"People, Progress, and Products":
The Village Economy

"People, Progress, and Products," the trademark slogan of American Steel and Wire, is an appropriate way to entitle a section devoted to the examination and analysis of the economy and industry that shaped the lives of Quinsigamond Villagers during World War II. We chose to divide the section into three parts: "Bust to Boom: Leaving the Depression Behind," "The Arsenal of Democracy," and "Women Answer the Call."

In the first section, "Bust to Boom: Leaving the Depression Behind," we provided a historic backdrop of the economic ramifications of the Great Depression in Quinsigamond Village, laying the foundations for the economic recovery the Village would experience with the onset of World War II as characterized by the effects of massive defense industrial mobilization.

The next part, "The Arsenal of Democracy," is devoted to the anlsysis of how industries shifted gears to switch production from civilian to defensive military needs. It explores the initiatives implemented by the federal government, the initial resistance of industry, and the role of the workforce played in achieving the success of the mobilization effort.

Finally, in "Women Answer the Call," we examine the role and experiences of American women on the home front during World War II, particularly through their participation in the industrial and military workforce.

In this section we tried to bridge the overarching link between the policies enacted by the federal government and the larger historic memories of the period with the actual experiences of the residents of Quinsigamond Village whom we interviewed. Sometimes the stories our interviewees shared with us reflected the greater American home front narrative. Other times, their memories diverged, and in this way we learned that in the case of the home front during World War II, as with the rest of American history, there is no one definitive, historically cohesive narrative. Instead, the varied experiences of the members of Quinsigamond community proved to shape the textured fabric of our American experience of World War II on the home front.