Letters from the Greatest Generation

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Publisher : Indiana University Press
ISBN 13 : 0253024609
Total Pages : 370 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (53 download)

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Book Synopsis Letters from the Greatest Generation by : Howard H. Peckham

Download or read book Letters from the Greatest Generation written by Howard H. Peckham and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2016-10-03 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A collection of personal letters from overseas that reveal in day-to-day detail what it was like to serve in World War II. Recounting victory and defeat, love and loss, this is a remarkable and frank collection of World War II letters penned by American men and women serving overseas. Here, the hopes and dreams of the greatest generation fill each page, and their voices ring loud and clear. “It’s all part of the game but it’s bloody and rough,” writes one soldier to his wife. “Wearing two stripes now and as proud as an old cat with five kittens,” remarks another. Yet, as many countries rejoiced on V-E Day, this book reveals that soldiers were “too tired and sad to celebrate.” Filled with the everyday thoughts of these fighters, the letters are by turns heartbreaking and amusing, revealing and frightening. While visiting a German concentration camp, one man wrote, “I don’t like Army life but I’m glad we are here to stop these atrocities.” Meanwhile, in another letter a soldier quips, “I know lice don’t crawl so I figured they were fleas.” A fitting tribute to all veterans, this book brings the experience of war—its dramatic horrors, its dreary hardships, its desperate hope for a better future—to vivid life. “An intimate portrait of the mundane and remarkable, of heroism and terror, of friendship and loss . . . Timely, compelling, and important reading.”—Matthew L. Basso, author of Men at Work

The Greatest Generation Speaks

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Author :
Publisher : Random House
ISBN 13 : 037550463X
Total Pages : 274 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (755 download)

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Book Synopsis The Greatest Generation Speaks by : Tom Brokaw

Download or read book The Greatest Generation Speaks written by Tom Brokaw and published by Random House. This book was released on 2000-03-08 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A heartwarming gift for the holidays—a powerful selection of the letters Tom Brokaw received in response to his towering #1 bestseller The Greatest Generation. “When I wrote about the men and women who came out of the Depression, who won great victories and made lasting sacrifices in World War II and then returned home to begin building the world we have today—the people I called the Greatest Generation—it was my way of saying thank you. But I was not prepared for the avalanche of letters and responses touched off by that book. I had written a book about America, and now America was writing back.”—Tom Brokaw In the phenomenal bestseller The Greatest Generation, Tom Brokaw paid affecting tribute to those who gave the world so much—and who left an enduring legacy of courage and conviction. The Greatest Generation Speaks collects the vast outpouring of letters Brokaw received from men and women eager to share their intensely personal stories of a momentous time in America’s history. Some letters tell of the front during the war, others recall loved ones in harm’s way in distant places. They offer first-hand accounts of battles, poignant reflections on loneliness, exuberant expressions of love, and somber feelings of loss. As Brokaw notes, “If we are to heed the past to prepare for the future, we should listen to these quiet voices of a generation that speaks to us of duty and honor, sacrifice and accomplishment. I hope more of their stories will be preserved and cherished as reminders of all that we owe them and all that we can learn from them.”

An Album of Memories

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Publisher : Random House Trade Paperbacks
ISBN 13 : 0375760415
Total Pages : 402 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (757 download)

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Book Synopsis An Album of Memories by : Tom Brokaw

Download or read book An Album of Memories written by Tom Brokaw and published by Random House Trade Paperbacks. This book was released on 2002-04-30 with total page 402 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “I cannot go anywhere in America without people wanting to share their wartime experiences....The stories and the lessons have emerged from long-forgotten letters home, from reunions of old buddies and outfits, from unpublished diaries and home-published memoirs....As the stories in this album of memories remind us, it truly was an American experience, from the centers of power to the most humble corners of the land.” —Tom Brokaw In this beautiful American family album of stories from the Greatest Generation, the history of life as it was lived during the Depression and World War II comes alive and is preserved in people’s own words. Photographs and time lines also commemorate important dates and events. An Army Air Corps veteran who enlisted in 1941 at age seventeen writes to describe the Bataan Death March. A black nurse tells of her encounter with wartime segregation. Other members of the Greatest Generation describe their war—in such historic episodes as Guadalcanal, the D-Day invasion, the Battle of the Bulge, and Midway—as well as their lives on the home front. Starting with the Depression and Pearl Harbor, moving on through the war years in Europe, in the Pacific, and at home, this unique book preserves a people’s rich historical heritage and the legacy of a nation’s heroism in war and its courage in peace—in the shaping of their lives and of the world we have today.

The Greatest Generation

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Author :
Publisher : Random House
ISBN 13 : 0375504621
Total Pages : 464 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (755 download)

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Book Synopsis The Greatest Generation by : Tom Brokaw

Download or read book The Greatest Generation written by Tom Brokaw and published by Random House. This book was released on 2000-02-23 with total page 464 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The instant classic that changed the way we saw World War II and an entire generation of Americans, from the beloved journalist whose own iconic career has lasted more than fifty years. In this magnificent testament to a nation and her people, Tom Brokaw brings to life the extraordinary stories of a generation that gave new meaning to courage, sacrifice, and honor. From military heroes to community leaders to ordinary citizens, he profiles men and women who served their country with valor, then came home and transformed it: Senator Daniel Inouye, decorated at the front, fighting prejudice at home; Martha Settle Putney, one of the first black women to serve in the newly formed WACs; Charles Van Gorder, a doctor who set up a MASH-like medical facility in the middle of battle, then opened a small clinic in his hometown; Navy pilot and future president George H. W. Bush, assigned to read the mail of the enlisted men under him, who says that in doing so he “learned about life”; and many other laudable Americans. To this generation that gave so much and asked so little, Brokaw offers eloquent tribute in true stories of everyday heroes in extraordinary times. Praise for The Greatest Generation “Moving . . . a tribute to the members of the World War II generation to whom we Americans and the world owe so much.”—The New York Times Book Review “Full of wonderful, wrenching tales of a generation of heroes. Tom Brokaw reminds us what we are capable of as a people. An inspiring read for those who wish their spirits lifted.”—Colin L. Powell “Offers welcome inspiration . . . It is impossible to read even a few of these accounts and not be touched by the book’s overarching message: We who followed this generation have lived in the midst of greatness.”—The Washington Times “Entirely compelling.”—The Wall Street Journal

World War II Letters

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Author :
Publisher : Macmillan
ISBN 13 : 9780312304317
Total Pages : 278 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (43 download)

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Book Synopsis World War II Letters by : Bill Adler

Download or read book World War II Letters written by Bill Adler and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2003-11-29 with total page 278 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A collection of letters from the Allied soldiers who fought and won World War II reveals the horror, humor, and boredom of this great conflict.

War Letters

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Author :
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1439107319
Total Pages : 518 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (391 download)

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Book Synopsis War Letters by : Andrew Carroll

Download or read book War Letters written by Andrew Carroll and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2008-06-23 with total page 518 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1998, Andrew Carroll founded the Legacy Project, with the goal of remembering Americans who have served their nation and preserving their letters for posterity. Since then, over 50,000 letters have poured in from around the country. Nearly two hundred of them comprise this amazing collection -- including never-before-published letters that appear in the new afterword. Here are letters from the Civil War, World War I, World War II, Korea, the Cold War, Vietnam, the Persian Gulf war, Somalia, and Bosnia -- dramatic eyewitness accounts from the front lines, poignant expressions of love for family and country, insightful reflections on the nature of warfare. Amid the voices of common soldiers, marines, airmen, sailors, nurses, journalists, spies, and chaplains are letters by such legendary figures as Gen. William T. Sherman, Clara Barton, Theodore Roosevelt, Ernie Pyle, Gen. Douglas MacArthur, Julia Child, Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf, and Gen. Benjamin O. Davis Sr. Collected in War Letters, they are an astonishing historical record, a powerful tribute to those who fought, and a celebration of the enduring power of letters.

Cronkite's War

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Author :
Publisher : National Geographic
ISBN 13 : 1426210191
Total Pages : 356 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (262 download)

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Book Synopsis Cronkite's War by : Walter Cronkite

Download or read book Cronkite's War written by Walter Cronkite and published by National Geographic. This book was released on 2013 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cronkite, an obscure United Press wire service reporter, married Betsy Maxwell on March 30, 1940. When he became a credentialed war correspondent, Cronkite would console himself during their separation by writing her long, detailed letters-- sometimes five in a week-- describing his experiences, his observations of life in wartime Europe, and his longing for her. More than a hundred of Cronkite's letters from 1943-45 survive, chronicling both a great love story and a great war story.

Letters From A Lost Generation

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Author :
Publisher : Hachette UK
ISBN 13 : 0349007713
Total Pages : 292 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (49 download)

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Book Synopsis Letters From A Lost Generation by : Mark Bostridge

Download or read book Letters From A Lost Generation written by Mark Bostridge and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2015-07-02 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nothing in the papers, not the most vivid and heart-rending descriptions, have made me realise war like your letters' Vera Brittain to Roland Leighton, 17 April 1915. This selection of letters, written between 1913 & 1918, between Vera Brittain and four young men - her fiance Roland Leighton, her brother Edward and their close friends Victor Richardson & Geoffrey Thurlow present a remarkable and profoundly moving portrait of five young people caught up in the cataclysm of total war. Roland, 'Monseigneur', is the 'leader' & his letters most clearly trace the path leading from idealism to disillusionment. Edward, ' Immaculate of the Trenches', was orderly & controlled, down even to his attire. Geoffrey, the 'non-militarist at heart' had not rushed to enlist but put aside his objections to the war for patriotism's sake. Victor on the other hand, possessed a very sweet character and was known as 'Father Confessor'. An important historical testimony telling a powerful story of idealism, disillusionment and personal tragedy.

Letters from the Lost Generation

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Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9780813025360
Total Pages : 378 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (253 download)

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Book Synopsis Letters from the Lost Generation by : Linda Patterson Miller

Download or read book Letters from the Lost Generation written by Linda Patterson Miller and published by . This book was released on 1991 with total page 378 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Excellent. This is a fine, and unusual, collection of literary Americana."--Atlantic "Fine comic moments of truth."--New York Times Book Review "An invaluable source of literary history."--Publishers Weekly This is the story of one of the most famous literary "sets" of the twentieth century. Gerald and Sara Murphy were at the center of a group including Ernest Hemingway and his wives, F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, John Dos Passos, Archibald MacLeish, Dorothy Parker, Alexander Woollcott, Robert Benchley, Phillip Barry, and many others. They personified the jazz age and the lost generation. The Murphys have been viewed primarily as cult/pop figures. In this book Miller shows, through a sequential interweaving of letters from several correspondents, that they actually were the nucleus without which the group as we know it would not have stayed together. Miller allows the individual correspondents to tell their own stories, providing new insights into their lives and this era. It is the best sort of eavesdropping. Gerald and Sara Murphy married on December 30, 1915. Both families were moneyed and cosmopolitan. Their attraction to each other was in part based on their desire to escape the routine and predictable social rounds in which their families were immersed. Against their families' wishes, they and their three children left for Europe in 1921. They remained in France for over a decade, and quite naturally socialized with the expatriate set. They were, in part, models for Dick and Nicole Diver in Tender Is the Night. MacLeish wrote poems about them, their friends paid tribute to them and relied on them day to day and in correspondence, and their own letters are worth reading for their liveliness and because they so well preserve a record of the twenties and thirties. Miller provides nearly every extant letter between the Murphys and their friends during those decades. Most of them have not been published previously, and of course, they have never been presented collectively. Together, they constitute an epistolary "novel" of peculiar power and authenticity about a remarkable era. Linda Patterson Miller is associate professor of English at Pennsylvania State University at Ogontz.

Fighting Fascism in Europe

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Publisher : Fordham Univ Press
ISBN 13 : 9780823222513
Total Pages : 352 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (225 download)

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Book Synopsis Fighting Fascism in Europe by : Lawrence Cane

Download or read book Fighting Fascism in Europe written by Lawrence Cane and published by Fordham Univ Press. This book was released on 2003 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Of the 400 American veterans of the Spanish Civil War in World War II, Cane was the only one to go ashore with the assault wave on D-Day.".

A Thousand Letters Home

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Publisher : ATLH Publications
ISBN 13 : 9780983955306
Total Pages : 565 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (553 download)

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Book Synopsis A Thousand Letters Home by : Aarol William Irish

Download or read book A Thousand Letters Home written by Aarol William Irish and published by ATLH Publications. This book was released on 2011-12-07 with total page 565 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Discovered by Teresa Irish in her father’s Army trunk shortly after his death in 2006, the letters and photographs in this book are a personal record of his experience as a soldier of World War II. Selected from the nearly 1,000 letters addressed to his parents and to the sweetheart who would later become his wife, this firsthand account through the eyes, heart and words of one soldier mirrors the journeys of many who served in WWII. At every opportunity, Bud poured out his thoughts and feelings in these letters, all amidst reassuring words to loved ones a world away. From lonesome, moonlit nights listening to the Hit Parade, to the foxholes and front lines in Germany where he would earn the Silver Star and the Purple Heart, to correspondence from the heartbroken mothers whose sons had died by his side, “A Thousand Letters Home” is a moving and historic story of life and loss, hope and perseverance, unwavering faith and true love.

Love, Bill

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Publisher : Dog Ear Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1457547007
Total Pages : 530 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (575 download)

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Book Synopsis Love, Bill by : Jan Krulick-Belin

Download or read book Love, Bill written by Jan Krulick-Belin and published by Dog Ear Publishing. This book was released on 2016-05-23 with total page 530 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "There's a bit of everyone's family in this moving and heartwarming journey. I know that Janet has been hungering to write this story her whole life, and I'm happy to report: she done good!" -Paul Reiser, Actor, Author, and Comedian "Seemingly ordinary, yet eloquent love letters sent to a GI's future wife during wartime, proved to be a never-imagined godsend for their yet-to-be-born daughter. Not only did they lead Jan on a quest to bond with the father she lost at a young age, but they offer us a deeper insight into every soldier's struggle amidst the chaos of war to hold on to his dream of returning to the life and loves he left behind. It's a story that captured my heart... a marvelous work." -Captain Louis Matjasko, USN Retired; Executive Director, Circle of Change Veterans Dog Program "Identity and memory are the universal themes that bind human experience and fuel the quest to understand the past from a very personal perspective. Being able to touch actual artifacts that are precious family heirlooms, gives meaning to our very existence as daughters and sons, as witnesses to history, and as human beings. They give us unexpected road maps that reveal not just the greater geographical world around us, but the hidden chambers within our own hearts. A box of letters inspired Krulick-Belin to bravely embark upon this journey of longing. Using her keen curatorial eye and art historian's sleuthing abilities, she discovered the father she barely knew, and in turn, her own place in the world. We are privileged to travel alongside her on this odyssey she so generously shares." -Marissa Roth, Pulitzer Prize winning Photojournalist, Documentary Photographer (One Person Crying: Women and War), and Writer. "Krulick-Belin does an impressive job of placing her father's experiences in North Africa, a theatre of WWII that is little known or understood, in historical perspective. In addition, she helps shine a spotlight on her father's Jewish identity as a U.S. soldier serving in North Africa and the Mediterranean, his contacts with the local Jewish populations, and his desire to enlist in the struggle against Nazi Germany despite his age. An interesting work about a daughter's discovery of both her father as well as her own heritage." -Lawrence Bell, Executive Director, Arizona Jewish Historical Society "Jan researched the history, culture, and religions of North Africa, while looking through a very personal lens to rediscover her father. She tells a compelling story particularly for those interested in the North African campaign of World War II, and those interested in the Moroccan Jewish community." -Robert J. Silverman, U.S. Director of Muslim-Jewish Relations, American Jewish Committee; Former Senior Foreign Service Officer, U.S. Department of State

Love Letters from World War II

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Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781650156620
Total Pages : 275 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (566 download)

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Book Synopsis Love Letters from World War II by : Russell Dalton

Download or read book Love Letters from World War II written by Russell Dalton and published by . This book was released on 2020 with total page 275 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What would you write to your young wife when you enlist in the Army to fight the Nazis during World War II? This book tells that story. Bob Dalton wrote a series of almost daily letters home during his service from 1944-1946. This is not a book of combat exploits, but a true life story of what it meant to have a wife and baby at home while serving your country in WWII--and the burden it placed on GIs and their families. The letters frankly discuss the challenges of life because they were only intended to be read by his wife. We found this trove of letters along with hundreds of original photos that illustrate the book after our mother passed away in 2018. We felt that we should share their story. Each letter begins and ends with his love for his family that he left behind to fight. He shares his experiences in boot camp in South Carolina, the trip to the front, crossing the Rhine with Patton's Third Army, and then battling to the Czech border by war's end. His mission changed to demilitarization and denazification until the Russians occupied Saxony as part of East Germany. Then he spent a year as part of the Allied occupation forces in Frankfurt dealing with postwar reconstruction and the U.S. Army bureaucracy. The war changed our father, and reading these letters changed our image of him and the other members of the Greatest Generation.

A People's History of the American Revolution

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Publisher : New Press, The
ISBN 13 : 1620972808
Total Pages : 386 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (29 download)

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Book Synopsis A People's History of the American Revolution by : Ray Raphael

Download or read book A People's History of the American Revolution written by Ray Raphael and published by New Press, The. This book was released on 2011-05-24 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “The best single-volume history of the Revolution I have read.” —Howard Zinn Upon its initial publication, Ray Raphael’s magisterial A People’s History of the American Revolution was hailed by NPR’s Fresh Air as “relentlessly aggressive and unsentimental.” With impeccable skill, Raphael presented a wide array of fascinating scholarship within a single volume, employing a bottom-up approach that has served as a revelation. A People’s History of the American Revolution draws upon diaries, personal letters, and other Revolutionary-era treasures, weaving a thrilling “you are there” narrative—“a tapestry that uses individual experiences to illustrate the larger stories”. Raphael shifts the focus away from George Washington and Thomas Jefferson to the slaves they owned, the Indians they displaced, and the men and boys who did the fighting (Los Angeles Times Book Review). This “remarkable perspective on a familiar part of American history” helps us appreciate more fully the incredible diversity of the American Revolution (Kirkus Reviews). “Through letters, diaries, and other accounts, Raphael shows these individuals—white women and men of the farming and laboring classes, free and enslaved African Americans, Native Americans, loyalists, and religious pacifists—acting for or against the Revolution and enduring a war that compounded the difficulties of everyday life.” —Library Journal “A tour de force . . . Ray Raphael has probably altered the way in which future historians will see events.” —The Sunday Times

My Grandfather's War

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Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN 13 : 0762776099
Total Pages : 256 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (627 download)

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Book Synopsis My Grandfather's War by : Jesse Cozean

Download or read book My Grandfather's War written by Jesse Cozean and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2011-12-20 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Captured in the Battle of the Bulge, Jesse Cozean’s grandfather spent 103 days as a prisoner of the German Army, losing sixty pounds and several friends to the bitter cold and starvation fare of a Nazi prison camp. After being liberated by the tanks of General Patton, he rejoined his wife, resumed his work as a carpenter, and raised a family without ever mentioning what he endured. Nearly fifty years later, Robert Cozean suddenly began talking about his wartime experiences; he would travel to ex-POW conventions, look through old books—and he found a receptive audience in his oldest grandson. As Jesse began interviewing him about his time as a POW, Robert underwent his second round of heart surgery in ten years. While recovering, he lived with Jesse, his “first sergeant,” as he called him,who oversaw his grandfather’s medical care. Along the way, their relationship changed from that of a kid and his Papa to two men seeing each other for the first time. Part war story, part biography, part memoir, and intensely moving throughout, My Grandfather’s War is a treasure for all generations.

Elmer & Virginia

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Author :
Publisher : Quickfoot Books
ISBN 13 : 9781736533802
Total Pages : 488 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (338 download)

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Book Synopsis Elmer & Virginia by : John Odell

Download or read book Elmer & Virginia written by John Odell and published by Quickfoot Books. This book was released on 2021-04-02 with total page 488 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Elmer Odell and Virginia Schill were high school teenagers from separate "sides of the tracks" when the first chapters of the Second World War began to be written. They would become a part of that narrative as they grew to adulthood and joined the Greatest Generation. As Elmer flew combat above the battlefields of Europe, Virginia wrote newspaper stories about life on the home front. Between 1939 and 1944, Elmer and Virginia exchanged hundreds of letters, which sat in shoeboxes for decades. Here are the best of them. These missives vividly chronicle their separate odysseys and their growing love for each other. To open this book is to follow them through the turbulent years of World War II.

Since You Went Away

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Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9780700607143
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (71 download)

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Book Synopsis Since You Went Away by : Judy Barrett Litoff

Download or read book Since You Went Away written by Judy Barrett Litoff and published by . This book was released on 1995 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Last night Mel and I were talking about some of the adjustments we'll have to make to our husbands' return. I must admit I'm not exactly the same girl you left-I'm twice as independent as I used to be and to top it off, I sometimes think I've become 'hard as nails'. . . . Also--more and more I've been living exactly as I want to . . . I do as I damn please." [These tough words from the wife of a soldier show that World War Ii changed much more than just international politics.] "From a fascinating collection of letters, filled with wonderfully distinctive human stories, Judy Barrett Litoff and David C. Smith have shpaed a rare and brilliant book that transports the reader back in time to an unforgettable era."--Doris Kearns Goodwin, author of The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys and Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream. "This is a wonderful volume, full of admirable women struggling in a difficult situation, doing their best for their families and their country. Ah, the memories it brings back! Highly recommended for those who lived through the war, and for those who want to understand it."--Stephen E. Ambrose, author of Eisenhower and D-Day, June 6, 1944 "Offering a remarkable view into the lives of ordinary women during wartime, this book will enlighten and catch at the hearts of general readers and cause historians to reconsider how women experienced World War II."-Susan M. Hartmann, author of The Home Front and Beyond. "From among 25,000 of an estimated six billion letters sent overseas during World War II, Litoff and Smith have culled and skillfully edited a sampling by 400 American women. These letters, starting with one to a seaman wounded at Pearl Harbor, are compelling documents of home-front life in varied ethnic, cultural, and financial milieus. Tragic, touching, and funny, the correspondence is full of prosaic news and gossip about jobs and neighbors, along with accounts of births and intimate allusions to love-making. The stress of separation was intensified for women whose loved ones were hospitalized, or imprisoned as either conscientious objectors or security risks. Some women wrote General MacArthur and others for news of missing men or to obtain details of their deaths. Many of these heartrending documents also express acceptance-and even pride-in the sacrifices required by war."--Publishers Weekly. "Other scholars of WW II have published letters written home by servicemen, but this is the first collection sampling the letters written by sisters, sweethearts, wives, and mothers, saved by thousands of servicemen. Chapters are organized around themes that were important to these women: courtship, marriage, motherhood, work, sacrifices. . . . What women tell readers in these letters about their concerns and their wartime feelings will cause historians [readers?] to rethink what has been written about the homefront."--Choice. "Despite the popular appeal of Rosie the Riveter, nine out of ten mothers with children under six were not in the labor force, which helps to account for the vast outpouring of mail from the home front to 'our boys' in the European and Pacific theaters. Some couples wrote every day for four years. This is the rich historic documentation that the authors have drawn upon to create a panoramic pastiche of indefatigable, energetic, patriotic female letter writers in the war years. . . . One is struck by the hard-headed practicality of many of the letters-stories of plucky, sometimes even grumpy, coping. There are letters of growing independence, with strong and at times explicit indication that the boyfriend or husband will be facing a very different woman upon his return from the one he 'knew' when he disembarked for his own, often terrible, venture. . . . Every war leaves mothers with broken hearts. What this volume most remarkably demonstrates is just how prepared American women on the home front were for that dread eventuality."--Jean Bethke Elshtain in the Journal of American History. "Fascinating and often heartbreaking letters. . . . The letters illuminate a time when sex roles were first showing the changes that would culminate in the women's movement. 'I must admit I'm not exactly the same girl you left,' Edith Speert wrote to her husband, Victor, in 1945. 'I'm twice as independent as I used t be, and I sometimes think I've become hard as nails. I don't think my changes will affect our relationship.'. . . In the end, it is the small human dramas in these letters that stand out. Anne Gudis, miffed to distraction by her soldier-swain Sam Kramer, writes what may be the shortest Dear John on record: 'Mr. Kramer: Go to hell! With love, Anne Gudis.' A woman working at a Honolulu nightclub assures a pilot that she'll wait for him-until she's 20. The wife of an Air Corps navigator reads in a news story that only 15 of 1,500 Allied bombers were lost in a raid over Europe and later learns that her husband died in one of the 15. And a grieving mother whose son died in the Pacific asks Gen. Douglas MacArthur, in desperation, 'Please general he was a good boy, wasn't he? Did he die a hard death?'"--Smithsonian. "'They made it possible for me to retain my sanity in an insane world,' wrote one pilot about the letters his wife sent him throughout World War II. The letters contained in this collection explain the soldier's sentiments. Whether full of passionate longing for a missing sweetheart or merely detailing domestic gossip, the letters offer a rich introduction to how American women experienced the war. Since military authorities ordered soldiers not to keep any letters written them by their loved ones, the authors have done a magnificent service in obtaining letters that soldiers either surreptitiously hid or whose authors copied them before sending them on."--Library Journal.