|
|
|
"The Most Wonderful Thing Has Happened to Me in the Army": Psychology, Citizenship, and American Higher Education in World War II
Christopher P. Loss
| World War II transformed American higher education forever. The education soldiers received during and after the war altered their lives and the life of the nation. Fear of the psychological maladjustment of G.I.'s in the field led top military leaders to approve the use of psychological screening mechanisms that seemed to indicate educated soldiers were superior soldiers. That conclusion brought education to the forefront of state policy making and set the stage for the creation of a vast military-educational network that culminated in the 1944 G.I. Bill of Rights.1 |
1
|
|
By focusing on the American state's multifaceted use of higher education in World War II, this article advances the literature on the emergence of the American university beyond the rise of the federal-academic research matrix. Without question, the ascendance of research radically altered the nature of federal-academic relations, and it is exhibit A in the birth of what some scholars call the "proministrative state." But the emphasis on big science—and the handful of elite institutions that produced it—has obscured crucial developments in American higher education that occurred outside federally funded labs.2 |
2
|
|
No development was more vital in forging a lasting partnership between the state and higher education than the passage of the G.I. Bill of Rights. Despite a recent surge of interest in the legislation, scholars have not adequately explained why education became the centerpiece of the G.I. Bill.3 This article does that. First, I situate the legislation in the context of a rapid shift in the state's commitment to educating citizens. Consequently, this article provides a rejoinder to those scholars who have branded the G.I. Bill an exceptional piece of federal social policy. While this landmark legislation was exceptional in many ways, it looks less so when placed within the stream of wartime education initiatives that preceded the G.I. Bill. Second, I link fears of psychological maladjustment among soldiers to the state's unprecedented interest in education. Most scholars connect the G.I. Bill's education provision to the state's effort to rebuild the education economy and protect the macroeconomy by using universities as a floodgate to manage the flow of veterans into the postwar labor force. But the role of psychology in the state's attention to higher education has not been explored. This article places psychological expertise front and center. Third, I connect the state's interest in education to the exigencies of military service: for citizens to fulfill their military obligations, the state had to fulfill its educational obligations. Finally, I provide a perspective beyond that of policy-making elites by examining how the voluntary enrollment of millions of ordinary soldiers in educational programs during the war, and in colleges after it, shaped the future course of American higher education. |
3
|
|
The complete reconstruction of American higher education during World War II was startling considering the federal government's long-standing tradition of limited involvement in educational affairs. With military mobilization and economic recovery commanding national policy makers' attention in the months after the Japanese strike at Pearl Harbor, a total overhaul of the state's approach to educating citizens, despite university leaders' determined push for closer federal relations, seemed unlikelier than ever.4 This all changed when the Army Research Branch—the state's wartime hub for psychological research—provided America's top military leaders with opinion survey data indicating that recruits craved education and that educated soldiers were better-quality soldiers. According to the Research Branch, regardless of past education, an individual soldier's adjustment to military life improved with continuous educational programming. |
. . . |
There are about 15709 more words in this article.
Please log in (or, if you are not yet an
authorized user, please go to the
User Setup page) to gain full access rights. Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.
|
