U.S. Leadership and Postwar Progress

Twenty years after World War I, the major industrial countries were on the eve of another great war. Recovery from the Great Depression was incomplete in many of these countries. In the United States and some other democracies, per capita income was below the level reached in 1929. Abroad, the spread of totalitarian government appeared to be both an unstoppable trend and, given the economic performance of Germany and Italy, a possible solution to stagnation and depression.