Suggested Research Topics - At War at Home: The Response of the University of Michigan to World War II
After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, many of America's institutions, including its universities and colleges, joined the war effort. They contributed to the fight against Japanese and German aggression by sending their students, administrators, faculty, and staff to the armed forces and a host of government agencies. College and university presidents and governing boards also contributed their campuses as intellectual and technological training grounds for military personnel as well as for industrial and agricultural workers. Joining in the war effort on campus were college and university faculty and staff who shared their expertise in a myriad of fields, through research projects and instruction, in order to strengthen the U.S. war machine.
How did the University of Michigan respond to World War II? What did it regard as its proper role in fighting fascism in the East and West? How many students, faculty, and staff joined the armed forces or served in federal or state agencies that managed the war effort? What new programs were created on campus to further war activities? Was there resistance or support on campus for the role adopted by the U-M? How did all this activity affect campus life? What, if any, long-term effects did the war effort have on campus?
Examples of Primary Source Collections and Other Resources:
- Board of Regents
- Alfred Connable, regent. See files of Regents' Committee on War Activities.
- President Alexander Ruthven
- Provost. See World War II programs, 1943-45.
- Vice-President for Student Services
- Marvin Niehuss, prof. of law and vice-president for university relations, 1944 -51. See files re coordination of WW II training programs.
- War Historian, 1941-45. 21 feet. Records of F. Clever Bald, war historian for U-M, document university activities during WW II.
- Engineering Science and Management War Training Program, 1940-45. 23 feet. Records document the program which trained more than 12,500 people for immediate service to industry and local govts during its 5-year existence; also includes diaries of Robert Sherlock, program coordinator.
- Peter Ostafin, 1941-46. 60 items. Chief resident advisor for West Quadrangle. Letters from WW II servicemen.
- Faculty Women's Club. See files regarding various wartime projects (1941-45).
- Kenneth Rowe, professor of English. See files re his efforts to use drama as a propaganda tool to raise morale and define America's wartime goals.
- Michigan Daily and other student and university publications
In an effort to encourage creative thinking about possible research topics for students unfamiliar with archives and their inevitable complexities, archivists and student employees of the Bentley Historical Library have authored "suggested research topics ." The purpose of these is not to define a topic but rather to stimulate thinking about a topic where the holdings of the Bentley Library are particularly strong.