The 1930s and 1940s were a time of upheaval for the US and the world at large.
Reeling from the start of the Great Depression in 1929, the world soon faced a greater disaster with the start of World War II, which lasted from 1939 to 1945. Although the US did not enter into the war officially until after Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the global war still affected the country.
The following photos, from the US Library of Congress, give us a rare glimpse of life in the US during World War II in color. They show some of the amazing changes that the war helped usher into the US, such as women in the workforce and the widespread adoption of aerial and mechanized warfare.
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Mrs. Virginia Davis, a riveter in the assembly and repairs department of the naval air base, supervises Chas. Potter, a National Youth Administration trainee from Michigan, at Corpus Christi, Texas. After eight weeks of training, he will go into the civil service.
Answering the nation's need for woman-power, Davis made arrangements for the care of her two children during the day and joined her husband at work at the naval air base in Corpus Christi, Texas.
Jesse Rhodes Waller, AOM, third class, tries out a 30-caliber machine gun he has just installed in a US Navy plane at the base in Corpus Christi, Texas.
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