The Home-Front War: World War II and American Society

by Kenneth Paul O'Brien (Editor), Lynn Hudson Parsons (Editor)

Overview

This book is a collection of nine essays examining the impact of World War II on the American people. The contributions range from macro studies (the ways corporations sought to recruit women into the work force) to micro studies (the impact of the war on working conditions in Indiana) to biography (the Congressional career of Margaret Chase Smith). Focusing as it does on the domestic scene, this study offers a comprehensive selection of the impact of the war on Americans, and the way it influenced concepts of gender, race, class, and ethnicity.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780313292118
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	07/10/1995
Series:	Contributions in American History , #16
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.62(d)
Lexile:	1600L (what's this?)

About the Author

KENNETH PAUL O'BRIEN is an Associate Professor of History at SUNY-Brockport.

LYNN HUDSON PARSONS is a Professor of History at SUNY-Brockport.

Table of Contents

Introduction: The Home-Front War by Kenneth Paul O'Brien and Lynn Hudson Parsons
World War II and the Bill of Rights by Richard Polenberg
Hollywood and the Politics of Representation: Women, Workers, and African Americans in World War II Movies by Clayton R. Koppes
Creating "Common Ground" on the Home Front: Race, Class, and Ethnicity in a 1940s Quarterly Magazine by William C. Beyer
"My Children Are My Jewels." Italian American Generations During World War II by George E. Pozzetta
Remembering Rosie: Advertising Images of Women in World War II by Maureen Honey
Women Defense Workers in World War II: Views on Gender Equality in Indiana by Nancy F. Gabin
"The Vice Admiral:" Margaret Chase Smith and the Investigation of Congested Areas in Wartime by Janann Sherman
Did the "Good War" Make Good Workers? by John Modell
Bad News from the Good War: Democracy at Home during World War II by Roger Daniels

Editorial Reviews

Funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities and sponsored by the State University of New York, "Lest We Forget" was a project consisting of lectures, films, academic symposia, and an exhibit on America's home front during World War II. An outgrowth of that project, this book offers what the editors considered the most "compelling" symposia papers. It is an excellent collection. The nine contributions by World War II scholars focus on a wide range of home-front concerns, including working women, racial issues, democracy, domestic experience, Hollywood, and opportunities for a middle-class lifestyle. A bibliography follows each contributor's chapter, and, at the end, a comprehensive bibliography identifies more than 500 items written in the past ten years on various aspects of the subject. The currency of this work makes it an excellent source for scholars. A splendid choice for libraries where there is an interest in World War II.-Dorothy Lilly, Grosse Pointe North H.S. Lib., Grosse Pointe Woods, Mich.

Library Journal

Contributors sort out some of the differences between memory and history as applied to American society during WWII, looking at the issues framed by the memory of national unity and the evidence of divisions based on group diversity. They discuss issues raised by gender and ethnicity, compare different groups' wartime experiences, and analyze the government's wartime propaganda machine, in essays on Hollywood representations of women workers, democracy at home during WWII, and WWII and the Bill of Rights. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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