Book Description
From any perspective, the fact remains: Americans are who they are today because of who they became in World War II. The requirements of that period in our history-the uprooting of families, the turbo-charging of the economy,theface-to-face encounter with brutality, the necessities of creating and feeding a war machine-changed the country so fundamentally and profoundly that the effects are still playing out today. WWII is a tribute in words and images to this remarkable period in American history. Here are poetry and fiction, eyewitness accounts and reporters' columns tracing the evolution of a country and its soldiers, from the first rush of adrenaline to the brutal reality of war. To illustrate the text, more than 125 evocative images-ranging from wartime sketches to iconic masterpieces-have been culled from museums and private collections. The works of Thomas Hart Benton, Dame Laura Knight, Jacob Lawrence, Norman Rockwell, Ben Shahn, Graham Sutherland, and others are reproduced with stunning force. Throughout, there emerges a narrative of transformation amid a poignant loss of innocence, all in the name of courage and country.

About the Author
David Colbert is the editor of Baseball: The National Pastime in Art and Literature. He was also the editor of the Eyewitness to America series.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

WWII: A Tribute in Art and Literature remembers the individuals who made this near-apocalypse such an immense human drama, such an extraordinary period in our history. Editor David Colbert traces their stories through a thoughtful collection of poetry, fiction, and eyewitness accounts, from the first rush of adrenaline to the horrific reality of war and finally to its lingering legacy. Here are the insights of William Faulkner, Langston Hughes, Marge Piercy, and Joseph Heller, the multidimensional prose of James Jones, Primo Levi, and Irwin Shaw, the brutality of James Clavell countered by the levity of Bob Hope.