Connecticut Women’s Land Army, University of Connecticut, 1943 – Thomas J. Dodd Research Center, University of Connecticut Libraries
World War II (1941-1945)
In 1939, as war dawned in Europe, Connecticut debated. Those dubbed isolationists urged US detachment while internationalists favored a united response to the Axis. As pro-war sentiment grew, state industry prospered and, after the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, it boomed—a welcome state after the Depression. By 1945, Hamilton Propellers, Electric Boat, Pratt & Whitney, and other Connecticut companies had fulfilled over $8 billion in war contracts. Prosperity, however, came at a cost. The influx of laborers, for example, overtaxed housing, schools, and hospitals, and the war’s end brought job loss (particularly for women), food shortages, and strikes. Today, memorials honor those who served and several archives work to collect letters, oral histories, and other first-hand accounts from those who experienced the war at home or abroad.
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Connecticut Lawyer Prosecutes Nazi War Criminals at Nuremberg
In the immediate aftermath of World War II, Thomas Joseph Dodd served on the United States’ prosecutorial team as Executive Trial Counsel at the International Military Tribunal (IMT). …[more]
