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G. Kurt Piehler
Book Code: GR3400
ISBN: 0-313-33400-5
ISBN-13: 978-0-313-33400-9
248 pages, photos
Greenwood Press
Publication: 10/30/2007
List Price: $65.00 (UK Sterling Price: £37.95)
Availability: In Stock
Media Type: Hardcover
Also Available: Ebook
Trim Size: 7 x 10
Subjects: Reviews:
  • Piehler (history, Rutgers U.) describes the daily lives of those who served in the US Navy, Army, Army Air Corps or Marines or were prisoners of war....His collections of letters, memoirs and reports from soldiers is reverent, funny and poignant.
    —SciTech Book News     February 2008
Description: There are countless books detailing the history of World War II, but none has examined the differences among soldiers's experiences based on their service branch's culture. Based on extensive oral history interviews with the men and women who served during this war, G. Kurt Piehler has discovered that the U.S. Navy tended to be hierarchical, especially on large ships; and in contrast, the Army Air Force remained a relatively loose organization, with more frequent fraternization among officers and enlisted personnel. Although racial tensions were not absent from the Marines, the "elite" ethos of this branch mitigated the harsh racism of many white Marines toward their African American comrades. In the Army, there was no one "representative" soldier's experience in the war, given the sheer size and diversity of the Army's missions in this conflict, including sharp differences between the Asian and European war experiences. Piehler draws heavily on the oral histories he conducted for the Rutgers Oral History Archives of World War II and the Center for the Study of War and Society to provide a rich and varied look at the experiences of the men and women of World War II, in their own words.
Among topics covered in this volume:
  • The unprecedented mobilization of all the services

  • The vast logistical organization needed to sustain the fighting forces, meaning that most servicemen and women in World War II never saw combat.
  • Creating a generation of aviators in the new Air Force
  • How the Army and Navy dealt with women's roles and racism in the services
  • The Marines' ability to maintain a sense of loyalty that crossed officer-enlisted man divide
  • The prisoner-of-war experiences of American soldiers in Japanese and German prison camps
  • Coming home and moving back into civilian society

    The book also includes a timeline to put dates and events in better perspective; a comprehensive, topically arranged bibliography; and a thorough index.
    • LC Card Number: 2007026798
    LCC Class: D769
    Dewey Class: 940
    PDF Catalogs:
    Greenwood History Spring 2008.pdf
    Academic Library Fall 2008.pdf
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