Hard work and the proper role of government took center stage in President Obama’s 2013 State of the Union Address. For some historic perspective we might look back to WWII when another generation was asked to work hard and sacrifice on behalf of the war effort by a powerful national government that raised taxes, dictated prices, rationed goods, and dispensed advice on everything from child rearing to good nutrition.

My new multimedia iBook “Workers Win the War: Toil and Sacrifice on the US Homefront” [$2.99 at iTunes http://bit.ly/VQopZY ] will take you back in time to experience first-hand how the government mobilized public support for the war through higher taxes, hard work and sacrifice. Contrast that era with our “homefront” experience today, when only our troops and their families have been asked to make sacrifices for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

This book is rich with WWII media – 80 posters, 18 films, cartoons, radio broadcast, recording and sheet music and a dozen rarely-seen pamphlets – from Bugs Bunny selling bonds in blackface, to Burns and Allen joking on the radio about rationing, to posters claiming taking a sick day was treasonous.