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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An excellent addition to a great series, March 7, 2010
This review is from: The GI Bill: The New Deal for Veterans (Pivotal Moments in American History) (Hardcover)
The G. I. Bill by Glenn Altschuler and Stuart Blumin is a recent addition to the pivotal moments in American history series which seeks out to explain the major paradigm shifts in United States History that significantly changed the course of history. The authors are after four points in this very detailed account of how the G. I. Bill changed America.
The first is that this was truly a departure from past veterans benefits and greatly expanded and really created not only a way to care for wounded veterans but really looked at how they would readjust to society. The authors take great care to outline what happened to veterans in past wars and look at the growth of the Veterans Administration (VA) system following the Civil War and World War I showing how the G. I. Bill was far more comprehensive.
The second point is the focus that with the election of a Republican congress in the final two years of the war the ability to carry out New Deal proposals was becoming harder and more limited. If democrats led by FDR wanted to continue rapid social change legislation it was going to have to come in the form of veteran's benefits that could later be added to non veterans after showing their success with veterans. The authors take a great deal of care in explaining how Congress was oriented and what each change meant.
The third point and probably the most important is the G. I. Bill's ability to pay for college for returning veterans and provide them with a supplement to live on while attending. Many would follow through with this newfound ability and obtain college degrees shifting heavily the knowledge base of our post war economy and setting up the Baby Boomer generation with the desire to continue attending colleges. The G. I. Bill gave rise to the private school since government money allowed for expanding enrollments anywhere and many elite schools were flooded with veteran's applications. The authors' pull on many personal stories from veterans to illustrate their points brining out a great side to the story that shows how the bill really affected people. They also spend some time on the race relations and how the G. I. Bill was more beneficial for white America than black America but African Americans still made significant improvement under a bill that was largely color blind.
The final point was on the housing part of the bill that allowed for low interest loans to be obtained and housing to be purchased. As the post war economy exploded and building materials became available suburbs grew quickly and the ability for veterans to move to them grew with it. This was where the Bill's color blind nature fell short. Blacks were not able to purchase homes in the suburbs and the great disparity that would bubble to the top in the 1960's began to crystallize with blacks left in urban centers and whites flooding to the suburbs.
Overall it is a fantastic and detail oriented book that really shows how the G. I. Bill changed America. It is truly a pivotal moment in American history and transformed multiple generations and left the lasting legacy of the New Deal through the bills actions. Very detailed and well worth the time to read.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
THE G.I. BILL: A NEW DEAL FOR VETERANS, October 15, 2009
This review is from: The GI Bill: The New Deal for Veterans (Pivotal Moments in American History) (Hardcover)
THE G.I. BILL: A NEW DEAL FOR VETERANS
Glenn C. Altschuler and Stuart M. Blumin
Oxford University Press, 2009
Hardcover, 246 Pages, Photographs, $24.95
THE G.I. BILL: A NEW DEAL FOR VETERANS is the inspiring history of how millions of World War II veterans and their families achieved the American dream-an education, a home, a stable and profitable career, and ownership of their own business. The authors, Glenn C. Altschuler and Stuart M. Blumin, have uncovered the story that has affected so many Americans, but which few of us really know. More than any other law, the G.I. Bill was responsible for the post-World War II explosion in college graduates, the education of leaders of the civil rights movement, the growth and dominance of the suburbs, and the proliferation of interstate highways, supermarkets, and franchise stores and restaurants. Quite literally, the G.I. Bill changed the way we house ourselves, the way we are educated, how we work and at what, even how we eat and transport ourselves. As the guns of World War II quieted, American politicians and businessmen feared the return of 16 million veterans would cause social disruption and perhaps even a depression. Born of an unlikely coalition of congressional leaders, the American Legion, and the Hearst newspapers-who struggled against serious odds to get the law enacted-the 1944 G.I. Bill gave these veterans the means to make new lives in peacetime. A spirit of confidence never experienced before and difficult to imagine now filled the victorious American nation and a social revolution was being made, not by storming barricades, but by leaping over them. Through the G.I. Bill, 7.8 million veterans received educational benefits, which included schooling at some of the best private universities; and 8.5 million received an unemployment provision to sustain them until they could get started on their own. In addition, the G.I. Bill provided access to low interest mortgages. To house these veterans and their children born during the post-war baby boom, the idea of the affordable house in the suburbs was born. Families moved into their new homes by the millions and became proud members of the middle class. Above all, the G.I. Bill changed the way the veteran and his family and all their neighbors-regardless of their ethnic, religious, and racial backgrounds-began to think about themselves. Their education was both the source and best guarantee of their income; they were independent, self-sustaining, and self-respecting middle-class property owners and didn't see themselves as wards of a political machine or union. Thomas Jefferson's dream of the "independent yeoman" had come true. The G.I. Bill-the law that worked-is one of America's greatest success stories. It helped millions make their dreams come true. THE G.I. BILL: A NEW DEAL FOR VETERANS is an absorbing account of how one of the most momentous World War II measures passed Congress only by mustering one of the most remarkable coalitions in the 20th Century. It also tells us as much about the uncertain process of American government as about the certain benefits of the historic legislation.
Lt. Colonel Robert A. Lynn, Florida Guard
Orlando, Florida
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5.0 out of 5 stars
The Place to Begin, November 9, 2011
Many things have been written about the GI Bill, but this is the place to start. Meticulously researched and lucidly written, the co-authors take us back to the Revolution and forward to Iraq in examining the changing nature of veterans' benefits. The core of the book concerns the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944 or WWII GI Bill. The book covers unemployment compensation, educational benefits and loans for houses, farms and other businesses--the full panoply of the Bill's benefits. It explores the nature of the recipients, their desires and their success in satisfying them. The creation of the Bill, the politics surrounding it, FDR's role and other matters are explored in depth, as are the ways in which contemporary culture (racial discrimination, the postwar economy, the shortages of building materials, the burdens placed on skeptical colleges and universities, among many other things) affected the Bill's passage and its implementation. The book is nicely illustrated and a fascinating read. Highly recommended.
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