Edwin Denby: On the Home Front -- 1942

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Grand Central Terminal, New York City: photo by John Collier, December 1941

Because Jim insulted Harry eight years previous
By taking revenge for a regular business loss
Forwardlooking Joe hints that Leslie's devious
Because who stands to lose by it, why you yourself boss.
Figures can't lie so it's your duty to keep control
You've got to have people you can trust, look at em smile
That's why we're going to win this war, I read a man's soul
Like a book, intuition, that's how I made my pile.
Anybody can make it, that's democracy, sure
The hard part's holding on, keeping fit, world of difference
You know war, mass hysteria, makes things insecure
Yep a war of survival, frankly I'm off the fence.
The small survivor has a difficult task
Answering the questions great historians ask.

A sailor and his girlfriend do a bit of jitterbugging at the Hurricane, New York, New York: photo by Gordon Parks, April 1943

A spectator before one of the exhibits at The Nature of the Enemy show, put up by the OWI at Rockefeller Plaza: photo by Arthur Siegel, May 1943

An exhibit at The Nature of the Enemy show, put up by the OWI at Rockefeller Plaza: photo by Arthur Siegel, May 1943

Dairy truck on 44th Street, New York City: photo by John Vachon, March 1943

Edwin Denby: On the Home Front -- 1942: from In Public, In Private, 1948
Photos from the Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Collection, Library of Congress