America in the Twentieth Century

Newton Falls was founded in 1806 and named after Newtown, Connecticut, a homage to the Connecticut Land Company, and the waterfalls on the East and West Branches of the Mahoning River. The small community was a transportation town with access to the Mahoning River, eventually the Pennsylvania & Ohio Canal, and a myriad of railroads that crisscrossed throughout Newton Falls. As the industrial revolution took hold of Newton Falls, factories came and provided locals with jobs. Eventually, the Ravenna Ordnance Plant, often referred to as the Ravenna Arsenal, opened in 1942 and provided many jobs for those in Newton Falls during World War II and on. Today, Newton Falls is known for its infamous zip code, 44444; the F5 tornado that hit the city in 1985; and one of the oldest covered bridges to remain in the state of Ohio. 

Longtime Midwest City resident and author Malana Bracht joins efforts with key historical leaders of Midwest City and institutions such as the Midwest City High School History Center, Rose State College Foundation, and Atkinson Heritage Center to deliver this city’s rich story to the new generation of Midwest City residents looking to understand the heart behind the model city and its founders.

In the early 1940s, a visionary developer named W.P. “Bill” Atkinson set out to find the perfect location for an incoming air depot to be built in Oklahoma by the US War Department. With a hunch and a wink, he purchased a large plot of land and later incorporated Midwest City in 1943 with the purpose of attracting and supporting Midwestern families and businesses relocating to work at the new plant. The plant later became the iconic Tinker Air Force Base. Awarded as the “Model City of the Midwest,” Midwest City became a city of hope for families looking to have a better life while supporting the nation’s military efforts. Using creative marketing strategies such as selling ponies with homes, intentional city planning for family living, and cultivating Norman Rockwellian culture, Midwest City grew and positioned itself as an innovative leader in the region. 

Having many familial ties to Midwest City and Tinker Air Force Base, Bracht tells the story of Midwest City from its founding, continuing its legacy for generations to come.

A significant site of United States industrial and economic history, Johnstown, Pennsylvania was a birthplace and powerhouse of iron, steel, coal, and transportation.

From its early start as a small community on the fringes of the frontier, the town became an important terminus for the Pennsylvania Mainline Canal and an early site for coal and ore mining. It also grew into a major steel and iron producer renowned around the world for its output, know-how, and quality. At one time, Johnstown's industry helped spur the national drive to become an economic and industrial superpower.

More than 14,000 people of Japanese descent—two-thirds of them US citizens—were exiled from August 1942 to November 1945 to the Heart Mountain Incarceration Site on the high desert prairie of Wyoming’s Big Horn Basin.

The site was the temporary home for Japanese Americans forced from their homes in California, Oregon, and Washington. Believed to be saboteurs or spies or both, the prisoners were viewed with fear, hatred, and sometimes acceptance by their neighbors in nearby Cody and Powell. During their time at Heart Mountain, the incarcerated people lived like the residents of any American city. Under the eye of the federal War Relocation Authority, they taught school, worked at the fire and police departments, ran stores and barbershops, and spent much of their time wondering what had happened to their former lives. Today, the site is part of the Heart Mountain Interpretive Center and Mineta-Simpson Institute.

Ray Locker is the director of communications and strategy for the Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation. The foundation’s staff consists of experts on Japanese American history, the intersections between Wyoming’s Indigenous community and World War II’s incarcerated people, and museum professionals dedicated to telling the story of this sad chapter of American history. They used donations from those incarcerated and their families, collections in the foundation archives, the National Archives, the Library of Congress, and museums from around the country.

The April 1917 declaration of war on Germany hastened the need for US training camps. Camp Custer, named for Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer, was established on July 18, 1917. Thousands of soldiers were inducted at Camp Custer, and hundreds of thousands of soldiers would start their military training at Camp and later Fort Custer, which became a permanent base in 1940. Images from Camp and Fort Custer gives the reader insight into camp life during both world wars, including the German prisoners of war experience. Images of America: Fort Custer in the World Wars features the influence Camp and Fort Custer had on military training. The young soldiers trained here served their country honorably and are deserving of gratitude.

Brenda Glover Leyndyke, board member and volunteer librarian for the Fort Custer Historical Society, is the daughter of a Fort Custer veteran. Leyndyke updated the Research in Michigan book published by the National Genealogical Society. Along with her volunteer work, Leyndyke writes an award-winning blog. She works closely with the Fort Custer Historical Society board and draws on the society’s collection of over 2,000 photographs.

Through historic photographs discover how the citizens of Boulder City contributed to the war effort in World War II.

During the early years of World War II, the United States Army established a camp on the federal reservation in Boulder City, Nevada. This camp consisted of barracks, a mess hall, officer quarters, a hospital, a guardhouse, a commissary, and a theater for several hundred men. Most of the men were being trained for military police duty. The citizens of Boulder City were not aware of much of the activity that took place at Camp Williston as they were finally settling down into everyday life after the construction of the Hoover Dam. On December 7, 1941, though, the town of Boulder City had the busiest Army camp in the West. Established only a decade earlier in 1931, the camp’s “Be Generous, Equal Victory” slogan was one the community lived by, even more so throughout the war effort.

Tiane Marie is a writer, historian, and photographer. She is dedicated to preserving history by sharing the information for anyone who is wanting to learn. She is the author of Past and Present: Boulder City.

Camp Forrest and Its Legacy is a pictorial history of the individuals and organizations that made this installation Tennessee’s fifth-largest city in World War II.

As an induction, training, and enemy combatant detention facility in Tullahoma, Camp Forrest trained over 70,000 soldiers, employed more than 12,000 civilians, and detained 800 civilian internees and 65,000 German and Italian prisoners of war. At the end of the war, the base was decommissioned and dismantled. Where only foundations and chimneys now stand guard, its legacy perseveres. The over 150,000 people who passed through its gates left an impression still felt.

Dr. Elizabeth Taylor continues to research Camp Forrest’s past and present global impact. She founded the Camp Forrest Foundation, which strives to preserve military history. She welcomes individuals to contact her with stories, comments, photographs, and artifacts. The images included in this title were obtained from the National Archives and Records Administration and numerous private collections.