At Ease: Navy Men of World War II [Hardcover]

Evan Bachner (Author), Wayne Miller (Photographer), Horace Bristol (Photographer), Victor Jorgensen (Photographer), Barrett Gallagher (Photographer)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 2004

In the years following World War II, images of comradeship, particularly of men being physically close, largely disappeared from the public record. But, as these stunning photographs attest, ordinary American men in the extraordinary circumstances of World War II were affectionate, winsome, and playful - disarmingly innocent in a time of cataclysmic peril. Led by photography giant Captain Edward J. Steichen, the U.S. Naval Aviation Photographic Unit was organized during the war to record the daily experiences of Navy men all over the world and to provide newspapers and magazines with images to promote the American cause. The unit's photographers, which included Wayne Miller, Horace Bristol, Victor Jorgensen, and Barrett Gallagher, took thousands of pictures of soldiers as they relaxed, trained, prepared for the next battle, and waited. This book brings together more than 150 of those photographs culled from the National Archives, including many that have never before been published. Whereas World War II imagery tends to be dominated by combat photography and monumental depictions of weaponry, these photographs offer a rare, intimate look at the Navy men themselves.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Books such as The Greatest Generation have eloquently argued that the men and women who survived World War II played a crucial role in determining America’s national culture; to some extent, Bachner agrees with this thesis. "Our current image of American masculinity was formed at that particular moment in time," he writes in the introduction to this moving book of duotone photos. But the image that was passed down most often suggested that Real Men were loners, rugged individuals who relied on no one. According to Bachner, however, the photographic record "flatly contradicts that notion." During his six years of research in the Still Pictures Branch of the National Archives and Records Administration, he unearthed a trove of Navy photos that "display a tender regard and closeness among men largely alien to our contemporary culture." Most of these images were taken by the Naval Aviation Photographic Unit, which was commanded by the famous photographer Edward J. Steichen for most of WWII. Many have never been published. Why were these servicemen able to form such affectionate friendships? In answer, Bachner quotes John D’Emilio: "Living in close quarters, not knowing whether they would make it through the war, and depending on one another for survival, men of whatever sexual persuasion formed intense emotional attachments." Whatever the reason, these gorgeously composed, evocative images suggest that men then, as now, could let down the John Wayne stance to share a cigarette, laugh over a joke and do a little roughhousing.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* In the brief, cogent introduction to this remarkable photo album, Bachner posits that these images of young sailors and marines shaped the ideal of manhood prevalent in American culture since World War II. The men depicted by the members of the Naval Aviation Photographic Unit (all professionals before the war) are preponderantly in their late teens and early twenties, and whether on or off duty, at ease in that they aren't in combat. It's hot where they are in the Pacific or Mediterranean sun, and they're commonly shirtless, in shorts, or both; when bathing, infrequently when sunning, and in one striking image of a gunner returned to his post after a rescue, they're naked (no explanation survives for the gunner's nudity, but he is wet as from swimming). Youthfully slender, toned from training, unselfconscious in their leisure or work, they seem, given the military context, effortlessly heroic. Exhibited singly, if at all, the pictures were available to magazines, newspapers, and advertisers to use as is or as models throughout and a little after the war. They look, as Bachner says, as if they'd been taken this morning, except for the physical contact, often obviously affectionate, that the men often and innocently make with one another. It was a different time, eh? Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 160 pages
• Publisher: Harry N. Abrams; First edition (June 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0810948052
• ISBN-13: 978-0810948051
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 11.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #528,319 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars And this is how tender Maleness can be, December 31, 2004

By 

Grady Harp (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: At Ease: Navy Men of World War II (Hardcover)

Without a doubt this book will touch the memories and hearts of everyone who pauses to slowly peruse these casual photographs of men at sea in World War II. Without the overtones of trying to make a statement about the camaraderie that accompanies men off at war, these photographs simply follow a healthy group of sailors resting on board ship, working at their tasks, bonding in the bunk rooms and in play on the decks and the foc'sle. There is an obvious physical relationship that is transmitted in the gentlest ways, further proof that men together find the emotional and physical support so needed in the time of isolation from the world.

It is to Evan Bachner's credit that he shares this truly sensitive body of work with the public at a time when we all need to understand not only the plight of the men away at war today, but of the common threads of pansexuality that have never been a threat but only a solace in a world infected with prejudice. Grady Harp, December 2004

22 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Coming Together, Navy Men, July 13, 2004

By 

Michael R. Mccall (Minneapolis, MN USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: At Ease: Navy Men of World War II (Hardcover)

I absolutely "loved" this book from the first moment I picked it up and opened its first page. The photographs captivate a time when men could show affection without the worry of not being masculine enough. Thank you Evan Bachner for sharing your vision and putting together these marvellous photographs of this celebrated time in History. My dad was in the Navy during World War II and lived on a destroyer, and he has just recently started telling me some of "his" stories of being out at sea, sometimes for months at a time. I came across photographs years ago when I was just a young man of my dad and his ship-mates, and his photographs could easily been a part of this beautiful collection that Evan Bachner has displayed in "At Ease". I look forward to "At Ease,part Two."

24 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderfully moving collection., October 8, 2004

By 

ch0pper "ch0pper" (SOUTHAMPTON, Hampshire United Kingdom) - See all my reviews

This review is from: At Ease: Navy Men of World War II (Hardcover)

Too often, when modern schoolchildren consider WW2, they see the parades of elderly veterans, stooped, wrinkled, bemedaled, but essentally OLD.

What the compiler of this book has managed to do is to collect a wide range of photo material, much of it of very high quality, which shows the young men who fought WW2 as they were then. That is, as young men. Slim, upright, happy, fit. Often little more than schoolboys themselves. In that regard, this book is reminiscent of Herbert List's book "Junge Manner".

I was so impressed with my book that I've ordered a second copy to be put into the library of the secondary school at which I'm a governor. WW2 seems to be popular in history lessons. Let the children of today see the youths of yesteday as they were at their prime.