Non-military National Service
The Great Depression and World War II created the modern, American ethos for national service. First, the challenges of the Great Depression brought about large-scale, government-sponsored work programs to help rehabilitate the economy. The Federal Emergency Relief Administration, Civilian Conservation Corps, Public Works Administration, Works Progress Administration, and other agencies provided employment opportunities for millions of Americans while they performed a type of National Service. The results of these programs created most of America’s modern infrastructure.
Those Americans not involved in the fighting during World War II made direct contributions in other ways: rationing, price controls, purchasing war bonds, civil defense, and working in war industries. The War Production Board, War Manpower Commission, Office of Price Administration, Office of War Mobilization and other agencies were created to support the war effort.
Read more about this topic: National Service In The United States Of America
Famous quotes containing the words national and/or service:
“I submit all my plays to the National Theatre for rejection. To assure myself I am seeing clearly.”
—Howard Barker (b. 1946)
“The ruin of the human heart is self-interest, which the American merchant calls self-service. We have become a self- service populace, and all our specious comforts—the automatic elevator, the escalator, the cafeteria—are depriving us of volition and moral and physical energy.”
—Edward Dahlberg (1900–1977)