Don't You Know There's a War On? The American Home Front, 1941-1945 [Paperback]

Richard R. Lingeman (Author)

Book Description

Series: Nation Books | Publication Date: April 2003

The tragic events of September 11, 2001 brought to the surface memories of an earlier time of unprecedented national emergency—Pearl Harbor—and America's subsequent involvement in World War II. In this evocative cultural history, Richard Lingeman re-creates the events—historic, humorous, and tragic—and personalities of the American home front. From V-girls and V-mail, blackouts and the internment of the Japanese, to new opportunities for African-Americans and women, Lingeman recaptures a unique time in American history in this New York Times Notable Book.

Product Details

• Paperback: 300 pages
• Publisher: Nation Books; 2nd edition (April 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1560254653
• ISBN-13: 978-1560254652
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 5.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #875,938 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Take with a grain of salt, May 19, 2007

By 

P. Nailon "Screnwriter" (Orange, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Don't You Know There's a War On? The American Home Front, 1941-1945 (Paperback)

I bought this book hoping to flesh out some of my knowledge of WWII with some more information about the war at home. I had high expectations of this book and was reading with great interest, until astonishingly obvious errors jumped out at me. Errors which indicated that the writer was either very sloppy in his fact checking, or relying on hearsay evidence, or just making things up as he went along.

Examples: He writes, "whether a pilot was flying B-17's in Europe, or B-19's in the South Pacific..." There was no B-19 bomber in WWII, the only one made was a prototype by Douglas Aviation, but none were ever used. I can't imagine such a glaring mistake, when all the aircraft of WWII were so well documented.

Another: "...many acts in New York's nightclubs were earning top dollar...Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis earned twice the salary for their act as before the war..." Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis didn't start working together until 1946, well after the end of WWII.

Another: "... Doolittle's Raiders struck back at Japan with a squadron of B-24's" Jimmy Doolittle flew B-25 bombers, which were medium bombers, two engines apiece, that were the largest aircraft to have ever taken off from an aircraft carrier. B-24's are huge 4 engine bombers, far too big to have taken off from an aircraft carrier. And the B-25 is universally known to WWII buffs as the plane that Doolittle flew. Anyone who lived thru WWII with any attention paid to the war would no sooner make this mistake than to say that it was President Nixon who ordered the atomic bomb dropped instead of President Truman.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Way It Was, July 24, 2005

By 

Dennis Mansker "Author of A Bad Attitude: A N... (Olympia, WA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Don't You Know There's a War On? the American Home Front, 1941-1945 (Hardcover)

I was born in 1945, just a few months before the end of WWII. I grew up with the stories of shared sacrifice, rationing, war bond drives, and Rosie the Riveter (who was my mother -- well, not literally, but she did work in a defense plant).
This book is an amazing look at the home front during The War (and we always heard it with the Capital Letters). I've read it twice and my mother read it three times before her death; I have her word for it that it is all true.
Dennis Mansker
www.dennismansker.com
[...]

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting and well written, December 9, 2002

By 

realfuzzy "really fuzzy" (French Lick, IN United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Don't You Know There's a War On? the American Home Front, 1941-1945 (Hardcover)

This book is about American society and culture during World War 2. It discusses many different aspects of civilian America, such as the musical tastes of the public, what people were reading, movies, work, business, and housing among other things.

It is quite a good, informative book, and the author presents his subject in an interesting, occasionally funny manner. If there is any criticism of this book it is the fairly abrupt beginning and ending.