War! What is it Good For?

Speaker: Price Fishback, University of Arizona, Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar

Abstract: Is war good for the economy? Many people seem to think so, and they often cite the American experience during World War II as an example: “World War II brought us out of the Great Depression.” “Americans never had it so good, producing more guns and more butter.” We fought the War to prevent the Axis from establishing fascism throughout large parts of the world. But make no mistake. To fight the War, Americans had to sacrifice. The presentation talks about both the amazing output of the war effort and how much Americans sacrificed in the process. It is also important to remember, however, that Americans were the lucky ones because so little fighting took place on American soil. The sacrifices in the rest of the world were much larger.