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The GI Bill: The New Deal for Veterans (Pivotal Moments in American History) |  | Authors: Glenn Altschuler, Stuart Blumin
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
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Rating:  3 reviews
Sales Rank: 48024
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Pages: 272
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.1
ISBN: 0195182286
Dewey Decimal Number: 362.868097309045
EAN: 9780195182286
ASIN: 0195182286
Publication Date: June 2, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
On rare occasions in American history, Congress enacts a measure so astute, so far-reaching, so revolutionary, it enters the language as a metaphor. The Marshall Plan comes to mind, as does the Civil Rights Act. But perhaps none resonates in the American imagination like the G.I. Bill.
In a brilliant addition to Oxford's acclaimed Pivotal Moments in American History series, historians Glenn C. Altschuler and Stuart M. Blumin offer a compelling and often surprising account of the G.I. Bill and its sweeping and decisive impact on American life. Formally known as the Serviceman's Readjustment Act of 1944, it was far from an obvious, straightforward piece of legislation, but resulted from tense political maneuvering and complex negotiations. As Altschuler and Blumin show, an unlikely coalition emerged to shape and pass the bill, bringing together both New Deal Democrats and conservatives who had vehemently opposed Roosevelt's social-welfare agenda. For the first time in American history returning soldiers were not only supported, but enabled to pursue success--a revolution in America's policy towards its veterans.
Once enacted, the G.I. Bill had far-reaching consequences. By providing job training, unemployment compensation, housing loans, and tuition assistance, it allowed millions of Americans to fulfill long-held dreams of social mobility, reshaping the national landscape. The huge influx of veterans and federal money transformed the modern university and the surge in single home ownership vastly expanded America's suburbs. Perhaps most important, as Peter Drucker noted, the G.I. Bill "signaled the shift to the knowledge society." The authors highlight unusual or unexpected features of the law--its color blindness, the frankly sexist thinking behind it, and its consequent influence on race and gender relations. Not least important, Altschuler and Blumin illuminate its role in individual lives whose stories they weave into this thoughtful account.
Written with insight and narrative verve by two leading historians, The G.I. Bill makes a major contribution to the scholarship of postwar America.
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| Customer Reviews:
 An excellent addition to a great series March 7, 2010
Lehigh History Student
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
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.
 Very detailed November 14, 2009
Mr. Williams (Here and There)
1 out of 4 found this review helpful
A little too much detail, and read almost like a college textbook for information. I would have liked it if it would have had more stories of individuals who used their GI Bill. Still a good overview of the formation of the GI Bill and how it changed America.
THE G.I. BILL: A NEW DEAL FOR VETERANS October 16, 2009
Robert A. Lynn (Orlando, Florida)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
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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