Reporting World War II, Part 1: American Journalism, 1938-1944 (Library of America) - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1883011043 ISBN 13: 9781883011048

Publisher: Library of America, 1995

Synopsis

This Library of America volume is the first of a unique two-volume anthology. Drawn from original newspaper and magazine reports, radio transcripts, and wartime books, Reporting World War II captures the intensity of the war’s unfolding drama as recorded by the best of a remarkable generation of journalists, whose talents, sense of purpose, and physical courage remain unsurpassed in the annals of war reporting. Here in one collection, over eighty writers, famous and forgotten alike, confront the crucial events of those years in writing of exceptional skill and emotional force.

The first volume traces the buildup to war and the first years of fighting: the Munich crisis, Kristallnacht, the fall of Poland and France, Pearl Harbor and Bataan, Guadalcanal and Salerno. William L. Shirer, Sigrid Schulz, and Howard K. Smith observe Nazi Germany from the inside; Edward R. Murrow and Ernie Pyle report from London during the Blitz; A.J. Liebling chronicles the Tunisian campaign; Margaret Bourke-White casts her eye on the Russian and Italian fronts. In a time when public perceptions were shaped mainly by the written word, correspondents like these were often as influential as politicians and as celebrated as movie stars.

Writers who covered the home front are included as well: E.B. White at a bond rally in Maine, Brendan Gill on gas rationing, James Agee’s caustic reviews of Hollywood war movies. And so are the famous literary figures who covered the war: Gertrude Stein in occupied France, John Steinbeck on a troopship bound for Italy. Here too are writers on aspects of the war still often neglected: George S. Schuyler and other African-American journalists attacking racism and segregation in the armed forces; Mary Heaton Vorse on the women working in the defense industries; a firsthand account of the internment of Japanese-Americans.

This volume contains a detailed chronology of the war, historical maps, biographical profiles of the journalists, explanatory notes, a glossary of military terms, and an index. Also included are thirty-two pages of photographs of the correspondents, many from private collections and never seen before. A companion volume covers 1944–1946.

LIBRARY OF AMERICA is an independent nonprofit cultural organization founded in 1979 to preserve our nation’s literary heritage by publishing, and keeping permanently in print, America’s best and most significant writing. The Library of America series includes more than 300 volumes to date, authoritative editions that average 1,000 pages in length, feature cloth covers, sewn bindings, and ribbon markers, and are printed on premium acid-free paper that will last for centuries.

About this title

About the Author

Samuel Hynes is Woodrow Wilson Professor of Literature emeritus at Princeton University. He was a Marines Corps pilot in World War II and the Korean Conflict.

Anne Matthews has served on the faculties of Princeton, Columbia, and New York University, and she was the first woman to direct the Princeton Writing Program.

Nancy Caldwell Sorel (1934-2015) was the author of The Women Who Wrote the War, among other works.

Roger J. Spiller is George C. Marshall Distinguished Professor of Military History (retired) at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

Reviews

YA?A vast kaleidoscope of impressions in over 145 different articles and excerpts from books (including Bill Mauldin's Up Front and John Hersey's Hiroshima). Students seeking information on The Munich Conference can read selections by William L. Shirer and Dorothy Thompson; they can learn about the London Blitz from Edward R. Murrow; and about rescue at sea from Margaret Bourke-White. They will find Ernie Pyle, A.J. Liebling, or Roi Ottley among these multiple short, readable, primary-source selections. Journalism and history students can track both the war and American attitudes through these narratives.?Barbara Hawkins, Oakton High School, Fairfax, VA
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

This superb collection of some 200 entries by nearly 90 writers, drawn from newspapers, magazine articles, broadcast transcripts and book excerpts, recalls WWII campaigns and battles in all theaters but pays attention to the home front as well. It begins with an excerpt from William L. Shirer's Berlin Diary and ends with one from John Hersey's Hiroshima. Among the selections are the earliest report of genocide in Eastern Europe (NYT, June 30, 1942); A.J. Liebling's New Yorker piece on the relationship between the press and the military; several of Ernie Pyle's combat stories; Walter Bernstein's expose of a wartime "sin city" serving an army base in Georgia; and Roi Ottley's "Negroes Are Saying...," which covers wartime discrimination (the latter two are book excerpts). Readers will find many interesting pieces by writers not usually associated with war reporting: E.B. White's Harper's piece on a war-bond rally in Maine; James Agee's Time essay on the reactions to FDR's death; Helen Lawrenson's description of the Battle of the Atlantic. This is a treasure trove of war reporting, featuring writing of the highest order. Illustrated. 25,000 first printing; Readers' Subscription main selection; History Book Club selection.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

With 1995 marking the 50th anniversary of the close of World War II, countless volumes are being produced by numerous publishers. This duo from the venerable Library of America takes a different tack as it approaches the war through the eyes of the reporters and photographers who first delivered its harsh images from the front lines of the jungles, beachheads, and ravaged villages to the American public, often at great personal peril. The text is an amalgam of hard news dispatches, letters, and articles from writers as far-ranging as Ernie Pyle, Bill Mauldin, John Hersey, Edward R. Murrow, and Martha Gellhorn to John Steinbeck, Ernest Hemingway, and Gertrude Stein. Together they impart not only the where and when of events but the emotional toll of war as well. With the advent of television, this is also an archive of a brand of journalism unfortunately long gone. The volumes include 64 pages of photos and more than 200 cartoons, drawings, and maps. The Library of America has outdone itself with this set; Reporting World War II is quite simply outstanding. Highly recommended for all public and academic libraries.?Michael Rogers, "Library Journal"
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Back when literate people read instead of watched, their journalists filed riveting stories about the century's biggest news event. Some pieces became instant classics, such as Mauldin's Up Front or Hersey's Hiroshima, both of which grace this collection. Naturally, it calls the roll of the greats--Murrow, Pyle, Shirer--but it also revives skilled scriveners who would otherwise molder in obscurity in old issues of the New Yorker, Life, or Harper's magazines. Perhaps the most visceral impact is leveled by the combat reporters: no matter how gruesome the crimson gore modern minicams transmit to our homes, the black-and-white type more authentically conveys the insane, wasteful experience. Reporters like Richard Tregaskis at Guadalcanal, Beirne Lay on a bombing raid over Germany, or Tom Lea hitting the beach of Peleliu concretely record the fury and soul-shaking anxiety of fighting. Away from the front, the editors have included items protesting discrimination against blacks and Japanese Americans, as well as the initial rumor items about a Nazi mass murder program, followed by eyewitness revelations from the liberated camps. Copiously adorned with pictures, this engrossing resource lays a foundation no library collection will regret holding. Gilbert Taylor

Edition details

• Publisher: Library of America
• Publication date: 1995
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1883011043
• ISBN 13: 9781883011048
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 912