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United States Cultural History
1940-1949

Facts About This Decade

• 132,164,569 people in the United States in 1940
  

• In 1940 11.6% of the population was foreign born.
  

• In 1945 the approximate percentage of persons 25 and older with a high school degree or higher was 25%.
  

• Harvard College Tuition 1940 $4,900.
  

• In 1940 there were 4.3 million veterans in civilian life.
  

• Between 1940-1949 there were approximately 1,175 executions under civil authority.
  

• In 1940 there were 126 state and federal prisoners per every 100,000 people.
  

• Approximately 10,000 new books were published in 1945.
  

• Teenage slang from the forties

  • Something good was smooth, snazzy, neat, rare, a killer-diller.

  • The really groovy cats added "-renny," or "-rooney," or "-o-rooney," to any word to make it swing.

  • A good-looking girl was an angel cake, butterfly, slick chick, fly chick, or filly.  A smooth guy was simply luscious, a bunny boy, Jackson, Pappy, Romeo, or swooney.  No girl wanted to date a drip, jerk, schmo, square, or geek.

  • Hep and hip were used interchangeably until the Forties when hip became the word of choice.

References

Caplow, Theodore, Louis Hicks and Ben J. Wattenberg.  The First Measured Century: An Illustrated Guide to Trends in America, 1900-2000.  Washington, D.C.: AEI Press, 2001.

Rollin, Lucy.  Twentieth-Century Teen Culture by the Decades: A Reference Guide.  Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1999.

World Almanac and Book of Facts 2002. New York: World Almanac Books, 2002.