Taxes, civil rights, and party ideology are not often referenced in accounts of World War II. But if these topics have yet to generate the pages upon pages devoted to Pearl Harbor, D-Day, and the Big Three at Yalta, it's not because they weren't, in their own way, critically important and enduring. This chapter examines three of the most important domestic ramifications as they relate to American political development.

First, World War II led to the further growth of a crucial feature of the American state by providing the impetus for a mass-based, progressive tax system. Shortly after World War I produced important changes in the federal tax structure, its successor dramatically transformed that system yet again. Prior to World War II, and despite the changes wrought by the Great War, governmental revenue was structured very differently – only a relatively small portion of the American public actually paid income taxes. The World War II mass-based tax system has remained the foundation for Washington's revenue gathering ever since.

Second, with regard to democratic rights policy, African American participation drew attention to, and generated policy developments in, the arena of racial politics. Although there have been well-known instances of civil rights' violations in times of war (and perhaps none more infamous than the World War II-era internment of Japanese descendants), marginalized groups that contribute to war efforts – at home or abroad – have made remarkable democratic strides during those wars and in their aftermaths.