Customer Reviews

Soldier from the War Returning: The Greatest Generation's Troubled Homecoming from World War II

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Soldier From The War Returning is a powerfully written and vividly detailed account of how three members of "The Greatest Generation" returned from World War Two and how difficult and painful their homecomings turned out to be, not just for themselves but also for their families and, by implication, for future generations. As Professor Thomas Childers demonstrates with an historian's eye and a humanist's instinct, wars do not end when the last shot is fired. This is a book that must be read by everyone and, most particularly, by those of us whose lives were forever shaped and sometimes shattered by the generational impact of World War Two.

Should be required reading for every child and grand child of a WWII veteran. Emotionally moving, transporting, and cathartic. Despite the heavy subject matter, Childer's prose is somehow uplifting and keeps the pages turning quickly. Highly recommended.

With the war over for 65 years now, and the generation that fought in it dying at an alarming rate of old age, the current mood is that only the good things that came from the war are remembered. Be it the 'greatest generation', the camaraderie, the co-operation, the universal sense of purpose and discipline and that everyone did their share. It seems it must have been the best timespace in history, and the community will never be as good as it was back then.
Childres book describes painfully clear that many veterans, either with or without physical wounds, were scarred by the experience of war. They and their families suffered for many years, often up to this day.
This book is highly recommended for everyone who likes the books by Stephen Ambrose, but is willing to look at the more painful side of the war. Also families of veterans will draw strength from the experiences masterfully described in this book.

Thomas Childers has captured a moment in history many have over looked. Beneath all the glory and flag waving at the end of WW2, many returning G.I.'s with psychological wounds were swept away by the jubilance of victory. What later became know as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), effected hundreds of thousands of young WW2 veterans and their families for a life time. Virtually unrecognized at the time, psychoneurotic disorder (now known as PTSD), and with no known treatment plan, left many veterans to face a future of alcoholism, unemployment, homelessness, divorce, nightmares and suicide. It was not until the late 1970's, as a direct result of the Viet Nam War, that PTSD became a treatable diagnosis. Now we can begin to understand why, "Grandpa", was so moody, drank too much and spent a lot of time at the VFW, AMVETS or American Legion.

I recently had the opportunity to meet one of the soldiers from this book through my envolvement with, Operation Vet2Vet, at the VA medical center in Providence, R.I. Mr. Michael Gold is a retired doctor who volunteers his time to assist the latest generation of warriors in their adjustment to civilian life. With his years of coping with and over coming the effects of PTSD in his daily life, Mr. Gold dispenses his wisdom, offering hope for a better life to our returning heroes from Iraq and Afganistan.

Through his extensive research, Professor Childers has answered the question why grandfathers, fathers, husbands, uncles and the "Crazy" ole man down the street, were never the same after the war. Suffering in silence and often condemned, our veterans, who experienced the horrors of combat, deserve our love and understanding (Even though belated), in their struggle to, "Fit In". To say, "Get over it", or, "That was a long time ago", is not very compassionate to veterans who paid the price of freedom. Any wound, be it physical or psychological, is a daily reminder to every veteran that Freedom isn't free.

Read the book. If we are going to continue, and we will, to send our young men (And now young women), off to war, it is OUR DUTY as American citizens to understand the problems of civilian readjustment after conflict. With the rolls of the, "Greatest Generation", slowly depleting it is never too late to say, "Thank you for your sacrifice".

I stumbled on this book at a Barnes and Noble when I had some time to kill. I decided to order it on Amazon--(saving $10) and read it. I really couldn't put the book down. It covers the story of three men who returned home from the second world war. One of the men was the author's father. My own father was a WW II vet so I was intrigued to see if the stories overlapped with his. Childers writes non-fiction as fiction, with great attention to detail, nuance and describing scenes and emotions with artistic brilliance. I was pulled into three different dramas that, in time, found convergence (at least two of the men's stories). What was most helpful for me was to get insight into my own father's war experience and his coping skills when he returned to the states after three years overseas without my mother to talk to except through correspondence. Childers gives a different take on this "great war" that is lacking in so many other excellent stories of this "greatest generation". The warriors in this war were no less devastated and impacted by the war than those in Viet Nam. Though the term post-traumatic stress wasn't coined yet, the evidence of it in millions of returning veterans was everywhere to be seen. Childers tells this story. A moving emotional story that every baby boomer should read, and every politician who desire to send soldiers into war should read.

This is a must read for anyone who wishes to understand the effects of war on the men who fight them. This is not a book about just the World War II veterans and their return to civilian life but it is an examination of the re-adjustments challenges of any combat veteran faces after their service. Any one of the men in the book could be a veteran of Vietnam, Iraq, or Afghanistan not just World War II. War is still war no matter when it occurs. This book is not an examination of the challenges of their initial re-adjustment but examines the echo of the war through their entire lives. By tracing the entirety of their lives after their separation from the service the real impact of war is starkly outlined in their lives with failed marriages, estranged children, drinking and self destructive behaviors. It is exhaustively researched and footnoted with 28 pages of sources and notes. This superbly written and moving account is an instant classic.

Mr. Childers' book was not only insightful as to what World War II veterans faced upon their return to civilian life, it brought back memories of a favorite uncle. He fought in the Pacific and saw the horror of war firsthand. Uncle Dave seemed quite normal for several years, but then one day it was as if something inside him snapped. He abandoned his wife and kids and fell into an alcoholic stupor for the next 30 years until he died. We owe these men, in fact all veterans, a debt that cannot ever be repaid, and this book,which reads like a novel, brings the truth heartrendingly to light.

Although PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) is normally attributed to veterans of the Vietnam War, this is a false assumption. Childers entwines the stories of three American GIs and their families--including his own--in this grim portrait of the Greatest Generation's return from World War II. The violence of battle inflicted both physical and psychological wounds, leaving many veterans to struggle with PTSD, nightmares, and survivor's guilt, while their bewildered wives found that the men they welcomed home were irrevocably changed from the men they had married. This account of PTSD, broken families and stormy marriages is dark and depressing, but informative and well worth the read.

Peter Jennings coined the now-famous term "The Greatest Generation" - referring to the men and women who grew up during the Great Depression, lived through World War II and then raised families through the tumultuous period of the 1960s. As a country, we have whitewashed the entire generation to be one that put up with hardship and made the best of the little they had. But this is not fair- yes, they went through a lot, but they were not perfect and it is a disservice to act as though they lived Camelot-like lives. Childers wrote this book in an attempt to share with readers how difficult it was for men and women after WWII- how hard it is to settle back into a normal life.

Childers chronicles three families in this book. Willis Allen and his crumbling marriage to Grace after he returns from the war with no legs. Mildred and Tom Childers (the author's own parents) who are unable to re-establish trust in each other after recriminations of infidelity and the death of Mildred's beloved brother in Germany. Michael Gold and his long-term PTSD that would cause him to break out in violent rages and jeopardize his medical career. It's a fascinating, intimate and ultimately very revealing book that brings home the fact that when you've lived through a war, for you, it never ends. Even those who succeeded in coming home and starting fresh were haunted by dreams or "temper tantrums" and divorce rates for veterans skyrocketed after the war ended. The men came back angry, the women didn't trust them, and both sides struggled to form deeper connections.

This is not a happy book. The people who populate it are desperately unhappy much of the time, going through the motions of a Norman Rockwell existence that never materialized for them. But it's also a truly beautiful and haunting narrative. None of the characters is perfect, but there is such a depth of humanity in them, and each one deserves your sympathy and empathy. I can't imagine what it would be like to come home after two high-stress years of war abroad, with very little contact during that time, and try to take up the fragile threads of a marriage once more. I don't know how I would react to the realization that the happy, tall and handsome young man you married is now permanently disabled and terrifyingly angry about it. World War II affected the soldiers that fought in it, but as the author says, some of the scars were even deeper for the ones left behind on the home front.

It is difficult to read a book like this, but also very powerful. The Greatest Generation in the next few decades will have completely disappeared from living memory. It is an injustice to them and all their trials and tribulations to remember them only as an idealized group that did everything perfectly and lived a grand life. They struggled and fought every day to overcome the damage the war did to them and Childers' book is an excellent homage to them. Highly recommended.

This is al well written new chapter that highlights the struggle of all those men and women who took part in wwii. It shows what problems they went through and how they were expected to adapt into normal civilian live.