Mark Boulton
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814724873
- eISBN:
- 9780814760420
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814724873.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
This chapter traces the history of federal debates over war veterans' benefits from the early Republic to the Vietnam era. After discussing the origins of offering compensation for the hazards of ...
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This chapter traces the history of federal debates over war veterans' benefits from the early Republic to the Vietnam era. After discussing the origins of offering compensation for the hazards of military service, the chapter considers the evolution of the G.I. Bills and the controversies surrounding them. It shows that, for ideological and economic reasons, the provision of veterans' benefits has been a contested issue in American politics since the Civil War. It also examines arguments by politicians from Thomas Jefferson through Franklin D. Roosevelt that military service should be a natural obligation of citizenship rather than a basis for ongoing federal benefits, along with claims that the cost of benefits placed an unnecessary financial burden on the government. Finally, it explains how the enactment of the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944 paved the way for a model that provides benefits to future generations of veterans.Less
This chapter traces the history of federal debates over war veterans' benefits from the early Republic to the Vietnam era. After discussing the origins of offering compensation for the hazards of military service, the chapter considers the evolution of the G.I. Bills and the controversies surrounding them. It shows that, for ideological and economic reasons, the provision of veterans' benefits has been a contested issue in American politics since the Civil War. It also examines arguments by politicians from Thomas Jefferson through Franklin D. Roosevelt that military service should be a natural obligation of citizenship rather than a basis for ongoing federal benefits, along with claims that the cost of benefits placed an unnecessary financial burden on the government. Finally, it explains how the enactment of the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944 paved the way for a model that provides benefits to future generations of veterans.
Taunya Lovell Banks
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781496810458
- eISBN:
- 9781496810496
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496810458.003.0004
- Subject:
- Sociology, Race and Ethnicity
This chapter presents a comparative history of minority communities, in this case the impact of the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944 (better known as the GI Bill of Rights). It addresses the ...
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This chapter presents a comparative history of minority communities, in this case the impact of the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944 (better known as the GI Bill of Rights). It addresses the reasons why Japanese American World War II veterans were able to make greater use of the benefits offered by the law to broker their group's postwar social advancement, while black veterans were restricted in their enjoyment of its advantages. In addition to more potent discrimination against blacks in areas such as housing, one salient distinction between the groups that the chapter points to is their differing educational preparation, which led to comparatively greater use by Japanese Americans of the college benefits available under the bill.Less
This chapter presents a comparative history of minority communities, in this case the impact of the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944 (better known as the GI Bill of Rights). It addresses the reasons why Japanese American World War II veterans were able to make greater use of the benefits offered by the law to broker their group's postwar social advancement, while black veterans were restricted in their enjoyment of its advantages. In addition to more potent discrimination against blacks in areas such as housing, one salient distinction between the groups that the chapter points to is their differing educational preparation, which led to comparatively greater use by Japanese Americans of the college benefits available under the bill.
