War and
ESPiTE PRESIDENT RoosEVELT's New Deal policies, America's H decade-long economic depression has left nearly 40 percent of ^ ^ ^ families below the federal poverty line. T^e Grapes o/ Wrat^, John Steinbeck's 1939 novel describing the struggles of migrant workers in Depression-era America, is an overnight bestseller. Only 2.0 years after the carnage of the Somme, Europe once again plummets toward war. World War II claims some 55 million lives and launches the atomic age. It also serves as a proving ground for public health methods, as preventive medicine and disease control programs slash mortality rates from disease among U.S. troops. Hundreds of Harvard School of Public Health graduates and faculty contribute to this triumph, both on the homefront through warrelated research and training, and on the battlegrounds of Europe and the South Pacific. In 1946 the School gains administrative independence within Harvard University. Over the coming decade, the School will be at the center of a mid-century renaissance in the health sciences, as new methods are developed to quell disease and extend and improve life.