The Great Depression that paralyzed the American economy in the 1930s lasted until the United States entered World War II in 1941. From his inauguration in 1933, President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal legislation set out to help the poor, protect workers, and stimulate the economy, but the New Deal was only partly successful. Nearly 10 million Americans remained unemployed in 1939, the year World War II began. In 1940, when Franklin Roosevelt was reelected to an unprecedented third term as U.S. President, American economic output continued to slump below pre- Depression levels, at approximately $1.5 billion per year. At that time, while sympathetic to Britain (which stood alone against German aggression in Europe), the majority of Americans believed that the war was a European problem and that America should stay out of it. This sentiment, known as isolationism, prevailed until Germany’s ally Japan attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, in December 1941. Only then did Americans unite behind the war effort against both Germany and Japan.
Between 1940 and the end of 1943, the economic output of the other major combatants in the war doubled, tripled, or (in Japan’s case) even quadrupled.
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