World War II: The People's Story

ISBN 10: 0762103760 / ISBN 13: 9780762103768

Published by Reader's Digest, 2003

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Synopsis:

A tribute to everyday people who witnessed the Second World War firsthand is a collection of personal accounts by soldiers and civilians complemented by 450 contemporary and rarely seen photographs and a seventy-minute audio CD.

Reviews: Grade 9 Up-Through letters, speeches, diaries, and interviews, this title provides insight into the thoughts and feelings of presidents and prime ministers during this period as well as soldiers, journalists, and children. Between excerpted comments, the text fills in the background information. Fifteen-year-old Patrick Lewis shares, "I felt like John Wayne. I wanted to join up straight away and be a hero" while Neville Chamberlain offers a more somber side to the conflict, "Now may God bless you all and may he defend the right. For it is evil things that we shall be fighting against…." Pages are peppered with black-and-white and color photographs and reproductions depicting numerous aspects of the war. Feature articles offer a look at the role of entertainment, fashion, and journalism throughout these dark times. A time line across the bottom of each page notes day-to-day events. An accompanying CD will allow students to hear the firsthand accounts included in the book. Despite the fact that it is not indexed, it makes a great addition to the book. While similar to Dorothy and Carl Schneider's World War II: An Eyewitness History (Facts On File, 2003), Fountain's title offers less political and wartime strategy and more personal testimony.-Julie Webb, Shelby County High School, Shelbyville, KY
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This large and fine illustrated history of World War II through the participants' eyes is far above the conventional nostalgia piece. The personal accounts cover an amazing variety of experiences. The Blitz and the Battle of the Atlantic are seen through children's eyes. Operation Barbarossa pulls a German tank officer in. We watch the last fight of the Bismarck as seen from the British battleship Rodney and an Australian soldier fighting the Japanese in the swamps of New Guinea-and this just skims the surface. The accounts are remarkably well balanced between American and British, less so between the Atlantic/European theaters and the Pacific. The Germans are well represented, the Russians and the Japanese less so. Short sections provide clearly written studies of special topics, such as the Battle of Britain, jet fighters, the Navajo code talkers and the Japanese internment camps. Even more outstanding is the quantity and quality of the photographs, managing to be comprehensive and comparatively free of overdone chestnuts. On three successive (early) pages one finds wounded civilians in Warsaw, Winston Churchill on the day he became prime minister and in a classic bulldog pose and a British magazine cover of French soldiers in physical training. Similar visual riches occur all through the book, and the CD (not heard by PW) includes live eyewitness accounts.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Bibliographic Details

Title: World War II: The People's Story
Publisher: Reader's Digest
Publication Date: 2003
Binding: Hardcover
Condition: Very Good