Editing Four Freedoms (section)

==Historical context==
In the 1930s many Americans, arguing that the involvement in [[World War I]] had been a mistake, were adamantly against continued intervention in European affairs.<ref name="Bodnar, John 2010">Bodnar, John, The "Good War" in American Memory (Maryland: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2010), 11.</ref> With the [[Neutrality Acts of the 1930s|Neutrality Acts]] established after 1935, U.S. law banned the sale of armaments to countries that were at war and placed restrictions on travel with belligerent vessels.<ref>Kennedy, David M., Freedom From Fear: the American people in depression and war, 1929–1945 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999) 393–94.</ref>

When [[World War II]] began in September 1939, the neutrality laws were still in effect and ensured that no substantial support could be given to Britain and France. With the revision of the Neutrality Act in 1939, Roosevelt adopted a "methods-short-of-war policy" whereby supplies and armaments could be given to European Allies, provided no declaration of war could be made and no troops committed.<ref>Kennedy, David M., Freedom From Fear: the American people in depression and war, 1929–1945 (1999) 427–434.</ref> By December 1940, Europe was largely at the mercy of [[Adolf Hitler]] and Germany's [[Nazi Germany|Nazi regime]]. With Germany's defeat of France in June 1940, Britain and its overseas Empire stood alone against the military alliance of Germany, Italy, and Japan. Winston Churchill, as Prime Minister of Britain, called for Roosevelt and the United States to supply them with armaments in order to continue with the war effort.{{citation needed|date=January 2018}}

The [[1939 New York World's Fair]] had celebrated Four Freedoms – religion, speech, press, and assembly – and commissioned [[Leo Friedlander]] to create sculptures representing them. [[Mayor of New York City]] [[Fiorello La Guardia]] described the resulting statues as the "heart of the fair". Later Roosevelt would declare his own "Four Essential Freedoms" and call on [[Walter Russell]] to create a ''[[Four Freedoms Monument]]'' that was eventually dedicated at [[Madison Square Garden]] in New York City.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=e7FD0Qfub9MC&q=%22norman+rockwell%22+%22freedom+of+speech%22+%22four+freedoms%22+%22Saturday+Evening+Post%22&pg=PP71|title=Liberty's Refuge: The Forgotten Freedom of Assembly|author=Inazu, John D.|publisher=[[Yale University Press]]|isbn=978-0300173154|year=2012}}</ref>

They also appeared on the reverse of the [[AM-lira]], the Allied Military Currency note issue that was issued in Italy during WWII, by the Americans, that was in effect occupation currency, guaranteed by the American dollar.