War Within and Without: Diaries and Letters of Anne Morrow Lindbergh 1939-1944 (Harvest Book)

Rating:
Summary: The Lindberghs lives during the WWII years ...
Review: I really enjoyed this book, as it offers Anne Morrow Lindbergh's perspective on her life and her husband's life during the tumultuous pre-WWII years. Charles Lindbergh took his family to live in England after the trial of Bruno Hauptmann for the kidnapping and murder of Charles and Anne's first son. But even after the trial, the Lindberghs were harassed and they feared for their son, Jon's, safety. In England, for the first time in their married life, they had a home of their own and privacy. They also travelled extensively and this book tells of their impressions of Hitler's Germany, among other places. To read now what Anne and Charles thought of Germany is enlightening, especially when considering Charles Lindbergh's public speeches trying to keep America out of the war. The Lindberghs moved from England to an island off the coast of France for a time and Anne's descriptions of living in such an environment with an infant and unpredictable conditions is fascinating. Anne also writes about many well-known people of the period, such as Alexis Carrel, Lady Astor, Gertrude Stein, Hitler, and others. I would highly recommend this book.

Rating:
Summary: Lyrical, infuriating, moving.
Review: War Within and Without is not an easy book to read. It must have been an even more difficult book to publish. Lindbergh gets points for exposing herself and this period in her life to public scrutiny.

This book contains her journals and letters from the period 1939-1944. Although many things happen during this time, the focus of the book is on her husband and his involvement with the isolationist America First Committee. It is by turns painful and almost offensive to read the young Lindbergh as she attempts to defend her husband for his oopposition to US war participation. She points out correctly in the introduction that they did not then have the benefit of historical hindsight. Still, it is difficult not to cringe as you read about Charles and his decision to criticize the Jews for pushing the US to enter the war. Anne herself during that period is tarnished by the charge of fascism as she publishes her book The Wave which tries to make sense of the changes in Europe.

These journals are an invaluable historical window into those conflicted pre-war years in the US. The national reluctance to act has now been almost forgotten, and it is a rare person who is willing to admit that they had taken a stance against US participation. I doubt that there are many texts like this one.

Although Lindbergh wrote many books which were not journals, her style of writing is ideally suited to the journal form. Her prose is as lovely here as it is in anything that she ever published. The descriptions of her love for Charles or the death of a beloved family dog ground the political aspect of the book and are powerful enough to bring tears to the eyes. The fact that I so often disagreed with her politically only made her more human-- and ultimately made the book more moving to read.

Highly recommended for virtually any reader interested in history, essays, or journal writing.