Between 1890 and 1945, the United States modernized its system of veterans' benefits and expanded the rewards of military service. The culmination of these efforts was the landmark Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, popularly known as the GI Bill of Rights. The GI Bill revolutionized how the nation provided for its returning soldiers. It also shifted government's obligation to veterans from provision of pensions to benefits that eased the return to civilian life, stimulated economic growth, promoted the expansion of the middle class, and helped to transform American higher education.

Civil War Through Spanish American War

By 1890, the Civil War pension system had become a major source of political power and government entitlement. What had once been a program to provide for disabled veterans expanded into pensions for elderly veterans, their spouses and children, and widows. In 1902, nearly a million war veterans and their dependents received pensions at a...