The Home Front by Dan Gediman and Martha C. Little

The Home Front by Dan Gediman and Martha C. Little

I’ve read a lot of histories focusing on World War II. Most of them deal with what life was like back in the U.S. while soldiers fought the war in, at most, a chapter. Many of them ignore the U.S. home front completely, focusing on the greater deprivation felt in European countries. The experiences of civilians in the rest of the world tends to get ignored. This book seeks to rectify that omission in the United States and it does a very good job of it. It holds itself together with a mild political narrative because the country is often reacting to that large structure of Hitler’s invasions and FDR and Congress’ responses. But the heart of the books and most of the skeletal bones focuses on what it was like to be called up for service, to join the factory lines, to be imprisoned because you’re a Japanese American, to deal with rationing, to see loved ones go, and return different if they returned at all. It’s a worthy contribution to the works on World War II.