. >> university of chicago professor james t. sparrow, what did world war ii do to the size of the federal government? >> >> oh, it increased it by more than tenfold. >> how so? >> well, the economic mobilization required a drastic increase in the presence of the government within the economy. the armed forces grew drastically as well, over 16 million people served over the course of the war, and roughly half of the economy was absorbed by the mobilization. so it was an unprecedented expansion, the scope of the government. >> how did it compare to the 1930s during fdr's first terms? >> yeah. well, the '30s, of course, were a period of dramatic growth, but the government of the '30s even at its peak was just absolutely swamped by the warfare state that came out of the second world war. and years after the second world war was over and before the korean war had begun, the government was still dramatically larger than it had been at it height in the 1930s. so it created an immentionly larger government and more intrusive government. >> coul