User:Annehealy/sandbox

Article Evaluation

Foreign Policy of the United States

• Under the Section "Law," Most of the claims made there still need citation. This section seems to be bringing down the overall validity of the article and is less relevant. Because the things discussed in that section still have their own wikipedia articles, this article may be better without it.
• The section "Influencing Foreign Elections" seems too brief (one sentence) and irrelevant to be included in the article.
• The section "Human Rights" seems heavily biased against the United States, explaining only negatives of U.S. foreign policy involving the topic.
• Under "Exporting Democracy," the opinion that the U.S. intervention does not export democracy has significantly more information as opposed to the view that it does export democracy or that it has mixed results. These last two are underrepresented.
• Overall, the citations on this article are good. They mostly from academic journal articles and other reputable sources. The links are working and contain information that effectively supports the claims given in the article. Some references are biased news sources, where one can either find a source that supports the claim and is less biased, or mention the source in the claim so it is addressed. Only 2 links seem to be broken out of many, many more.
• In the talk page users are discussing how to improve the criticism sections, with some claiming that it only is causing more bias and should be merged with the rest of the article, with others saying that it's an important part of it.
• The article is rated C-class and is of interest to four WikiProjects, including politics, international relations, United States public policy, and United States government.
• This article is from many different perspectives (as opposed to the American public) as well as going much more into depth about smaller issues we have not yet to address in class.

Opinion poll

• Everything mentioned in this article seems to be on-topic and relevant. Nothing was distracting or swayed from the topic.
• The article also succeeds in being neutral overall. Nothing seems heavily biased towards a certain side.
• There is discussion of "failures" on this article, but none of "successes" this might be worth while to add, as this view is not represented in it.
• The citation on this article are good, with working links and mostly reputable, academic sources. A few sources have bias that should be addressed, like CNN, ABC, and The Washington Post.
• In the talk page, one user mentioned the fact that "approval rating" redirects to this article but nowhere in this article is it mentioned. This is a major shortcoming that should be solved.
• The article is rated C-Class and is part of the WikiProjects politics, psychology, and statistics.
• This article discusses opinion polls outside of use in the United States, taking it to a global scale which we do not do in class.

Bibliography

Berinsky, Adam J. In Time of War: Understanding American Public Opinion from World War II to Iraq. Univ. of Chicago Press, 2009.

“Polling and Pearl Harbor.” Roper Center, Roper Center, Cornell University, 22 Dec. 2016, ropercenter.cornell.edu/pearlharbor/.

Shirley, Craig. December 1941: 31 Days That Changed America and Saved the World. Nelson Books, an Imprint of Thomas Nelson, 2013.

Querna, Betsy. “World War II Gave Birth to ‘American Spirit," Says Historian Ambrose.”National Geographic, National Geographic Society, 27 May 2001, news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2001/05/0524_AmbroseQA.html.

Gallup Organization. Gallup Poll, Dec, 1944 [survey question]. USGALLUP.011945.RK01B. Gallup Organization [producer]. Cornell University, Ithaca, NY: Roper Center for Public Opinion Research, iPOLL [distributor], accessed Oct-13-2017.

National Opinion Research Center, University of Chicago. News In Wartime, Dec, 1941 [survey question]. USNORC.41-103.R14. National Opinion Research Center, University of Chicago [producer]. Cornell University, Ithaca, NY: Roper Center for Public Opinion Research, iPOLL [distributor], accessed Oct-13-2017.

Lead Section

American public opinion of World War II is the aggregate beliefs of the American public throughout its involvement in the conflict, as well as soon after its end. Public opinion was tracked by numerous polling sources for the duration of World War II. The effects of the war saw a huge increase in morale and “gave birth to the American spirit”.  

When the United States officially joined the war in 1941, Americans, in general, strongly supported the entrance. With direct attacks from Japan and Germany’s declaration of war as well as pressure coming from American leaders, the public rallied behind the war cause. Support for World War II was unique as, unlike any war before or since, there were consistently high levels of it throughout. Public opinion showed that there was a large majority call for unconditional surrender, that the United States should only accept the end of the war once Germany is officially defeated. There was huge support of true victory and the American cause. The individual during this time period was no longer a priority, instead, it was the American identity. Only 14 percent of the public believed it to be a mistake for the United States to have entered the war in a poll taken February 1944. Political parties unified behind the pro-war Roosevelt after entrance along with the majority of the public. Even so, partisan opinions still came into play: there was more support for the war among men than among women, for example.

The war affected Americans at home more than ever, and support for the war continued here. When the United States entered World War II, the public was constantly thinking about the war and what they can do to help the war effort. The entire nation was updating themselves on the war through their daily lives, as polls show, by listening to the news on the radio. Polls show that the public was willing to change their day to day life in order to assist in the war effort through work hours, jobs, and goods they purchase. The majority of the public was also in support of increased government regulation of businesses and individuals when it had to do with aiding the war, believing they had the right to tell businesses what goods to produce and what prices to sell them at and to tell individuals where to work, what hours, and how they will be paid. War became the American culture.

Public opinion polling at the time of World War II, though, was not as accurate as it is today. Using quota-controlled methods of sampling, pollsters sought out approachable and safe groups of people to study. Resulting was a disproportionate representation of the United States population. For example, a 1940 census determined that 10 percent of Americans had college education, while Gallup typically had around 30 percent of their sample with a college education.