Great Stories of World War II

The first personal narrative about World War II was published two months after America entered the war on December 8, 1941. Between then and the year following the end of the war, over 500 of these narratives were published to feed the public's need to know about the war. These eyewitness accounts, written by war correspondents, service men and women, home front civilians, and defense workers, were a welcome change to the stark military dispatches printed in the daily press. Great Stories of World War II provides a fully annotated, bibliographic listing of each of these sources. Additionally, each entry includes citations for any reviews the work received in any of six major American reviewing journals. This unique guide provides personal insights into race relations, sexual conduct, combat, missionary life, life as a prisoner of war, concentration camp experiences, and military and civilian politics of the war years from both the male and female perspective. Remarkably detailed and generally uncensored, these disclosures of life during the Second World War constitute an invaluable and underutilized resource for historians, geographers, and students of this great historical event.