, whether they feared an actual enemy invasion or losing a loved one, most American youths were deeply and directly affected by a war fought many miles away. Food is a powerful way to chart social and cultural change, but it is not the only way. These documents are meant to supplement textbook study of the military and political events of the war overseas and the social changes at home by grounding them in the concrete details of daily life. These materials also can be used to add another dimension to other document-based approaches; for example, some of the Rosie the Riveter documents might be used along with non-food-related sources, such as one of the available oral histories of women working in aircraft factories or shipyards. Back to exercise 4 Back to exercise contents

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