One of the best general studies of the home front is by Allan Winkler, author of the essay you've just read:
Home Front U.S.A.: America During World War II. Arlington Heights, Ill.: H. Davidson, 1986.
Other good surveys include:
Lingeman, Richard R. Don't You Know There's A War On? The American Home Front, 1941- 1945. New York, Putnam, 1970.
Whitman, Sylvia. V Is For Victory: The American Home Front During World War II. Minneapolis: Lerner, 1993.
The complicated program by which the federal government mobilized American industry and labor is studied in these books:
Gropman, Alan L. Mobilizing U.S. Industry In World War II: Myth And Reality. Washington, DC: Institute for National Strategic Studies, National Defense University: For sale by the U.S. G.P.O., 1996.
Hooks, Gregory Michael. Forging The Military-Industrial Complex: World War II's Battle Of The Potomac. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1991.
Koistinen, Paul A. C. Arsenal Of World War II: The Political Economy Of American Warfare, 1940-1945. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2004.
These books concentrate on specific groups' experience:
Kersten, Andrew Edmund, Labor's home front: the American Federation
of Labor during World War II. New York: New York University Press,
2006.
Atleson, James B. Labor And The Wartime State: Labor Relations And Law During World War II. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1998.
Here are two chronicles of America's popular music and the War:
Jones, John Bush. The Songs That Fought The War: Popular Music And The Home Front, 1939-1945. Brandeis University Press: Hanover: University Press of New England, 2006.
Smith, Kathleen E. R. God Bless America: Tin Pan Alley Goes To War. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2003.
Professor Winkler also wrote a fine study of the government's wartime propaganda arm:
The Politics Of Propaganda: The Office Of War Information, 1942- 1945. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1978.
These books spotlight some areas of civilian activity in the war effort:
Bentley, Amy. Eating For Victory: Food Rationing And The Politics
Of Domesticity. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1998.
Carpenter, Stephanie A. On The Farm Front: The Women's Land Army In
World War II. DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 2003.
Samuel, Lawrence R. Pledging Allegiance: American Identity And The Bond Drive Of World War II. Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1997.
Here are only a few of the fine books dealing with the changes in American women's lives in wartime:
Hartmann, Susan M. The Home Front And Beyond: American Women In The 1940s. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1982.
Litoff, Judy Barrett , and David C. Smith, eds. Since You Went Away: World War II Letters From American Women On The Home Front. New York: Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991.
Paton-Walsh, Margaret. Our War Too: American Women Against The Axis. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2002.
Yellin, Emily. Our Mothers' War: American Women At Home And At The Front During World War II. New York: Free Press, 2004.
Sources for the career of "Rosie the Riveter" are discussed at length in the previous resources section about World War II posters.
Online Resources:
Don't miss "The Victory Home: A World War II Home Front Reference Library" hosted by the Buffalo (NY) Free-Net. It's terrific:
The U-S-history.com site has some useful materials. The ads can drive you nuts, but persevere. Start with Wars and Battles: World War II:
http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1661.html
For women in the war, About.com has good set of links for women and home front:
http://womenshistory.about.com/od/warwwii/
Women_and_World_War_II.htm
But you may like Teacheroz's "Women and the Home Front" page even better -- links cover women in uniform as well:
http://www.teacheroz.com/WWIIHomefront.htm
For classroom materials, the PBS "The War" website has a segment on "Home Front" lesson plans:
http://www.pbs.org/thewar/downloads/homefront.pdf
But if you want lesson plans and ideas that go beyond the Ken Burns' special, go straight to American Memory's Learning page. The section on the home front in both World Wars is terrific:
http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/homefront/index.html
The recommended sources aren't to be missed:
http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/homefront/resources.html
Remember, too, that there are excellent websites all over the nation that are constantly growing. You may want to bookmark some of them such as the Rutgers University oral history program's site. This includes not only transcripts of oral memoirs but diaries and letters -- and be sure to look at the "Barefoot" series:
