The Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944 is considered one of the best pieces of legislation to emerge from the Second World War (White). This Act, known as the GI Bill, was signed into law on June 22, 1944, and has through the decades had a profound effect on American society (White). For example, more than 21 million veterans have received educational benefits and some 14 million have been able to purchase homes through the home-loan program (White). Sixty years later, the GI Bill is still a major source of veteran benefits and an attractive inducement for enlistments (White). .

             The World War II veterans were a generation that had grown up during the Depression Era, many living in tenement apartments and cold-water flats, or on rural farming communities and small towns (Mettler). Most of this generation expected to enter the same type of work as their fathers, however the GI Bill allowed them a remarkable opportunity to gain an education and the means to own their own home (Mettler). Some became teachers, electricians, engineers, college professors, physicians, scientists, and dentists (Mettler). This Bill literally changed the future of an entire generation (Mettler). Moreover, the GI Bill fueled the development of the middle class and revitalized American democracy, as many veterans joined fraternal groups and community organizations and became involved in postwar era politics (Mettler). .

             The GI Bill was the most far-reaching item of veterans' legislation that has been passed in the history of the United States, allowing low interest rates, and low or no down payment for homes and farms, in addition to low-interest loads for high education (Baby). The United States had endured the era of the Great Depression and the Dust Bow, thus the World War II veterans were a generation that had been hardened by poverty, and many deprived of home and job security (Baby). The GI Bill allowed them to achieve the American Dream (Baby).