With or Without the Turkey: Lessons From Thanksgiving in War and Hard Times

From Depression-era resourcefulness to World War II sacrifices, coming together has been an unwavering hallmark of the Thanksgiving holiday.
With or Without the Turkey: Lessons From Thanksgiving in War and Hard Times
Servicemen enjoy a Thanksgiving dinner in New York City, 1918. Public domain
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If a picture is worth a thousand words, then let’s cut to the chase and begin with Norman Rockwell’s painting “Freedom from Want.”

In March 1943, “Freedom from Want” appeared in The Saturday Evening Post. Like the other three paintings in Rockwell’s “Four Freedoms” series—he was inspired by President Franklin Roosevelt’s 1941 State of the Union Address—“Freedom from Want” has ever since served as the icon of our American Thanksgiving, so much so that most people know it only as “the Thanksgiving painting.”

Jeff Minick
Jeff Minick
Author
Jeff Minick has four children and a growing platoon of grandchildren. For 20 years, he taught history, literature, and Latin to seminars of homeschooling students in Asheville, N.C. He is the author of two novels, “Amanda Bell” and “Dust on Their Wings,” and two works of nonfiction, “Learning as I Go” and “Movies Make the Man.” Today, he lives and writes in Front Royal, Va.