Over Here: How the G.I. Bill Transformed the American Dream
by Edward Humes

Published by Harcourt

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In 1944, the U.S. government feared the flood of returning World War II soldiers almost as much as it longed for peace. To avoid economic catastrophe, FDR, Congress, and veterans groups devised a modest measure, the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944.

They intended this G.I. Bill of Rights simply as a bit of help for the sixteen million men and women who so bravely served their country. Instead, quite by accident, it transformed America and rewrote the American Dream.

The G.I. Bill made homeowners, college graduates, professionals, rocket scientists, and a booming middle class out of a Depression-era generation that never expected such opportunity. Today's America was built on the bill's greatness. The Greatest Generation would not exist without it.

Here are the stories of some of these men and women -- how their lives changed because of the bill, and how this country changed because of them.

pub date: 2006-10-02 | hardcover | 9780151007103