I think it gives a decent window into what was being discussed then, as I understand it.
It's a little hard to Google references that give a feeling for the issues that were on peoples' minds at the time (like the precedent of the Bonus Army), because attention/salience (what "matters" in the culture) has changed a lot since then (and even since 2016).
I had thought that maybe the bill itself would have a revealing preamble, but it doesn't really. The official name does say something though: "Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944".
I think people were very interested in taking lessons from WW1 and avoiding the same problems that had occurred afterwards. Not only would the GI Bill be emblematic of this, but also, say, the difference between the Marshall Plan and the Treaty of Versailles.
https://sites.google.com/a/lanepl.org/columns-by-jim-blount/...
I think it gives a decent window into what was being discussed then, as I understand it.
It's a little hard to Google references that give a feeling for the issues that were on peoples' minds at the time (like the precedent of the Bonus Army), because attention/salience (what "matters" in the culture) has changed a lot since then (and even since 2016).
I had thought that maybe the bill itself would have a revealing preamble, but it doesn't really. The official name does say something though: "Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944".
I think people were very interested in taking lessons from WW1 and avoiding the same problems that had occurred afterwards. Not only would the GI Bill be emblematic of this, but also, say, the difference between the Marshall Plan and the Treaty of Versailles.