The Good War: An Oral History of World War Two

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Summary: people in the past
Review: Have you ever sat down and wonder about the people who have died in the battles that the planet earth has faced? The battles that America has been through to be a free and the powerful nation that it is today. The book " The Good War" by Studs Terkel, is a book that talks about World War Ð, the battles, the events, the life, it was in the war. Hearing the stories of soldiers and news reporters in the front lines. This book has different kinds of stories, stories of soldiers arriving in the battle scene to stories of the day of victory.

I bet you have seen videos of battles, wars, or how about historical videos. If you have, you have an idea what this book is about. I like this book but at the same time I kind of dislike it. I like it because of the straight details that the stories have, giving you details to have an exact picture in your mind. Lowell Steward is one of his stories that I really like, maybe because he is a pilot that I am interest to do in my future life. He is one out of 405 black pilot that help too win the skies during the war. His story is interesting, earning respect during his mission of flight. In the beginning, they're were only white pilots so as you can see Lowell didn't have respect. He and some of his black pilots were called "lonely eagles" because on their mission with white pilots they flew alone having no respect with the white pilots. Well as the time move on, he and his group got their respect and were joined by the white pilots to fly every mission. Being an unstoppable group. Lowell destroyed and damages 409 enemy aircraft. Stories like this make me be awake and keep on reading. I like how he describes the skies at night, flying through the clouds, can really see nothing, then in a mile away In front of him, fireworks start lighting up in the sky, a tremendous show but all the same color, but once you fly it, it is not fire works it is life. A little rephrases that he was trying to say so that u can understand his views.

Maybe you have relatives that tell stories about the war but have you herd a story from a news reporter in the front lines. Many reporters where in the front lines and many stories but putting it all together becomes a breath taking picture in your mind. Being in the line at night lying down on the floor, looking up then seeing flashes of light flying by, not knowing who is who. It will stop for a little while but as soon as the American troop order to light up the sky, the flashes happen again. You can say that these reporters were stupid, dumb, ignorant, but that is their job to let the people know what is happening in the war, without them we would not know if America would be winning or losing.

What about the wife's? Well they were back home doing the mens work, earning money to support their children. Their life is in this book. Also describing the their emotion every time, the mail man came. Knowing to see if it is for them or not. As the ladies staying home, they did all what they can do to move on with their life.

You have heard the exciting, fearsome little parts of some stories. But what I dislike but at the same time I understand why, is the sad part of the book. It's there to add some emotions, and feeling to the soldiers who have died to remember them of their service to the United State. Also there are stories of sadness, but not as a lot. There is a story in the book about the remembering the past, giving their views on what they saw in the battle fields, like brining back memories that don't want to talk about.

Back to the wife's at home becomes a sad scene too. Mail man brining the letter to a mother of two children, receiving and knowing what it is, this is a tragic crying sad moment. The children probably one and not getting to know their father. Well this is how it was in America. Every day in everybody life there is sadness, happiness, joy, anger, fear. Now take this image and put it in a heavier emotion and u will feel the same as the wife's.

Some people don't realize on the events that Planet earth has had. Some hear it but don't care. Now what would. They do if this would happen, would they care or just don't care. Yea they would care because they would be going to the war.

This book change a little bit of my view on soldiers, like memorial day has past, and people left their homes to pay respect on those soldiers, this is why America is number one. I don't have a relative that I know off that was in the war but I do have friends that have a relative that died in the war, and now I know how they feel when that day comes. To my knowledge that I have learned in my life, this book is an emotional, change points of view. Knowing the past can help and change something in the future, but what I do know is that America winning the war made the U.S. the powerful nation that it is today because of the soldiers that made it to be like this, because of their service their family friends are free.

Rating:
Summary: an interesting oral history
Review: Studs Terkel interviewed hundreds of people asking them to tell him about their experiences during the Second World War. Those interviews are the stories included in his book, "The Good War."
If you are looking for a collection of "war stories" by combat veterans sharing their yarns of heroism under fire, look elsewhere; while there are some of those experiences here, the bulk of the book deals with the wider scope of the conflict - from "Rosie the riveter" to Japanese detainees, to survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (including Americans who occupied the cities weeks after the bombings. Sadly, they share similar stories.)

It is an interesting glimpse in time - of "simpler times" - when racism was the status quo (Terkel includes the experiences of Tuskeegee airmen and Naval ammo handlers and stevedores), when the military was segregated, when women took up jobs for the war effort, fully expecting to be fired once the war was over.
Terkel's book is primarily concerned with the experiences of Americans during the war, although he interviews some on the "other side" - a German war bride retelling her experiences during a bombing raid (the same raid her husband happened to be on - ironically bombing her town), of a German U-boat crew, of Japanese civlians. Their perspectives provide some balance to the book.

In the final analysis, it is an interesting read - not the sort of thing one could read cover-to-cover all at once; better, I think to read a few interviews and set it down, giving one the opportunity to reflect on how the seminal event of the twentieth century influenced not only those interviewed, but all of us. A worthwhile read.

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Summary: Amazing
Review: Studs Terkel is one of the most interesting journalists I have ever read. I picked up this book for my college US History class and I read far more entries than the ones assigned to us. Getting a clear picture of World War II is very difficult, especially given the nature of primary sources (like film reels advocating women to go to work, or whatever) which assert that the War was indisputably the "Good War." Through Terkel's book I have learned that WWII was much more complicated than a simple event of unity across the country. Making it work required a number of battles, and not every American citizen benefited from the events of the war. Terkel's striking vignettes provide a myriad fascinating perspectives from people affected by WWII in so many ways, and within each interview he finds a nugget of evidence that enhances (or sometimes redefines) history.

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Summary: An oral history of the "so called" good war?
Review: Studs Terkel's Pulitzer Prize winning book "The Good War" is an amazing and startling history of the World War II. It gathers hundreds of interviews from all walks of life talking about their experiences in "the good war." It was a required reading for History 417 "United States History in Crisis 1917-1945" at Indiana State University. The book painted a genuine picture of the Second World War and put in plain words from individual experiences. The experiences of panic in Americans in the West Coast, radios announcing false reports of Japanese air attacks, and random shooting in the sky. The young American boys were turning in to savages in the Pacific campaign against a foe that had a code of honor. "Rosie" women working in the plants to help the war effect, never thought that the bombshells they were making was killing people. The book is an excellent choice, if you want to know what people thought about the war in the 1980s. My suggestions are to read the stories about John Garcia (a 16-year old Hawaiian living on Pearl harbor and joined the Army), Peggy Terry, Ray Wax and so many others stories.

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Summary: Revealing
Review: This oral history about World War II captured the 1985 Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction. Author Studs Terkel interviews several dozen U.S. veterans, many of whom were still mourning lost comrades decades later. Among the memorable interviews, we hear from a veteran that married his dead comrade's widow, a future realtor wounded in a racist massacre at a U.S. army base, and STARS AND STRIPES cartoonist Bill Mauldin. Terkel also speaks with a dying Chicago taxi driver who later was buried as requested along the Elbe River in Germany where his unit first linked up with the Russians in 1945. Several interviewees saw no combat, including civilians that describe life on the home front. I'd heard war tales from my father (Air Corps) and uncle (Army), and most of the stories in this book ring true. Many interviewees seem to agree with the author that this "Good" war was a nauseating but necessary struggle against Hitler and fascism. As with Terkel's other books, the interviewees are largely from Chicago, and, on balance, they tend to reinforce his liberal views.

Some say Terkel isn't an author, but merely a good listener with a handy tape recorder. Either way, he's given us very good oral narratives like this one, HARD TIMES, WORKING, etc.

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Summary: Touching and Personal Views of WW II - Can't Put it Down
Review: To present multiple views of World War 2, Terkel has recorded the words of gung ho enlisted men, army nurses, mothers of soldiers, USO volunteers, officers, war scientists, conscientious objectors, the wounded and embittered, the children of those who served, survivors of Nazi cruelty, Germans, Japanese, and Americans of all races.

It is an amazingly emotionally moving oral history. Because the reader is confronted with the words of real people, the book becomes a very personal experience. Some of the combat tales are as horrific as any from the war in Viet Nam. Likewise, the bureaucratic nonsense, the prejudice, the loss of life, the cruelty, the simple acts of heroism and sacrifice. Enormously poignant at times; often humorous, sometimes devastatingly sad, always gripping.

I am not much of a history buff, and perhaps this is the best level of historical writing for me, so I would recommend this to anyone who has even the slightest interest in what Americans were doing during that war.