From Publishers Weekly
Chosen from among the more than 30,000 oral histories collected by the Library of Congress's Veterans History Project, these first-person impressions of some 60 men and women who took part in the U.S.'s most salient 20th-century conflicts—WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam and Desert Storm—come together to form a meaningful narrative. The object, editor Weiner notes, was "not to cover every engagement in each war, but rather to offer an impressionistic and intensely felt portrait of the ground-level soldier, slogging through the mud of France, the jungles of the Pacific, or the desert of Kuwait," and many other places in between. The book contains scores of brief entries organized by topic ("Under Fire"; "Coming Home") and war, enhanced by 175 color photos. Sometimes the flow constricts as narrators shift from doughboys in European trenches to Kevlar-helmeted infantrymen in the Kuwaiti desert, but the editors have chosen their testifiers well. As with any oral history, what we get are personal reflections, not historical syntheses. And with a foreword by Rep. Ron Kind, an introduction by former Sen. Max Cleland and an afterword by Sen. Chuck Hagel, there is plenty of veteran elected representation here, too. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
This useful volume, profusely illustrated with personal and informal photographs, showcases the Veterans History Project, which is intended to involve the average citizen and average veteran in recording what veterans did in America's wars while there is still time. For World War I and many World War II vets, time has already run out, but what they left in writing here stands beside the oral reminiscences of the veterans of Korea, Vietnam, and the Gulf War. Women are well represented, mostly as nurses but also as USO entertainers and, more recently, in Gulf War logistics. Their brother soldiers helped organize the first African American parachute unit, commanded small landing craft on D-Day, flew and sometimes escaped from B-17s, suffered horrendous wounds in Vietnam infantry combat, and altogether ran the gamut of the century's American military experience. Not all of these narratives are polished, but all are the respectable testaments of Americans who stepped forward when called. Roland Green
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Book Description

Voices of War is a verbal and visual mosaic of America's military history told in the words of those who were there, from the doughboys of Wold War I to the mechanized warriors of Operation Desert Storm. Selected from among the more than 30,000 personal interviews, private memoirs, photographs, and letters amassed by the Library of Congress Veterans History Project, Voices of War presents scores of unforgettable eyewitness accounts-vivid vignettes of life in uniform and poignant tributes to fallen friends, battle scenes, and quiet moments behind the lines. Spanning five generations of veterans and the families who prayed for their safe return, this books is a moving chronicle of the courage and commitment of American men and women fighting for freedom all over the globe.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

War has touched every American generation of the past hundred years, not only the millions of men and women on the front lines but also the families and friends who await them at home. Of the countless books that document our nation's conflicts from World War I to the Persian Gulf War, few bring the personal experience of "how it really was" so vividly to life as this wide-ranging, wonderfully illustrated volume.

These scores of intertwining stories have been carefully culled from the monumental Veterans History Project, which has already accumulated some 30,000 collections including interviews, letters, unpublished memoirs, scrapbooks, and photographs preserved by the Library of Congress. Together they create a unique eyewitness record of 20th century America at war.

Following a moving introduction by former U.S. Senator Max Cleland, himself a wounded and decorated veteran of Vietnam, seven thematic sections address every aspect of military and civilian life as our country fought for freedom in Europe and the Pacific, in Korea, in Southeast Asia, in the Middle East, and at home. From the recruiting office and basic training to the routines of camp life and the rigors of combat, we listen in as servicemen remember what it was like to be a doughboy on the way "Over There", a GI battling the forces of fascism and communism, a grunt in Vietnam, or a soldier in the Persian Gulf. We meet soldiers and sailors, pilots, and M.A.S.H. nurses, officers and enlisted men-every one with a story to tell about the potent mix of excitement and fear in a firefight, the delight of a letter from home, the sorrow at the death of a friend, and much more.

In addition to these brief but powerfully evocative reminiscences, each chapter singles out a representative individual for a more in-depth profile and presents a portfolio of remarkable images, from Tracy Sugarman's vivid watercolors of World War II to "The Goofein Journal", a charmingly hand-drawn series of family "newspapers" sent by Marion Gurfein to her husband at the front. And these are just a few of the 175 illustrations that capture wartime life in five crucial eras.

By turns fierce and reflective, wryly funny, and deeply poignant, Voices of War celebrates the can-do spirit, sense of duty and sacrifice, and sheer stubborn courage that have seen America safely through one of the most tumultuous and fast-moving centuries of our history.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Chosen from among the more than 30,000 oral histories collected by the Library of Congress's Veterans History Project, these first-person impressions of some 60 men and women who took part in the U.S.'s most salient 20th-century conflicts-WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam and Desert Storm-come together to form a meaningful narrative. The object, editor Weiner notes, was "not to cover every engagement in each war, but rather to offer an impressionistic and intensely felt portrait of the ground-level soldier, slogging through the mud of France, the jungles of the Pacific, or the desert of Kuwait," and many other places in between. The book contains scores of brief entries organized by topic ("Under Fire"; "Coming Home") and war, enhanced by 175 color photos. Sometimes the flow constricts as narrators shift from doughboys in European trenches to Kevlar-helmeted infantrymen in the Kuwaiti desert, but the editors have chosen their testifiers well. As with any oral history, what we get are personal reflections, not historical syntheses. And with a foreword by Rep. Ron Kind, an introduction by former Sen. Max Cleland and an afterword by Sen. Chuck Hagel, there is plenty of veteran elected representation here, too. (Nov. 11) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

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