University of Utah Researcher Leads WWII Home Front Histories Project 

History lives and breathes in places across the United States, bringing depth and nuance to unexpected corners of our everyday lives, and nobody knows that better than Matt Basso, associate professor of History and Gender Studies at the University of Utah. Matt is wrapping up a nearly five-year project with the National Park Service (NPS) that provides new resources for understanding the World War II home front, one of the most remarkable periods in our nation’s history. Basso led a team of twelve graduate students and five undergraduate students who received stipends to undertake research in support of this major public history project. The project explores little known stories of WWII home front state by state by focusing on sites across the U.S. and through five national-level thematic analyses: Environmental History, Native American and Indigenous History, LGBTQ History, Disability History, and Latino History. “Discovering these histories has been really exciting for students,” says Basso, “because while they all know the Rosie the Riveter story, very few people think about everything else that was happening on the home front while the soldiers were overseas.”  

While the words “National Park Service” typically conjure up visions of stunning red rock arches and sweeping vistas over pristine landscapes, the NPS also manages 431 national park units, and oversees the registries of 2,600+ National Historic Landmarks and over 95,000 entries on the National Register of Historic Places that delineate the story of America. Historical units of the NPS include the Appomattox Court House in Virginia where the Civil War formally ended, the Martin Luther King, Jr., National Park in Georgia that includes the home in which King was born, and Golden Spike right here in Utah where the transcontinental railroad was completed.   

Basso and his team contributed to this rich historical landscape, writing World War II home front histories of every state in support of a Congressional mandate to name one WWII Heritage City in each state. Students became adept at writing a tremendous volume in a short amount of time, as each state’s history was approximately 4,000 words – the team churned out over 200,000 words in only six months. These state histories are also reflected in the five chapters and the “study list” of important World War II home front sites that comprise the forthcoming NPS National Historic Landmark Theme Study, World War II and the American Home Front, Volume 2, that Basso authored. It draws on an expansive scholarship to offer a new picture of the home front and will serve as a free resource for the American public as well as NPS employees and community historians. Says Greg Smoak, professor of History, “I’m a huge advocate of publicly engaged scholarship. And this project especially - it’s a really important project that will shape public interpretations of history nationwide for years to come and may lead to the creation of one or more National Historic Landmarks. Those outside the public history world don’t necessarily understand how big a deal that is.”

The work is not yet over; Basso and several students involved in the project are collaborating with public historians to evaluate sites identified in the theme study for the National Historic Landmarks program. “It’s a particular honor to work on this part of the project because these places hold so much meaning for our fellow Americans,” reflects Basso. The process of site evaluation and designation is rigorous and time-intensive; the team must make a comparative historic argument for a location’s national significance and its’ historic integrity, secure the agreement of the property owner(s), and ultimately document everything in dossiers often exceeding 100 pages. 

John Flynn, a PhD candidate in History who has been involved in the project for three years, reflects on how this experience has enhanced his education at the College of Humanities: “This project gave me valuable experience in both working with a team on a multi-year project with numerous deliverables and also working with the federal government. There were challenges, but under the direction of our PI, Professor Matt Basso, we were allowed to think and work creatively. One of the biggest tasks for our team was writing individual reports for each of the 50 states and US territories. These reports not only documented the WWII home front history but also included recommendations for the American World War II Heritage City Program. We all had to learn to work collaboratively, which you don’t always get the chance to do when working in a history program.” 

The team is currently assessing three different sites that are significant in the history of the WWII home front. The first is the home of Elizabeth Peratrovich, a Native Alaskan (Tlingit) woman who fought to improve civil rights and end housing and education discrimination. The second proposed site is the home of Margaret Chung, the first female Chinese American physician in the United States and a great patriot and supporter of the U.S. armed forces during WWII. The final site is one or more of the locations in Los Angeles affiliated with the Zoot Suit Riots, when groups of young Latino and Black men wearing the eponymous suits fought back against members of the U.S. military who attacked them on the streets of LA. The requirements for designation are stringent, going all the way up to final approval by the U.S. Secretary of the Interior, but the work is rewarding.  

Smoak, who has led numerous public history projects throughout his career, emphasizes the positive impacts that this type of education can have for students. “Publicly engaged scholarship is so valuable on a couple of different levels. On one level, it teaches students that the scholarly work we do here has a public application, a value. On a more basic level, working on a project like this gives them hands-on experience building a skill set that’s marketable. Cultural resource management jobs are out there; that is history put to work in the world. It not only broadens [student’s] horizons, but also prepares them for a range of careers outside the narrow sliver that is academia.”

The theme study written by Basso and supported by the team of U of U student researchers will be published in late 2024 or early 2025. The research is also accessible to the public through a series of open webinars and recordings in conjunction with the National Council on Public History.