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“The Two Joes Meet—Joe College, Joe Veteran”: The G.I. Bill, College Education, and Postwar American Culture

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 February 2017

Daniel A. Clark
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During World War II several popular Norman Rockwell paintings featured the soldier Willie Gillis. Rockwell depicted Willie as your average, all-American boy, a typical GI. Yet the Willie pictured on the cover of the Saturday Evening Post on October 5, 1946, seemed transformed (see Plate 1). Willie sits in the window sill of his college dorm room, smoking a pipe while diligently studying. The window in the center of the picture frames the venerable college clocktower and trees on the Quad. The everyman, dogface Willie had matured. He had been transformed into a college student with an air of confident assurance, comfortable within his new genteel surroundings. One could only imagine a bright future for Willie.

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Articles
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History of Education Quarterly , Volume 38 , Issue 2 , Summer 1998 , pp. 165 - 190
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Copyright © 1998 by the History of Education Society 

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References

1 Rockwell, Norman, Cover Illustration, Saturday Evening Post 219 (5 October 1946). I found no direct evidence linking Rockwell's Willie Gillis to Bill Mauldin's popular cartoon soldier Willie of “Willie and Joe” fame. The connection, however inintended, can reinforce the perception of Rockwell's Willie Gillis as an average GI– a lovable “grunt”–making Willie's collegiate transformation even more meaningful. For more on Willie and Joe from Stars and Stripes see Mauldin, Bill, Up Front (New York, 1945).Google Scholar

2 Brady, James, “In Appreciation, The GI Bill,” Parade Magazine, 4 August 1996, 4–5; Kiester, Edwin Jr., “The G.I. Bill May Be the Best Deal Ever Made by Uncle Sam,” Smithsonian 25 (November 1994): 130; “Into the Future: Social Revolution,” Life, Special Edition, 5 June 1995, 60-61; Norberg, John, A Force for Change: The Class of 1950 (West Lafayette, IN, 1995). Writers typically credit the GI Bill with ushering in a new era of expanded educational opportunity, allowing many poor but deserving Americans to receive a college education. Life magazine's editors considered the GI Bill's influence so significant in sparking universal education that they placed it in their section dealing with the social revolutions resulting from postwar expansion. Google Scholar

3 Olson, Keith, The G.I. Bill, the Veterans, and the Colleges (Lexington, 1974), 109–110; and Rudolph, Frederick, Curriculum: A History of the American Undergraduate Course of Study Since 1636 (San Francisco, 1977), 283-84. Google Scholar

4 Olson, , The G.I. Bill, 109–10. Elsewhere in the book Olson displayed statistics on the World War II GI Bill taken from the Veterans Administration records. The statistics show that substantially more veterans took on the job training (18%) or sub-college level educational courses (44%) than took advantage of college level training (29%). Olson, , The G. I. Bill, 76. Google Scholar

5 Lears, Jackson, “A Matter of Taste: Corporate Cultural Hegemony in a Mass Consumption Society,” in May, Lary, Ed., Recasting America: Culture and Politics in the Age of the Cold War (Chicago, 1989), 38–57. That the corporate “organization man” became a postwar icon in a new era of consumer-oriented, “outer-directed” behavior is well established by such studies as Riesman, David, The Lonely Crowd: A Study of the Changing American Character (New Haven, 1950); and Whyte, William H., The Organization Man (New York, 1956). Google Scholar

6 I chose to examine the most popular periodicals of the day, those with the widest readership and the most generic appeal. Such popular periodicals include Saturday Evening Post, American Magazine, Life, Time, Newsweek, U.S. News and World Report, and Ladies Home Journal. For the examination of women's issues, I added Better Homes and Gardens and Seventeen to the list. Popular professional periodicals like Fortune, Business Week, School and Society, Journal of Higher Education, and American Scholar also appear where appropriate to the discussion. For the late war and postwar years, up to 1950, I surveyed all editions of the Saturday Evening Post, Life, American Magazine, and Ladies Home Journal for relevant articles, advertisements, and short stories. For the interwar years, the years 1937-1939 received the most attention in the four forementioned magazines. General and volume indexes were used to locate articles, advertisements, and short stories that seemed of interest in the other periodicals mentioned.Google Scholar

7 I view the notion of going to college as a cultural construct as much as an economic one, a concept with its own set of associations subject to change in an American society whose culture was shifting to adapt to new imperatives. My assumptions regarding the relevance of the media or popular culture for constructing a historical conception of a period's values and ideals comes from a variety of sources. As Carl Kaesde states, readers act individually “to develop identities, choose allegiances, form beliefs, and conduct their day-to-day lives,” but I believe that what they read, as well as their economic condition, provides certain sets of options or parameters. Kaestle, Carl, “History of Readers,” in Kaestle, Carl F., et. al., Literacy in the United States: Readers and Reading Since 1880 (New Haven, 1991), 50–51. I also agree with Stuart Hall's view of the function of the media as “the provision and selective construction of social knowledge, of social images, through which we perceive the ‘worlds,’ the ‘lived realities,’ of others, and imaginarily reconstruct their lives and ours into some intelligible … lived totality.” Hall, Stuart, “Culture, the Media and the ‘Ideological Effect,’” in Curran, James, Gurevitch, Michael, and Woollacott, Janet, eds., Mass Communication and Society (London, 1977), 325. I do not presume to speak for readers, but I do hope to reconstruct the elements of cultural change in how the media encouraged Americans to think of college education and themselves in line with the changing imperatives of a corporate and consumer world. My interpretive assumptions and methodological approach have also been particularly influenced by Lears, “A Matter of Taste: Corporate Cultural Hegemony in a Mass Consumption Society,” in May, Lary, Ed., Recasting America: Culture and Politics in the Age of the Cold War, Marchand, Roland, Advertising the American Dream: Making Way for Modernity, 1920-1940 (Berkeley, 1985); and Joan Shelley Rubin's argument that both modern and traditional cultural values were fused in middlebrow culture as the American middle class coped with the changes in society as discussed in The Making of Middlebrow Culture (Chapel Hill, 1992). My interpretation of the impact of the GI Bill on American women differs little but adds new support for the prevailing historical interpretation voiced originally by Barbara Miller-Solomon, In The Company of Educated Women: A History of Women in Higher Education in America (New Haven, 1985); Fox-Genovese, Elizabeth, “Mixed Messages: Women and the Impact of World War II,” Southern Humanities Review 27 (Summer 1993): 235-245; and Hartmann, Susan M., The Home Front and Beyond: American Women in the 1940's (Boston, 1982), 101-120. Google Scholar

8 The few studies that exclusively examine the G.I. Bill are Olson, The G.I. Bill, the Veterans, and the Colleges- , Ross, Davis R.B., Preparing for Ulysses: Politics and Veterans During World War II (New York, 1969); and Hyman, Harold M., American Singularity: The 1787 Northwest Ordinance, the 1862 Homestead and Morrill Acts, and the 1944 G.I. Bill (Athens, GA, 1986). Though usually quite good, these studies focused primarily on the legislative formation and administration of the bill. Broader works on American higher education in the Twentieth Century, such as Brubacher, John S. and Rudy, Willus, Higher Education in Transition: A History of American Colleges and Universities, 1636-1968 (New York, 1968); Handlin, Oscar and Handlin, Mary F., The American College and American Culture: Socialization as a Function of Higher Education (New York, 1970); and Horowitz, Helen Lefkowitz, Campus Life: Undergraduate Cultures from the End of the Eighteenth Century to the Present (New York, 1987), take a quick look at the academic reaction to the G.I. Bill then move quickly to the more impressive episodes in democratization (both in terms of enrollments, curriculum, and federal funding) beginning in the late 1950s. Google Scholar

9 Due to limits of time and space, this paper can only focus on mainstream, white American cultural aspects. I regret the necessity of excluding minority racial subculture's since I anticipate a fascinating contrast to the dominant white experience.Google Scholar

10 By 1938 one million two hundred thousand students attended the nation's colleges and universities, compared with one hundred fifty thousand in 1890, truly a remarkable increase. Furthermore, during this period Americans began to associate a college degree with economic mobility in an enlarging corporate world. Levine, David O., American College and the Culture of Aspiration, 1915-1940 (Ithaca, 1986), 13–14.Google Scholar

11 Levine, , American College and the Culture of Aspiration, 119.Google Scholar

12 “Are College Men Preferred,” American Magazine 124 (September 1937): 96.Google Scholar

13 Jackson, Robert H., “Why a College Education,” Vital Speeches 4 (15 December 1937): 157–8. Two other typical articles are Wisehart, M. K., “How Colleges Rob Men of Priceless Years,” American Magazine 109 (February 1930): 36-37, 134-35; and Manion, Lawrence T., “Too Many Years in School?” School and Society 49 (February 1939): 150. Another article noted that “college-bred sometimes refers to something that requires a fearful amount of dough, is seldom self-supporting, and usually proves to be nothing more than a four year loaf.” Wilgus, Curtis, “Some Comments on University Students and Studies,” School and Society 49 (March 1939): 318. Google Scholar

14 Treynor, Albert, “I Got Two Sweeties,” American Magazine 125 (February 1938): 48–52, 90. Other short stories where college references coincided with affluence are Winslow, Horatio, “Birds, Bees, and Bill,” Saturday Evening Post 210 (1 January 1938): 12-13, 45-48; Morse, Ann, “Who Learned Too Young,” Saturday Evening Post 210(19 February 1938): 10-11, 56-61; Hanlon, Brooke, “Whom The Gods Love,” Saturday Evening Post 210 (7 May 1938): 12-13, 118-21; Berlin, Ellin, “To Them That Have,” Saturday Evening Post 210 (14May 1938): 10-11, 53-59; Silvers, Earl Reed, “Small Though They Be,” American Magazine 125 (August 1938): 34-37, 66-70; Hope, Edward, “Marry in Haste,” American Magazine 125 (August 1938): 52-56, 128-131; and Dalmas, Herbert, “Off Stage,” American Magazine 125 (April 1938): 48-50, 123-27. Google Scholar

15 Berlin, , “To Them That Have,” 10–11. Illustration by William C. Houple. Another story entitled “Who Learned Too Young” in Saturday Evening Post focused on the lives of elite Bostonian WASPS, one of whom attended Yale and was set to take over the family business. Morse, , “Who Learned Too Young,” 10-11. In the aforementioned American Magazine article, for instance, fraternity members appeared well-dressed in tuxedos for a dance. Treynor, , “I Got Two Sweeties,” 48-49. Illustration by Emerton Heitland. Another American Magazine article involving a fraternity also contained illustrations of well-heeled students. Dalmas, , “Off Stage,” 48-49. Illustration by Floyd Davis. Google Scholar

16 Even a 1930 American Magazine article arguing against the tendency toward increased enrollments, illustrated the family of a boy who did not want to attend college in a decidedly elite fashion. Wisehart, M. K., “Which College—If Any?” American Magazine 110 (September 1930): 21–23. Illustration by Joseph Simont, 22-23.Google Scholar

17 One advertisement pictured a boy in overalls eating lunch in an auto shop, staring longingly into space while a book lies open on the table. The caption read, “This lad was going to be a doctor,” playing upon the distinction between those who go to college and the laboring classes. Union Central Life Insurance Company advertisement, Saturday Evening Post 210 (8 January 1938): 41.Google Scholar

18 An Investors Syndicate advertisement captured both these sentiments. The half-page ad pictured a man in the yard helping his young son align a golf club while the caption read My boy will have every advantage—but will he?” The advantage referred specifically to a college education, the ad noting that the father already had a school picked out. By virtue of the golf clubs, clothing, and collegiate expectations, this ad suggested middle-class security and values. Investors Syndicate advertisement, American Magazine 125 (April 1938) 117. Another example is Metropolitan Life Insurance Company advertisement, Saturday Evening Post 210 (April 1938): 61.Google Scholar

19 Elgin Watch advertisement, Saturday Evening Post 210 (21 May 1938): 58.Google Scholar

20 Arrow advertisement, Saturday Evening Post 211 (27 August 1934): 52. Another full-page Arrow ad featured a drawing of well-dressed men (white shirts and ties) playing baseball in a tropical locale. The caption asks: “What style of shirt is it that's rated number one by you and me and all the lucky fellows now enjoying winter vacations? … That's top choice in the college man's wardrobe? … That's first choice of American Businessmen?” Arrow advertisement, Saturday Evening Post 210 (22 January 1938): 47.Google Scholar

21 One insurance advertisement for National Committee for Life Insurance Education pictured a female student in cap and gown. Saturday Evening Post 210 (14 May 1938): 34–35. Nevertheless, U.S. Savings Bonds advertisement, Saturday Evening Post 210 (5 March 1938): 63; Investors Syndicate, American Magazine, 117; and Chevrolet advertisement, American Magazine 125 (May 1938): 79, for instance all pictured boys in their ads when referring to educational aspirations.Google Scholar

22 Short stories that mentioned male college attendance but failed to note a female's education were Kirk, R. C., “Ladies Go Last,” American Magazine 125 (June 1938): 44–47, 136-38; Winslow, , “Birds, Bees, and Bill,” Morse, , “Who Learned Too Young,” and Hanlon, , “Whom The Gods Love.” In 1938 only two short stories surfaced that depicted a female college graduate in an active career. Miller, Blaine, “Heaven to Earth.” American Magazine 125 (June 1938): 11-13, 70-74, contains a lead female character who is a journalist. Phyllis Duzanne, “Robin Hill,” American Magazine 125 (July 1938) 22-26, 84-88, casts the main female character as a college graduate and teacher. Google Scholar

23 For instance, when stories dealt with “lower class” characters, the difference in descriptions and treatments was striking. Troy, Elizabeth, “The Plumber in the Parlor,” American Magazine 125 (May 1938): 24–27; and McBride, Maxine, “Drive Slowly in Eden,” American Magazine 125 (April 1938): 40-42, 79-81, drew sharp contrasts between the working-class and upper-middle-class characters. Google Scholar

24 For example, Banks Life Company advertisement, Saturday Evening Post 210 (1 January 1938): 47; United States Savings Bonds advertisement, Saturday Evening Post 210 (8 January 1938): 33; National Committee for Life Insurance Education advertisement, Saturday Evening Post 210 (14 May 1938): 34-35, all mention education or school expenses with no specific reference to college. Usually education is included as only one of many worries.Google Scholar

25 National Life Insurance Company advertisement, Saturday Evening Post 210 (7 May 1938): 76; and Parke Davis and Company advertisement, Saturday Evening Post 210 (16 April 1938): 65.Google Scholar

26 In fact, the bill received substantial opposition from many educators fearful of federal encroachments and a sullied academic environment. For instance, James B. Conant of Harvard University spoke out against the indiscriminate eligibility requirements and worried that colleges would be swamped with misfits. “President Conant Urges a Revision of the GI Bill of Rights,” School and Society 61 (10 February 1945): 56.Google Scholar

27 Olson states, “at its roots, The Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944 was more an anti-depression measure than an expression of gratitude to veterans… . Anxiety over economics preceded and dominated altruism toward veterans.” Olson, , The G.I. Bill, 24.Google Scholar

28 “FDR's Demobilization Plans Catch His Opponents Offguard,” Newsweek 22 (9 August 1943): 36; “Dough for Joe,” Newsweek 24 (3 July 1945): 34-35; “When You Come Back,” Life 17 (25 September 1944): 53, all emphasized the unemployment benefits as the most significant part of the GI Bill, even ranking education behind the loan packages. Even articles that criticized the GI Bill, such as Pringle, Henry F., “Are We Making a Bum Out of GI Joe?” Ladies Home Journal 63 (September 1946): 48; and “The Veteran Not Only Wants an Opportunity, He Is One,” Saturday Evening Post 218 (17 March 1945): 136, focused almost completely on the unemployment benefits.Google Scholar

29 Olson, , The G.I. Bill, 28.Google Scholar

30 Wector, Dixon, When Johnny Comes Marching Home (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1944).Google Scholar

31 For instance, Stevenson, Charles “What Is Happening to the Veterans Who Come Home,” Reader's Digest 45 (July 1944): 79–82, mentions college or vocational training at the end of the article, but the main focus was on informing veterans and their families about how the law provided for them to obtain their old jobs. Brig. Johnson, General Leon W., “Don't Let the Veteran Down,” Saturday Evening Post 219 (10 August 1946): 12-13; and Bolte, Charles, “When Joe Is Out of Uniform,” New York Times Magazine, 1 July 1945, 10-11, both emphasized that what the veteran needed most was a job. Google Scholar

32 Frank, Stanley, “The GI's Reject Education,” Saturday Evening Post 218 (18 August 1945): 20, 101-102.Google Scholar

33 Olson, , The G.I. Bill, 109–110.Google Scholar

54 Efron, Edith, “The Two Joes Meet—Joe College, Joe Veteran,” New York Times Magazine, 16 June 1946, 21. Troubles with fraternities received frequent attention in the articles reporting how combat-tough veterans balked at the hazing demands of non-veteran brothers. For instance, “Veterans On The Campus,” Time, 28 August 1944, 56-8; and “Boom on Fraternity Row,” Time, 9 February 1948, 75, commented upon the flare-ups.Google Scholar

35 Some excellent pictures may be found in “Veterans at College,” Life 20 (7 January 1946): 37–42; “Veterans at College,” Life 22 (21 April 1947): 105-113; and Morris, John, “Married Veterans Take Over the Campus.” Articles highlighting the veteran on campus include Forester, C. S., “Meet a Student Veteran,” Ladies Home Journal 62 (May 1945): 137-40; “Pop Goes to College,” Newsweek 26 (26 November 1945): 104-106; Morris, John, “Married Veterans Take Over the Campus,” Ladies Home Journal 63 (October 1946): 32-39; “Veterans at College,” Life 20 (7 January 1946): 37-42; “Veterans at College,” Life 22 (21 April 1947): 105-113; and Mackage, Milton, “Crisis at the Colleges,” Saturday Evening Post 219 (3 August 1946): 9-10. Google Scholar

36 Mackage, , “Crisis at the Colleges,” 9–10.Google Scholar

37 Packard, Vance, “Yanks at Yale,” American Magazine 139 (April 1945): 46–47; and Murphy, Charles J. V. “GIs at Harvard,” Life 20 (17 June 1946): 16-22.Google Scholar

18 For example, at Cornell University the veterans' cumulative grade average exceeded the non-veteran, traditional students.’ “Academic Achievements of Veterans at Cornell University,” School and Society 65 (February 1947): 101–102. The veteran's academic performance received praise from all quarters, even from erstwhile critics like president James B. Conant of Harvard. Olson, The G.I. Bill, 49. A limited list of articles trumpeting the GI's academic performance include MacFarland, George A., “Veterans at the University of Pennsylvania,” Educational Outlook 22 (November 1947): 18; Avery, Curtis E., “Veterans' Education in the Universities,” Journal of Higher Education 17 (October 1946): 360; “The Class of '49,” Fortune 39 (June 1949): 84-86; Fine, Benjamin, “Veterans Raise College Standards,” Educational Outlook 22 (November 1947): 58; and Stooke, Harold W., “The Veterans Educate the Nation,” American Association of Colleges Bulletin 33 (October 1947): 469. Of course the success of war time courses like the Navy V-12 as well as the GI Bill had a profound impact on the future direction of higher education through such forums as the President's Commission on Higher Education and its published report. Gail Kennedy, Ed., Education for Democracy: The Debate over the Report of the President's Commission on Higher Education (Boston, 1952). Google Scholar

39 Articles by veterans in college reflecting on the G.I. Bill, argued that the G.I. Bill set a precedent, an entering wedge that must be exploited in order to “open new opportunities of social welfare … [and satisfy] America's need for educated citizens.” Higham, John, “Subsidy or Sympathy?” American Scholar 16 (July 1947): 343. Two veterans writing in that same forum, noting veterans' preferences for practical courses, urged that the liberal arts courses be integrated into the study of modern problems—”ethics type courses that integrate increased specialization preferences with what role they are expected to play in society.” Cooke, M.T. Jr., “The Need for Direction and Meaning,” American Scholar 16 (July 1947), 345; and Spalding, Keith, “The Contemporary Context,” American Scholar 16 (July 1947), 346. Looking to the future, scholars echoed such arguments in vast numbers of articles; two typical articles are Carman, Harry James, “Education and the World of Tomorrow,” Association of American Colleges Bulletin 31 (October 1945): 400-12; and Tresidder, Argus, “The Illiberal Arts: A Summary of Many Options,” Journal of Higher Education 17 (March 1946): 125-30. Google Scholar

40 Vinocour, S. M., “The Veteran and College,” Newsweek 30 (10 November 1947): 80.Google Scholar

41 “The Class of '49,” Fortune, 84-86. Efron, , “The Two Joes Meet;” Murphy, , “GIs at Harvard;” and “Veterans on the Campus” all comment on veterans' demands for practicality and relevance in all courses. “Out of College,” Life 28 (12 June 1950): 32, is a typical editorial from the period lamenting how graduates (presumably including the many veterans) only desired the economic security afforded by the major corporations. Google Scholar

42 Murphy, , “GIs at Harvard,” 20.Google Scholar

43 It should be noted that although such critiques appeared to be the voice of average Americans demanding change in higher education, the complaining veterans, for the most part, were simply more mature traditional students. The seeming democratic critique of colleges and universities was mainly a product of the intersection of the popular image of the GI with the popular image of colleges and universities. In one sense the veteran students were not traditional. War had aged them, and their critiques were real. But they did not represent a new class invading higher education except through their popular image as veteran everymen—Bill Mauldin's Willie and Joe going to college.Google Scholar

44 “Class of '48,” Life, 7 June 1948, 111–119.Google Scholar

45 Davidson, Bill, “The Education of Eugene Miley,” Ladies Home Journal 63 (February 1946) 52–54, 114-16. Less forceful in its championing of the GI Bill's educational benefits but no less revealing, a 1948 short story in the Saturday Evening Post entitled “The Right Girl” took place entirely within the setting of a GI campus “vetsville”. The story opens with the meeting of two ex-servicemen, both previously of low rank, enrolling in a university. Love and the trials of veteran readjustment to peaceful civilian living form the central issues of the story. The main character, Johnny O'Connor, is a tough guy with a shady gangster background suffering from recurrent combat flashbacks, who enrolls to attain gentlemanly qualities at the behest of his father. The very fact that the cast of characters and setting combined associations between the everyman-veteran and college confirmed the widespread influence of the GI Bill on the common stock of prewar cultural perceptions, creating new sets of possibilities. The characters still connected the college experience with privilege and the attainment of sophistication. Scoggins, C. F., “The Right Girl,” Saturday Evening Post 220 (17 April 1948): 18-19, 116-119. Google Scholar

46 Listerine Antiseptic advertisement, Life 22 (2 June 1947): 77. Colgate Dental Cream also utilized a college theme. One of their ads featured a series of pictures and captions (comicbook style). The graduate in cap and gown ponders why he lost the girl when he was voted “most likely to succeed.” of course his dentist gives him Colgate. Life 26 (30 May 1949): 10.Google Scholar

47 Zippo advertisement, Saturday Evening Post 221 (18 September 1948): 161; Ronson advertisement, Life 28 (15 May 1950): 114. Greyhound Busses and Pullman Sleeping Cars both advertised their services in ads aimed specifically at college students returning to school in the Fall. Greyhound Bus advertisement, Saturday Evening Post 221 (25 September 1948): 129; and Pullman Sleeping Car advertisement, Life 29 (18 September 1950): 31. In contrast, a Greyhound advertisement, Saturday Evening Post 219 (28 September 1946): 112, did not incorporate a college theme.Google Scholar

48 Gruen advertisement, Life 22 (12 May 1947) 30. Elgin advertisement with Mount Holyoke woman, Saturday Evening Post 221 (14 May 1949): back of front cover; Elgin advertisement with MIT man, Life 26 (23 May 1949): 23. A 1947 Hamilton watch ad offered a color illustration of five attractive campus leaders from “best athlete” to “campus queen” and “best student.” Their fictional biographical sketches predicted executive success or confirmed their popularity while matching them with a particular Hamilton style. Hamilton watch advertisement, Life 22 (5 May 1947): 127. The study depicted as the setting for one ad implied wealth and privilege. Watchmakers of Switzerland advertisement, Saturday Evening Post 221 (4 September 1948): 24. Another typical ad reinforcing collegiate identifications was a Parker Pen advertisement, Saturday Evening Post 221 (11 September 1948): back of front cover.Google Scholar

49 For instance, whereas one year later Arrow was one of the most aggressive in utilizing college themes during the Fall season, their ad in Time, 25 August 1947, 36, did not use college as a subject. The same holds true for Botany, Saturday Evening Post 219 (28 September 1946): 162.Google Scholar

50 Haggar advertisement, Saturday Evening Post 221 (14 May 1948): 142.Google Scholar

51 Nelson-Paige advertisement, Saturday Evening Post 221 (11 September 1948): 174. Botany advertisements on opposing pages, Saturday Evening Post 221 (11 September 1948): 140-141; and Botany advertisement, Saturday Evening Post 221 (18 September 1948): 46.Google Scholar

52 Wilson Brothers advertisement split over two pages, Saturday Evening Post 221 (14 August 1948): 80–81. An Arrow ad playing on both college and football themes featured a half-page illustration of a handsome, well-dressed young man in a pressbox, silhouetted by the vibrant stadium on game day. The caption began, “college men (and other smart dressers) …” encouraging readers to identify with this elite image of college style. Arrow advertisement, Saturday Evening Post 221 (11 September 1948): 65. Arrow had used collegiate references in the 1930s, but significantly enhanced them in the late 1940s. Arrow advertisement, Time, 25 August 1947, 36. Arrow advertisement, Saturday Evening Post 221 (28 August 1948): 62. Other apparel ads incorporating the college theme are Essley, , Saturday Evening Post, 221 (18 September 1948): 84; Socks, Interwoven, Saturday Evening Post 221 (28 August 1948): 6; and Kroy Processors, Saturday Evening Post 221 (28 August 1948). Google Scholar

53 Public infatuation with college graduates remained despite the veteran's departure. The veterans had linked college to corporate jobs and that connection solidified and became a source of concern during the 1950s as a skilled manpower shortage worried American analysts. As the 1950s progress, then, articles on the prospects for college graduates began to resemble promotional propaganda for the colleges. Each article not only trumpeted the incredible demand for college educated men, their starting salaries seemingly advertised higher education as the easy road to the American Dream. This promotional quality may be felt simply by reading the tides of articles which heralded economic opportunity. The content of such articles assumed a familiar pattern. Graduates received multiple job offers, as many as twenty-five reported in one article, from the best and largest corporations in the United States—IBM, AT&T, GE, and GM. Packard, Vance, “Youngsters Wanted For Jobs Unlimited,” American Magazine 155 (June 1953): 144; Wallace, Jamie, “Wanted young Men for Top-Salary Jobs,” American Magazine 157 (June 1954): 14-15; “Big Grab for Graduates,” Newsweek 47 (18 June 1956): 93; “$100 A Week Is Common for the Class of '57,” U.S. News and World Report 42 (17 May 1957): 45-46. Google Scholar

54 Every term or image has multiple meanings. Defined in this way nearly any mention of college or jobs, or any pictures of campuses, handsome graduates, or glimpses of student's privileged lives must have only reinforced existing images of class. Such images emerge, for example, in “Industry Snaps Up Grads,” Business Week, 2 May 1953, 116–118; “Scramble for a Degree: How Many Will Get into College?” Newsweek 49 (14 January 1957): 76-79; and Sally, and Reston, James, “So We Sent Our Son to College,” Saturday Evening Post 228 (5 May 1956): 37. For instance, “Job Outlook for Class of '54: Plenty of Openings—Pay Above a Year Ago,” U.S. News and World Report 36 (30 April 1954): 37-40, combines this materialistic headline with a picture of a gothic collegiate archway and college students talking on the quad. I noticed also that these articles normally discussed and pictured Ivy League students and schools, further forwarding an image of upper-middle class privilege.Google Scholar

55 “Boys Will Be Boys,” Time, 25 November 1946, 66.Google Scholar

56 “Life Goes to a Summer Prom,” Life 27 (22 August 1949): 88–89; “Life Goes to Derby Day at Yale,” Life 24 (24 May 1948): 153-4; “Syracuse Spring Weekend,” Life 26 (30 May 1949): 73. Life's continued fascination with college life may be glimpsed with articles like “College Humor,” Life 27 (5 December 1949): 49; “Some Outstanding College Graduates of '49,” Life 26 (13 June 1949): 95; “Frosh Just Love to be Miserable,” Life 27 (31 October 1949): 51-52; and “Life Goes Back to a Party,” Life 29 (16 October 1950): 188-90. Life covered college events prior to the war but not in this volume.Google Scholar

57 “Missouri vs. Smith,” Life 26 (9 May 1949): 68–73.Google Scholar

58 Letters to the Editor, Life 26 (30 May 1949): 2.Google Scholar

59 Fox-Genovese, Elizabeth, “Mixed Messages: Women and the Impact of World War II,” Southern Humanities Review 21 (Summer 1993): 235–238. Also, Susan M. Hartmann argues that the war did bring massive changes for women in the economy and society that made a return to the “status quo antebellum” very difficult. Hartmann, , The Home Front and Beyond, 27. Google Scholar

60 “Degree for Daughter,” Newsweek 22 (November 1, 1943): 80.Google Scholar

61 Letter to the Editor, Newsweek 22 (December 26, 1943): 6.Google Scholar

62 Solomon, , 180. Two 1947 Seventeen articles reporting on the possibility of going to college specifically mention this problem for women. “Sitting This Year Out,” Seventeen, January 1947, 58-59; and Beaton, Alice, “It's a Poor Year for Coasting,” Seventeen, September 1947, 19.Google Scholar

63 Hartmann, , The Home Front and Beyond, 116.Google Scholar

64 Solomon, , In the Company of Educated Women, 184. The percentage of women taking their doctorates would not match the prewar percentages until 1970.Google Scholar

65 Of all the articles on GIs at school only Morris, John “Married Veterans Take Over the Campus,” Ladies Home Journal 63 (October 1946): 32–39, included anything approaching equity regarding coverage of wives going to school alongside with their husbands.Google Scholar

66 “For GI Jane,” Time, 15 January 1945, 72, was the only article in the major periodicals to devote exclusive attention to women.Google Scholar

67 Articles like Rosa Lee Jay “The Battle for Subsistence,” Ladies Home Journal 64 (November 1947): 252–54; and Mackage, , “Crisis at the Colleges,” 9-10, featured the wife as a super-housewife and mother. Overall, the novelty of wives on campus attracted attention and proved a favorite subject of GI Bill articles. Articles like “Married Undergrads,” Time, 10 December 1945): 69-70, commenting on how perfume now wafted through the air instead of pipe smoke in a Dartmouth fraternity, proved typical of most. Two Life articles, for instance, showed plenty of pictures of wives at school, but the pictures focused on her at home and the husband at school or studying. “Veterans at College,” Life 20 (7 January 1946): 37-42; and “Veterans at College,” Life 22 (21 April 1947): 105-113.Google Scholar

68 Typical is an ad for Rings, Keepsake Diamond, Seventeen, October 1947, 35.Google Scholar

69 “The Tomboy Touch,” Seventeen, January 1947, 46 and 129; and “Trains Leave Every Hour,” Seventeen, January 1947, 60-61 and 96.Google Scholar

70 Ardette, Frances, “Start Learning in School,” Seventeen, March 1947, 86; Carr, Alison, “Sitting This Year Out,” Seventeen, January 1947, 58-59. Only one article appeared during the year on choosing a college. Booth, Betty, “How to Choose a College,” Seventeen, March 1947, 182-83. Google Scholar

71 Greene, Elaine, “Don't Forget Next Year,” Seventeen, August 1949, 60; Williams, Tess, “What About Next Fall?” Seventeen, September 1949, 85 and 178; and Murren, Dona Jean, College Is a World,” Seventeen, May 1949, 76. In 1954, two articles promoted the non-traditional careers of engineer and pilot with college attendance figuring prominently in both. Slautterbark, Hilda, “Engineering, a Big Future,” Seventeen, April 1954, 180 and 186; and Sternberg-Knight, Gretel, “The Widest Outlook,” Seventeen, February 1954, 126-7. Google Scholar

72 Camay advertisement, Seventeen, March 1949, 7; and Camay advertisement, Seventeen, September 1954, 97.Google Scholar

73 Carole King Juniors advertisement, Seventeen, August 1954, 54; Sanforized advertisement, Seventeen, September 1954, 105; Laskinlamb advertisement, Seventeen, August 1954, 225; Sanforized advertisement, Seventeen, August 1954, 160-161; Caper, Campus, Seventeen, November 1954, 66. Although not a fashion ad, Playtex began utilizing a college theme in 1954. Seventeen, September 1954, 5.Google Scholar

74 Edith Lances Bras advertisement, Seventeen, July 1947, 196.Google Scholar

75 Samsonite Luggage advertisement, Seventeen, September 1947, 10; and White Star Luggage advertisement, Seventeen, August 1949, 30.Google Scholar

76 Miller's advertisement, Seventeen, August 1949, 111.Google Scholar