The Darkest Year

The Darkest Year PDF Author: William K. Klingaman
Publisher: Macmillan + ORM
ISBN: 1250133181
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 265

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Book Description
The Darkest Year is acclaimed author William K. Klingaman’s narrative history of the American home front from December 7, 1941 through the end of 1942, a psychological study of the nation under the pressure of total war. For Americans on the home front, the twelve months following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor comprised the darkest year of World War Two. Despite government attempts to disguise the magnitude of American losses, it was clear that the nation had suffered a nearly unbroken string of military setbacks in the Pacific; by the autumn of 1942, government officials were openly acknowledging the possibility that the United States might lose the war. Appeals for unity and declarations of support for the war effort in the aftermath of Pearl Harbor made it appear as though the class hostilities and partisan animosities that had beset the United States for decades — and grown sharper during the Depression — suddenly disappeared. They did not, and a deeply divided American society splintered further during 1942 as numerous interest groups sought to turn the wartime emergency to their own advantage. Blunders and repeated displays of incompetence by the Roosevelt administration added to the sense of anxiety and uncertainty that hung over the nation. The Darkest Year focuses on Americans’ state of mind not only through what they said, but in the day-to-day details of their behavior. Klingaman blends these psychological effects with the changes the war wrought in American society and culture, including shifts in family roles, race relations, economic pursuits, popular entertainment, education, and the arts.

The Darkest Year

The Darkest Year PDF Author: William K. Klingaman
Publisher: Macmillan + ORM
ISBN: 1250133181
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 265

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Book Description
The Darkest Year is acclaimed author William K. Klingaman’s narrative history of the American home front from December 7, 1941 through the end of 1942, a psychological study of the nation under the pressure of total war. For Americans on the home front, the twelve months following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor comprised the darkest year of World War Two. Despite government attempts to disguise the magnitude of American losses, it was clear that the nation had suffered a nearly unbroken string of military setbacks in the Pacific; by the autumn of 1942, government officials were openly acknowledging the possibility that the United States might lose the war. Appeals for unity and declarations of support for the war effort in the aftermath of Pearl Harbor made it appear as though the class hostilities and partisan animosities that had beset the United States for decades — and grown sharper during the Depression — suddenly disappeared. They did not, and a deeply divided American society splintered further during 1942 as numerous interest groups sought to turn the wartime emergency to their own advantage. Blunders and repeated displays of incompetence by the Roosevelt administration added to the sense of anxiety and uncertainty that hung over the nation. The Darkest Year focuses on Americans’ state of mind not only through what they said, but in the day-to-day details of their behavior. Klingaman blends these psychological effects with the changes the war wrought in American society and culture, including shifts in family roles, race relations, economic pursuits, popular entertainment, education, and the arts.

The American Home Front, 1941-1942

The American Home Front, 1941-1942 PDF Author: Alistair Cooke
Publisher: Grove Press
ISBN: 9780802143327
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 356

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Book Description
Alistair Cooke, a newly naturalized American citizen, shares his observations of American life in the year following the 1941 bombing of Pearl Harbor.

Don't You Know There's a War On?

Don't You Know There's a War On? PDF Author: Richard R. Lingeman
Publisher: New York : Putnam
ISBN: 9780399503597
Category : United States
Languages : en
Pages : 414

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Book Description
"[This book] is the story of what happened in the United States between Pearl Harbor and V-J Day. For those ... who were in this country then, the book will be a trip down memory lane. For others, it will be pure history. For all, it will be a thorough re-creation of the events, sometimes ludicrous and sometimes tragic, and personalities that left their mark upon America during a period of transition and upheaval. V-girls and V-mail, Willow Run and Henry Kaiser, dollar-a-year men and C stickers, Sidney Hillman and Rosie the Riveter, Ernie Pyle and The Voice of the Turtle, Veronica Lake and 'Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree,' blackouts and the internment of the Japanese. These are but a few of the hundreds of phenomena of the American home front during World War II that Richard Lingeman has recaptured. Six years in the research and writing, the book exhibits as sharp an eye for small, revelatory details--civil defense measures in Wyoming, milk shortages in Texas, and one-armed outfielders--as for large and crucial subjects such as the response of industry to war and shifting population patterns that changed the face of the nation. While there is no doubt that [this book] is sheer reading pleasure (just look at the index for all you never knew or have forgotten to remember), there is equally little doubt that it is filled with insights and information that record permanent alterations in the American way of life. The war brought new, if still limited, opportunities to both the Negro and to women, and it is perhaps significant that in 1945 the two groups were thought to be worth almost exactly the same on the labor market. And if the war definitively ended the Depression, it was at the price of the military-industrial complex with which we live today. Thus the book simultaneously reveals the past and does much to explain the present. Ultimately, though, what emerges most clearly is a portrait of everyday life in America in a time of unprecedented national emergency. Predictably enough, there are heroes and villains, excesses and deprivations, valor and foolishness. Seldom has an era been so carefully and vividly brought back to life, and it is all here in a book that is destined to take its place beside Only Yesterday and The Aspirin Age as a classic of significant popular history."--Dust jacket.

The American Home Front, 1941–1942

The American Home Front, 1941–1942 PDF Author: Alistair Cooke
Publisher: Open Road + Grove/Atlantic
ISBN: 1555848141
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 464

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Book Description
A New York Times bestseller: This portrait of the United States at the beginning of World War II is “an unexpected and welcome discovery in a time capsule” (The Washington Post). In nearly three thousand BBC broadcasts over fifty-eight years, Alistair Cooke reported on America, illuminating our country for a global audience. Shortly before he passed away, a long-forgotten manuscript resurfaced in a closet in his New York apartment. It was a travelogue of America during the early days of World War II that had sat there for sixty years. Published to stellar reviews, Cooke’s The American Home Front is a “valentine to his adopted country by someone who loved it as well as anyone and knew it better than most” (The Plain Dealer). A portrait frozen in time, the book offers a charming look at the era as it journeys through small towns, big cities, and the American landscape as they once were. The American Home Front is also a brilliant piece of reportage, a historical gem that “affirms Cooke’s enduring place as a great twentieth-century reporter” (American Heritage). “An interesting eyewitness record . . . It recalls transcontinental travel in the pre-interstate highway era, and with greater depth, social problems that Cooke detected beneath the win-the-war exhortations he encountered from coast to coast.” —Booklist

Home Front U.S.A.

Home Front U.S.A. PDF Author: Allan M. Winkler
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 111882265X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 158

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Book Description
New scholarship on World War II continues to broaden our understanding. With each passing year we know more about the triumphs and the tragedies of America’s involvement in the momentous conflict. Tapping into this greater awareness of the accomplishments of both soldiers and civilians and a better recognition of the consequences of decisions made, Allan Winkler presents the third edition of his highly popular series volume. Informed by the latest historical literature and featuring many new thoughtfully chosen photographs, the third edition of Home Front U.S.A. continues to ponder the question of "the good war," the moral implications of the use of the atomic bomb, the implications of expanding wartime roles for women, African Americans, American Jews, the imprisonment of Japanese Americans at the hands of the federal government, and the experiences of the many other people who, though relegated to the fringe of mainstream society, contributed in important ways to the nation's successful prosecution of its greatest challenge.

V for Victory

V for Victory PDF Author: Stan Cohen
Publisher: Pictorial Histories Publishing Company
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 434

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Book Description
Tells of the Amerian efforts to provide equipment for World War II and tells of the situation in America at the time.

Don't You Know There's a War On?

Don't You Know There's a War On? PDF Author: Richard R. Lingeman
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description


Home Front U.S.A.

Home Front U.S.A. PDF Author: Allan M. Winkler
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780882959832
Category : United States
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Examines the home-front achievements and repercussions of World War II on the United States, arguing that the process of mobilization forever changed the character of American life, and looking at the impact of the conflict on women, African-Americans, and other minorities, the Japanese-American people, politics, and the government.

The Home Front

The Home Front PDF Author: Archie Satterfield
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 408

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Book Description
"It was the last of the 'good wars.' Roosevelt was president, Hitler was the enemy, the Depression was over, and Americans were united with a common goal on which to focus their attention, their energies, and their hate. The World War II years were a special time in our history and we have never been quite the same since. In the decades since the war, nostalgia has inevitably seeped in to replace the facts of history. based on interviews across the nation with hundreds of men and women of all ages and all walks of life, The Home Front recalls an unvarnished vision of the war as it was experienced on American soil."--Book Jacket.

The Year of Peril

The Year of Peril PDF Author: Tracy Campbell
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300252838
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 403

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Book Description
A fascinating chronicle of how the character of American society revealed itself under the duress of World War II The Second World War exists in the American historical imagination as a time of unity and optimism. In 1942, however, after a series of defeats in the Pacific and the struggle to establish a beachhead on the European front, America seemed to be on the brink of defeat and was beginning to splinter from within. Exploring this precarious moment, Tracy Campbell paints a portrait of the deep social, economic, and political fault lines that pitted factions of citizens against each other in the post–Pearl Harbor era, even as the nation mobilized, government†‘aided industrial infrastructure blossomed, and parents sent their sons off to war. This captivating look at how American society responded to the greatest stress experienced since the Civil War reveals the various ways, both good and bad, that the trauma of 1942 forced Americans to redefine their relationship with democracy in ways that continue to affect us today.