We explore how World War II transformed the United States into a global superpower and laid the groundwork for decades of international tension that followed. This episode examines America's mobilization for total war, the war's profound social and economic impacts at home, and the emergence of the United States and the Soviet Union as rival world leaders. We'll trace how wartime decisions, new international institutions, and competing ideologies shaped the early Cold War. Positioned late in the course, this lesson highlights how the Second World War fundamentally redefined America's role in the world and set the terms of global politics for the rest of the twentieth century.