World War II Collection: America at Work : Boxed

Rating:
Summary: Handling history.
Review: An interesting attempt at making history come alive. The twenty-four facsimile items cover a very broad landscape, a poster for a very obscure 1941 movie, `After Mein Kampf' to a fascinating first page of President Roosevelt's draft speech of his December 8, 1941 war message to the Nation, showing where he replaced `world history' with `infamy'. You can click the box by the title to see a photo of the contents.

Some of the items really make you think, for instance, the February 1, 1941 memo from Jules James, Chief of Naval Operations to the Commander of the Pacific Fleet stating that the Peruvian Minister had told one of James's staff that Japan intended a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. This was just one of many rumors that were circulating in the military at the time. Or the POW postcard, courtesy of the Imperial Japanese Army, from Frank Dunlap to his ma saying (with various word options to underline) where he is and how he feels. Having stated that he is well, he survived his internment.

All the items are explained with a nicely designed forty-eight page booklet but I was disappointed with the reproduction of most of them. The booklet says they have been `re-created with meticulous care', unfortunately, this is not the case. Too many of them have been printed in four colors rather than black line and tone images (those of you in graphic arts will know I'm referring to line & tone combine) which would have given the type in most cases a crisp edge. Some of these facsimiles look very grey, for instance, the letter from Albert Einstein to President Roosevelt is just black typewriter but it looks (like many others) like a photocopy. However, all the contents of the box have the statement 2002 CHRONICLE BOOKS printed very precisely in black. It is a shame the editors did go the extra mile and try to create the best facsimiles possible, this box of history is sold on the basis of being able to handle original looking copies.

A book that covers the war years in printed ephemera that I've always enjoyed looking at is `America's Wartime Scrapbook' by Charles Numark and Martin Jacobs, not really concerned with historical detail it has many color collages created from hundreds of printed items which give an accurate feel of the Home Front.

Rating:
Summary: Handling history.
Review: An interesting attempt at making history come alive. The twenty-four facsimile items cover a very broad landscape, a poster for a very obscure 1941 movie, 'After Mein Kampf' to a fascinating first page of President Roosevelt's draft speech of his December 8, 1941 war message to the Nation, showing where he replaced 'world history' with 'infamy'. You can click the box by the title to see a photo of the contents.

Some of the items really make you think, for instance, the February 1, 1941 memo from Jules James, Chief of Naval Operations to the Commander of the Pacific Fleet stating that the Peruvian Minister had told one of James's staff that Japan intended a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. This was just one of many rumors that were circulating in the military at the time. Or the POW postcard, courtesy of the Imperial Japanese Army, from Frank Dunlap to his ma saying (with various word options to underline) where he is and how he feels. Having stated that he is well, he survived his internment.

All the items are explained with a nicely designed forty-eight page booklet but I was disappointed with the reproduction of most of them. The booklet says they have been 're-created with meticulous care', unfortunately, this is not the case. Too many of them have been printed in four colors rather than black line and tone images (those of you in graphic arts will know I'm referring to line & tone combine) which would have given the type in most cases a crisp edge. Some of these facsimiles look very grey, for instance, the letter from Albert Einstein to President Roosevelt is just black typewriter but it looks (like many others) like a photocopy. However, all the contents of the box have the statement 2002 CHRONICLE BOOKS printed very precisely in black. It is a shame the editors did go the extra mile and try to create the best facsimiles possible, this box of history is sold on the basis of being able to handle original looking copies.

A book that covers the war years in printed ephemera that I've always enjoyed looking at is 'America's Wartime Scrapbook' by Charles Numark and Martin Jacobs, not really concerned with historical detail it has many color collages created from hundreds of printed items which give an accurate feel of the Home Front.