As I near my 60th birthday, or, technically speaking, the 59th anniversary of my first one, I return to American and World history because I believe who we are now, to a great extent, is who we were when....and America and the world of 2012, liver spots and beauty marks, is to a large extent based on what happened during and after World War II.
A war that was fought before (about) 86% of the world's population were born-waitaminit, there was just another birthday observed in Bali, continues to exert an influence over who we are, and in all likelihood who we shall be. Yesterday morning, the National Archives put on line the census from the last quiet year of American history, perhaps only in my opinion but I don't think so, from 1940.
We were a nation that was still struggling to find its way back from the brink of the abyss, financially. A wildly speculative Wall Street, an unregulated banking industry and good old fashioned greed (odd how it never goes out of style, innit?) had taken us South in 1929 and we stayed there, more or less, despite poking and prodding and sometimes prodding and poking. Bear in mind, the nanny state (as those on the right have taken to calling aspects of our social safety net they hate) did not yet exist. There was no Social Security, no Medicare or Medicaid-no food stamps, no heating assistance. Nothing but the kindness of strangers and the outreach of religious orders and charitable organizations.
How different was the United States of 1940 from the one in which we live today? More than you'd ever dream but far less than you're likely to believe. Dive in and find out for yourself. Save those sepia tinted eyeglasses for reruns of the Jersey Shore-perhaps they'll be better with age, though I doubt it. The big lesson to learn as you glance through the information trying to form a picture of life 'back then' is that we were far more worse off than we are (even) now. And we survived; actually, we triumphed. It's sadness or euphoria and we need to be all in.
-bill kenny
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