Class Year
2020
Document Type
Student Research Paper
Date of Creation
Spring 2020
Department 1
History
Abstract
After the United States’ entry into the Second World War, music was one of the most prominent forms of art and popular entertainment to be repurposed by the federal government as part of the mobilization for war. The military implemented numerous music programs produced and consumed by a wide range of service personnel. These activities functioned as a means of building morale among military and civilian audiences, both on the domestic home front and in foreign nations, and disseminating an image of American culture that reinforced a set of values integral to the war effort. In order to present this argument, I will analyze the various motivations behind the measures undertaken by both the military and other government agencies, most notably the Office of Wartime Information (OWI), to expand and develop musical activities for military and civilian applications. I will then shift perspectives towards investigating how military personnel themselves undertook these duties and the roles in the war effort that they perceived for themselves as musicians.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Bouchard, Max R., "“Strike Up” and Mobilize the Band: Musical Activities in the United States Military During World War II" (2020). Student Publications. 817.
https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/student_scholarship/817
Comments
Written as a Senior Capstone in History.