But to civilians who had lived through the hardscrabble years of the Great Depression, their newfound prosperity was exhilarating. In 1944, the U.S. unemployment rate fell to 1.2 percent—the lowest ever recorded, probably the lowest that will ever be recorded. Gross national product grew by more than 60 percent in real terms from 1940 to 1944.7 The gains were broadly distributed: indeed, they were proportionally greatest at the low end of the income scale. The war boom completed what the New Dealers had started—it lifted the fortunes of the poorest Americans, including blacks, Latinos, and
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