ABSTRACT
The United States emerged from this jubilation at war’s end in better shape than any other involved nation. The mainland saw no fighting and defense industry spending had spurred economic growth, while Europe and Asia endured frontline battles and massive bombing campaigns that left their infrastructures and economies shattered. By the early 1950s, those latter fears contributed to a swing away from liberalism and toward political and social conservatism, while the booming economy led many to forget their immediate postwar economic worries. But before the United States entered these conservative boom years, the country struggled to find its postwar footing. Both lobbied for the proposed United Nations and supported the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration’s work with displaced peoples. In May 1947, Barbara Egger Lennon (Barbe) traveled to a national Women’s Trade Union League convention in Washington, DC, to do just that.
