The world was a war as the decade began, all within the confines of a great depression that was affecting the lives of all Americans, but when Pearl Harbor was attacked, the United States could no longer be on the sidelines. Through the courage and dedication of the soldiers who fought in the European or South Pacific theaters, they spent much of this decade in a battle for a way of life that the country and western powers had spent two centuries building. By the end of the decade, that war would be won and the build back on the front burner.