When Dreams Came True; The GI Bill and the Making of Modern America
Washington DC: Brassey's, 1996. First Printing [Stated]. Hardcover. xvi, 336 pages. Notes. Index. Inscription signed by author on fep. One sheet of related ephemera laid in. Printing defect on page 195/6 with loss of some margin material. DJ has slight wear and soiling. Based on a Kirkus review: The GI Bill loosed forces that helped to transform America from the working-class, largely agricultural society into a largely middle-class society. Bennett, a former reporter, begins by tracing the origins of the bill and the fight to make it law in 1944. The American Legion was particularly influential: Members who had fought in WW I remembered the shabby treatment they had received when they came home. The meat, or the soul, of the book is Bennett's study of the ways in which the law helped transform postwar American life. It provided opportunities for education unavailable to previous generations, as well as low- priced home mortgages. GIs, most of them from the urban and rural working class, stormed college campuses in record numbers, raised student performance levels, and shook up the college culture. Millions of erstwhile blue-collar, rent-paying workers turned into professionals of every calling, as well as prosperous, skilled entrepreneurs and home-owners. GIs used the money they got to do vital if seemingly ordinary things and in the process created a more abundant and egalitarian society. The total postwar cost of $14.5 billion was an investment that returned manyfold more in revenue as veterans earned more and paid more taxes. Bennett believes that the GI Bill was the most successful government program since the Homestead Act. When Dreams Came True describes the making of modern America by the passage of the GI Bill in 1944 and the initiative of hundreds of thousands of ambitious veterans. Insightful and heartwarming, this book illustrates American ambition and ingenuity at its best. The Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, also known as the G.I. Bill, was a law that provided a range of benefits for returning World War II veterans (commonly referred to as G.I.s). It was designed by the American Legion, who helped push it through Congress by mobilizing its chapters (along with the Veterans of Foreign Wars); the goal was to provide immediate rewards for practically all World War II veterans. It avoided the highly disputed postponed "cash bonus" payout for World War I veterans that caused political turmoil for a decade and a half after that war. Benefits included dedicated payments of tuition and living expenses to attend high school, college or vocational/technical school, low-cost mortgages, low-interest loans to start a business, as well as one year of unemployment compensation. It was available to all veterans who had been on active duty during the war years for at least 90 days and had not been dishonorably discharged—exposure to combat was not required. By 1956, roughly 8.8 million veterans had used the G.I. Bill education benefits, some 2.2 million to attend colleges or universities and an additional 5.6 million for some kind of training program. Historians and economists judge the G.I. Bill a major political and economic success—especially in contrast to the treatments of World War I veterans—and a major contribution to America's stock of human capital that encouraged long-term economic growth. Condition: Good / Very good.
Keywords: G. I. Bill, David Camelon, Harry Colmery, Henry Colmery, James Conant, John Rankin, Veterans, Demobilization, Educational Benefits, Home Ownership, American Legion, Hearst, Middle Class, GI Bill
ISBN: 1574880411
[Book #73099]
Price: $45.00