When Books Went to War: The Stories That Helped Us Win World War II

by Molly Guptill Manning Narrated by Bernadette Dunne

Overview

When America entered World War II in 1941, we faced an enemy that had banned and burned over 100 million books and caused fearful citizens to hide or destroy many more. Outraged librarians launched a campaign to send free books to American troops and gathered 20 million hardcover donations. In 1943 the War Department and the publishing industry stepped in with an extraordinary program: 120 million small, lightweight paperbacks for troops to carry in their pockets and their rucksacks in every theater of war.

Comprising 1,200 different titles of every imaginable type, these paperbacks were beloved by the troops and are still fondly remembered today. Soldiers read them while waiting to land at Normandy, in hellish trenches in the midst of battles in the Pacific, in field hospitals, and on long bombing flights. They wrote to the authors, many of whom responded to every letter. They helped rescue The Great Gatsby from obscurity. They made Betty Smith, author of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, into a national icon. When Books Went to War is an inspiring story for history buffs and book lovers alike.

Editorial Reviews

The New York Times - Janet Maslin

Heartwarming war stories aren't easy to come by, especially if they insist on being entirely realistic about the hellishness of military life. But Molly Guptill Manning's When Books Went to War winds up feeling like the bibliophile's equivalent of It's a Wonderful Life.

From the Publisher

"WhenBooks Went to War is a thoroughly engaging, enlightening, and often uplifting account of America's counterattack against Nazi Germany's wholesale burning of books. During World War II, the U.S. government, along with librarians and publishers, dispatched millions of books to American GIs, sailors, and flyers, using the written word itself as a powerful reply to tyranny, thought control, absolutism, and perverse ideology. I was enthralled and moved." — Tim O’Brien, author of The Things They Carried "Intriguing . . . A fresh perspective on the trials of war and the power of books." — Kirkus Reviews "Well written, carefully researched, and drawing upon primary sources and news articles, this book brings to life a little-known part of World War II culture. VERDICT: Highly readable and extremely appealing, this book is perfect for any bibliophile or historians interested in the stories from the home front." — Library Journal "Delightful...Engrossing...Manning's entertaining account will have readers nostalgic for that seemingly distant era when books were high priority." — Publishers Weekly “[A] crisply written and compelling new history of America’s effort to comfort and inspire its soldiers with good books . . . Manning's When Books Went to War is both a tribute to the civilizing influence of books and a careful account of what it took – a lot – to ensure that U.S. fighting men had the right stuff to read. . . Manning's portrait of this seemingly prosaic slice of the war effort is more than colorful; it's also a cultural history that does much to explain modern America.”  — USA Today.com "Whether or not you're a book lover, you'll be moved by the impeccably researched tale. Manning not only illuminates a dusty slice of WWII history that most of us know nothing about but also reminds us, in the digital era of movies and TV, just how powerfully literature once figured in people's lives. Grade: A." — Entertainment Weekly —

Library Journal - Audio

03/15/2015
Manning (The Myth of Ephraim Tutt) here presents a marvelous story of the Armed Services Editions (ASE) of books that were distributed to GIs during World War II. The ASE plan ultimately gave away, between 1943 and 1947, nearly 123 million copies of 1,322 works. These special editions were smaller paperbacks that could be tucked in a pocket or folded inside a backpack. Manning's fascinating history covers the impact on the world of Nazi book burning, details of the inner workings of the national contribution to this important war effort, and interesting aspects of how the campaign was organized and operated. The author includes many excerpts from GI diaries and letters demonstrating how much it meant to the men to receive one of the books. Bernadette Dunne's solid, energetic reading nicely varies in the conveying of the personal anecdotes and sustains listener interest throughout. VERDICT Manning's work is a shining testament that provides for book lovers an informative account of how reading literally saved the sanity of hundreds of thousands of soldiers. Note that the print edition contains an appendix of all the titles distributed during the war, which is lacking here. ["Highly readable and extremely appealing, this book is perfect for any bibliophile or historians interested in the stories from the home front," read the review of the Houghton Harcourt hc, LJ 11/15/14.]—Dale Farris, Groves, TX

JANUARY 2015 - AudioFile

Narrator Bernadette Dunne energetically delivers the audiobook of how the U.S. and its Allies defeated the book burners during WWII. What hasn’t been known until this book came along was that we did it partly by giving books to every GI who wanted them. This not only gave the soldiers something to do but also strengthened the publishing industry and reinforced the idea that reading is a vital activity for an educated citizenry. The program, like the war, turned out to have positive long-term effects on the country. Dunne varies her husky pitch and tone, enunciating every word. She doesn’t have to create any characters, as the book is narrative history, but she does highlight the sources and sets them apart through pauses and changes in emphasis. R.I.G. © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine

Product Details

BN ID:	2940169837056
Publisher:	Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Publication date:	12/02/2014
Edition description:	Unabridged

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