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Over Here!: New York City During World War II
A wonderfully nostalgic and inspiring look at the center of the home front during World War II—New York City
More than any other place, New York was the center of action on the home front during World War II. As Hitler came to power in Germany, American Nazis goose-stepped in Yorkville on the Upper East Side, while recently arrived Jewish émigrés found refuge on the Upper West Side. When America joined the fight, enlisted men heading for battle in Europe or the Pacific streamed through Grand Central Terminal and Pennsylvania Station. The Brooklyn Navy Yard refitted ships, and Times Square overflowed with soldiers and sailors enjoying some much-needed R & R. German U-boats attacked convoys leaving New York Harbor. Silhouetted against the gleaming skyline, ships were easy prey—debris and even bodies washed up on Long Island beaches—until the city rallied under a stringently imposed dim-out.
From Rockefeller Center's Victory Gardens and Manhattan's swanky nightclubs to metal-scrap drives and carless streets, Over Here! captures the excitement, trepidation, and bustle of this legendary city during wartime. Filled with the reminiscences of ordinary and famous New Yorkers, including Walter Cronkite, Barbara Walters, and Angela Lansbury, and rich in surprising detail—from Macy's blackout boutique to Mickey Mouse gas masks for kids—this engaging look back is an illuminating tour of New York on the front lines of the home front.
More than any other place, New York was the center of action on the home front during World War II. As Hitler came to power in Germany, American Nazis goose-stepped in Yorkville on the Upper East Side, while recently arrived Jewish émigrés found refuge on the Upper West Side. When America joined the fight, enlisted men heading for battle in Europe or the Pacific streamed through Grand Central Terminal and Pennsylvania Station. The Brooklyn Navy Yard refitted ships, and Times Square overflowed with soldiers and sailors enjoying some much-needed R & R. German U-boats attacked convoys leaving New York Harbor. Silhouetted against the gleaming skyline, ships were easy prey—debris and even bodies washed up on Long Island beaches—until the city rallied under a stringently imposed dim-out.
From Rockefeller Center's Victory Gardens and Manhattan's swanky nightclubs to metal-scrap drives and carless streets, Over Here! captures the excitement, trepidation, and bustle of this legendary city during wartime. Filled with the reminiscences of ordinary and famous New Yorkers, including Walter Cronkite, Barbara Walters, and Angela Lansbury, and rich in surprising detail—from Macy's blackout boutique to Mickey Mouse gas masks for kids—this engaging look back is an illuminating tour of New York on the front lines of the home front.
355 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 19, 2010
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
September 14, 2021
Anecdotes and half-remembered childhood memories do not a history make, resulting in a fluff book that goes rah-rah New York without ever addressing the hard topics that are only incidentally referred to - from the Mayors complete overreaction to the outbreak of the war, to the internment of the Japanese, to the ultimately useless destruction of public and private property for propaganda scrap drives, to the government fear-mongering among the public, to the overreaching and unnecessary blackouts to avoid air raids that the armed forces knew were never coming, to the days of tribal, opportunistic looting and violence when Harlem residents (wrongly -what a surprise) thought a cop might be harassing a lady (she was a criminal being arrested - -sound familiar?).
June 21, 2011
I love my city(and it belongs to anyone who loves it regardless of where they are from). Having seen what New Yorkers were like living through 9/11 and its aftermath, I already knew what they are made of. They can sometimes be frustratingly imperturbable. I love the part of the book where Fiorello LaGuardia is desperately trying to get New Yorkers to take his early air raid drills seriously while they walk on by as if the sirens were church bells. But in a real crisis, you can count on them to work to pull things together. I remember after the big blackout watching as people just stepped in front of lines of cars and started directing traffic while others stood outside handing free bottles of water to people on long treks home.
I never feel my affection for the city so strongly as when it is in crisis and I felt it full force reading Diehl's wonderful narrative of life in the city during the war. While she doesn't ignore the negatives (New York's very own Nazi summer camps and such), this is pretty much a love song to NYC. From wholeheartedly entertaining service men and women (free priority entrance to movies and Broadway shows) to the gleeful collecting of scrap metal (one wealthy couple drove a couple of fancy cars up to the scrap heap for donation)New Yorkers showed their strength, their generosity, and their sense of humor. What does it say that one of a group of would-be German saboteurs, after landing on the beach, felt compelled to give a tour of the city he had previously visited to another.
You can turn off the lights on Broadway and turn the Rockefeller Center flower beds into victory gardens, and essential New York will not have changed. That's what it is like Over Here.
I never feel my affection for the city so strongly as when it is in crisis and I felt it full force reading Diehl's wonderful narrative of life in the city during the war. While she doesn't ignore the negatives (New York's very own Nazi summer camps and such), this is pretty much a love song to NYC. From wholeheartedly entertaining service men and women (free priority entrance to movies and Broadway shows) to the gleeful collecting of scrap metal (one wealthy couple drove a couple of fancy cars up to the scrap heap for donation)New Yorkers showed their strength, their generosity, and their sense of humor. What does it say that one of a group of would-be German saboteurs, after landing on the beach, felt compelled to give a tour of the city he had previously visited to another.
You can turn off the lights on Broadway and turn the Rockefeller Center flower beds into victory gardens, and essential New York will not have changed. That's what it is like Over Here.
October 29, 2016
A Brooklyn kid remembers!
A well researched retrospect of " my life" in Brooklyn during the War ! Born in '33 ,I was old enough to remember the details- especially the AA gun emplacements in nearby Prospect Park! The only big memory missing is the flights of Navy aircraft out of Floyd Bennett Field !
A well researched retrospect of " my life" in Brooklyn during the War ! Born in '33 ,I was old enough to remember the details- especially the AA gun emplacements in nearby Prospect Park! The only big memory missing is the flights of Navy aircraft out of Floyd Bennett Field !
July 25, 2017
First hand accounts of life in NYC during the war years. Great pics in the Kindle edition. Interesting details. Great resource for research.
February 1, 2020
Entertaining enough, but there's no depth here on any topic. For the New York buff, as opposed to the WWII buff.
June 3, 2025
Couple interesting notes:
Before the War
- Before the war America was very much of a pacifist country. The notion is that the last war America participated in did not aid the country much, other than sacrificing its own children for other countries‘ welfare. FDR was famously worried about America’s attitude toward being a pacifist country in that he worried if the Germans do indeed strike America, America wouldn’t be ready.
- When the war did break out in Europe, knowing America wouldn’t be interested, the Brit had a huge campaign of sending its children to America (and many of the British children did indeed settle in America to escape the war)
- (Few names of the finest stores in NYC at the time, noted that most didn’t survive to this date: Bonwit Teller, Bergeron Goodman, Henri Bendeline, Russel’s, DePinna, and Arnold Constable)
- Churchill had a soft campaign (via using their own spy agencies) in America to woo America towards join the war: for instance, they will have plants in the field attending pacifist rally to boo the speaker
- Anti-Nazi sentiment was rather high at the time with multiple Broadway shows depicting negative attitudes towards Nazis
During the War
- When Japan struck Pearl Harbor, most American thought it would be the Germans who struck the US, not Japan (even the Germans themselves were shocked of Japan’s intrusion): yet Japan’s action was also rooted in FDR’s “weaponization of the US currency” (something people are still shocked that America deploys this to this date: not just FDR, Thomas Jefferson also weaponized it against the Brits at one point)
- After the Japanese attack, interment of the Japanese national was swift in NYC under Major La Guardia. In addition, many Japanese stores were shut immediately. Japanese Americans felt rather ashamed of their looks overnight. New Yorker’s attitude towards Japanese turned negative overnight
- Right after Japan’s attack, Germans began deploying U-Boats to the coast lines of America, sinking multiple ships that can be seen rather easily on a daily basis. America for a long time had no response to the German’s U-Boats attack. While a rather prosperous country, America intentionally lacked armed capabilities given for a long time it considered itself a neutral country that has no interested over the rest of the world’s war matters
- Ration began taking place as many of the goods - initially just tins, then expanded to many food items such as meat, butter, eggs, sugar - as well as many non-food items such as gas. Ration began taking place. Lack of gas ironically gave rise to the real estate price in the city. Since without cars, suburban living is vastly less attractive.
- People working in produce did rather well during those years (people like butchers) while rest of the population’s income did not climb
- In order to avoid severe food shortages, “victory garden” began taking shape. Bryant Park began a vegetable garden too. Most of the vacant land in Manhattan became vegetable gardens. Outside of Manhattan, since lots were bigger, some lots resembled a small farm
- With meat rationed in the city, only intestines were spread by the mayor. Thus, many restaurants began selling food made of animal intestines
- With war dragging on, meat got even scarier. In January 1945, Major banned selling meat two days a week (black market surfaced)
Before the War
- Before the war America was very much of a pacifist country. The notion is that the last war America participated in did not aid the country much, other than sacrificing its own children for other countries‘ welfare. FDR was famously worried about America’s attitude toward being a pacifist country in that he worried if the Germans do indeed strike America, America wouldn’t be ready.
- When the war did break out in Europe, knowing America wouldn’t be interested, the Brit had a huge campaign of sending its children to America (and many of the British children did indeed settle in America to escape the war)
- (Few names of the finest stores in NYC at the time, noted that most didn’t survive to this date: Bonwit Teller, Bergeron Goodman, Henri Bendeline, Russel’s, DePinna, and Arnold Constable)
- Churchill had a soft campaign (via using their own spy agencies) in America to woo America towards join the war: for instance, they will have plants in the field attending pacifist rally to boo the speaker
- Anti-Nazi sentiment was rather high at the time with multiple Broadway shows depicting negative attitudes towards Nazis
During the War
- When Japan struck Pearl Harbor, most American thought it would be the Germans who struck the US, not Japan (even the Germans themselves were shocked of Japan’s intrusion): yet Japan’s action was also rooted in FDR’s “weaponization of the US currency” (something people are still shocked that America deploys this to this date: not just FDR, Thomas Jefferson also weaponized it against the Brits at one point)
- After the Japanese attack, interment of the Japanese national was swift in NYC under Major La Guardia. In addition, many Japanese stores were shut immediately. Japanese Americans felt rather ashamed of their looks overnight. New Yorker’s attitude towards Japanese turned negative overnight
- Right after Japan’s attack, Germans began deploying U-Boats to the coast lines of America, sinking multiple ships that can be seen rather easily on a daily basis. America for a long time had no response to the German’s U-Boats attack. While a rather prosperous country, America intentionally lacked armed capabilities given for a long time it considered itself a neutral country that has no interested over the rest of the world’s war matters
- Ration began taking place as many of the goods - initially just tins, then expanded to many food items such as meat, butter, eggs, sugar - as well as many non-food items such as gas. Ration began taking place. Lack of gas ironically gave rise to the real estate price in the city. Since without cars, suburban living is vastly less attractive.
- People working in produce did rather well during those years (people like butchers) while rest of the population’s income did not climb
- In order to avoid severe food shortages, “victory garden” began taking shape. Bryant Park began a vegetable garden too. Most of the vacant land in Manhattan became vegetable gardens. Outside of Manhattan, since lots were bigger, some lots resembled a small farm
- With meat rationed in the city, only intestines were spread by the mayor. Thus, many restaurants began selling food made of animal intestines
- With war dragging on, meat got even scarier. In January 1945, Major banned selling meat two days a week (black market surfaced)
March 19, 2023
WOW! At about fifty percent fotos, this book more than covers what New York City was like during the war. From pre war accepting of some refugees, the rise American "nazi bund," and our reluctance to get into "foreign wars" on over to Pearl Harbor, resolute unity against the axis, and finally victory, this book is more telling of what it really was like to be there back then.
One can learn true respect for Americans during that crisis. Of course, we had our transgressions like the "imprisonment"of West coast Japanese in camps. The unfairness of segregation and the stresses on Blacks in N.Y.C. brought a little-known riot and store theft and vandalism in 1943 as well. We weren't perfect, but held together enough to fight and win over nations bent on very evil philosophies and conquest.
One can learn true respect for Americans during that crisis. Of course, we had our transgressions like the "imprisonment"of West coast Japanese in camps. The unfairness of segregation and the stresses on Blacks in N.Y.C. brought a little-known riot and store theft and vandalism in 1943 as well. We weren't perfect, but held together enough to fight and win over nations bent on very evil philosophies and conquest.
April 29, 2025
New York City is, arguably, the most exciting city in the world. We learn through OVER HERE, that such was the case during World War Two; exciting without experiencing the nightmare of bombs raining down upon its people and buildings. Its support for the troops made it the place to be before disembarking for combat, spending time on leave, or returning “home” after serving a tour of duty.
How thrilling it is that much of what made New York City the center of attention in the United States during those years is still there, to be seen, to be enjoyed. And, on a personal note, I love that the news of the war came to the public via radio. Twenty years later, while a teenager living in south central Pennsylvania, radio on WABC brought me that distinct flavor of the Big Apple.
I sense something missing from this book but can’t say what.
Four stars slightly waning
How thrilling it is that much of what made New York City the center of attention in the United States during those years is still there, to be seen, to be enjoyed. And, on a personal note, I love that the news of the war came to the public via radio. Twenty years later, while a teenager living in south central Pennsylvania, radio on WABC brought me that distinct flavor of the Big Apple.
I sense something missing from this book but can’t say what.
Four stars slightly waning
March 16, 2025
This was an inexpensive Kindle book that drew me in when I saw it in one of my daily emails and it was quite enjoyable. It gave an overview of NYC just before, during and after WWII. Although not a scholarly work at all, it is very readable.
May 20, 2017
i really enjoyed this book. some fascinating history of life during the war. i just felt there could have been more, maybe more personal stories
i would recommend this book
i would recommend this book
May 26, 2025
Great Book!
I recommend reading it if you like WW II literature!
I learned a lot about WW II. It was a good book! I highly recommend reading it!
I recommend reading it if you like WW II literature!
I learned a lot about WW II. It was a good book! I highly recommend reading it!
August 27, 2022
I loved this book! Just fun to read from beginning to end. Wish my mom was still alive to talk about it with!
April 25, 2010
Lorraine B. Diehl's "Over Here! New York City During World War II" is a fantastic book that manages to capture the fear and excitement of those living and passing through New York City during World War II. You can't help but get caught up in the fear of being bombed, the determination of collecting tin, metal, and paper, the devastation of FDR's passing, and the jubilation the surrenders of Germany and Japan brought to those watching the New York Times news zipper for just that news.
Diehl's diligent research, first person quotes, dozens of photographs adn captions, and interesting factoids make this an easily accessible, yet informative read that isn't 'dumbed down' so to speak. For example, did you know that actress Angela Lansbury (of Murder She Wrote fame) emigrated to America via one of the boats transporting British children to safety? During the war, she volunteered her time serving coffee and dancing with soldiers on leave.
The most striking part of Diehl's narrative is the first chapter of the book entitled, "Nazis Among Us." I had no idea that there was so much Nazi activity going on in the United States, and in particular New York City, during the 1930s. It was disturbing to see a photograph of a German camp on Long Island flying an American and Nazi flag side by side.
"Over Here! New York City During World War II" is an excellent book for anyone looking to learn more about what it was like to live in the United States leading up to and during World War II. Diehl's eloquent prose, stellar research and photographs depicting what she is discussing make this an easily accessible book for teenagers, college, students, and adults who just want to learn more.
Diehl's diligent research, first person quotes, dozens of photographs adn captions, and interesting factoids make this an easily accessible, yet informative read that isn't 'dumbed down' so to speak. For example, did you know that actress Angela Lansbury (of Murder She Wrote fame) emigrated to America via one of the boats transporting British children to safety? During the war, she volunteered her time serving coffee and dancing with soldiers on leave.
The most striking part of Diehl's narrative is the first chapter of the book entitled, "Nazis Among Us." I had no idea that there was so much Nazi activity going on in the United States, and in particular New York City, during the 1930s. It was disturbing to see a photograph of a German camp on Long Island flying an American and Nazi flag side by side.
"Over Here! New York City During World War II" is an excellent book for anyone looking to learn more about what it was like to live in the United States leading up to and during World War II. Diehl's eloquent prose, stellar research and photographs depicting what she is discussing make this an easily accessible book for teenagers, college, students, and adults who just want to learn more.
November 16, 2013
For someone who loves New York, and finds the Second World War to be fascinating (and I fit both those categories) this book is a must read. It's not especially well-written but the author's clear love for her subject overcomes the occasional awkward phrasings. The book is laid out like a magazine, with lots of terrific black-and-white photos sharing space with the text, instead of segregated to a special section in the middle of the book. It's well known that Americans at home during the war endured blackouts and rationing, but the details Lorraine Diehl offers are interesting and the anecdotes are entertaining. The early chapter about the Nazi party openly operating in Manhattan during the 1930's were a revelation to me. Diehl also tells us about German U-Boats patrolling the shores, and the ships that fell prey to them. German saboteurs came ashore on Eastern Long Island and made their way to Manhattan. A fun book about what was a dark time in the city's history.
July 26, 2023
5 star - Perfect
4 star - i would recommend
3 star - good
2 star - struggled to complete
1 star - could not finish
4 star - i would recommend
3 star - good
2 star - struggled to complete
1 star - could not finish
October 4, 2012
Easy read and wonderfully written. Lorraine Diehls' research is very good and includes alot of little-known facts; like Nazi UBoats sinking ships all over the LI coastline, American hero Charles Lindburgh was a Nazi sympathizer, that antisemitism that was common-Albert Einstein was given a position as Columbia but Jewish students weren't allowed to enroll. There are quotes from "regular" people about their reactions to events like blackouts, rationing and the death of FDR. Lorraine writes about how NY'ers pulled together to help each other out. I love the old photos!
December 27, 2016
An engaging and easy to read book with lots on interesting photos, vignettes and stories to bring to life the change New Yorkers had to face in every day life during WWII. It was also full of interesting facts that are not well known now, such as the extent of Nazi U boat sinkings off the eastern seaboard at the beginning of the war and the infiltration of Nazi spies planning strategic bombings in the area. The book also highlighted the role that NYC played as a way station and as an entertainment center for so many of our servicemen. Very enjoyable read.
June 1, 2016
I found Ms. Diehl's book incredibly detailed and filled with interesting facts about life and times in New York before, during and after World War II. Most of all, I enjoyed the fact that her coverage was well rounded and did not falter and stop over a favorite group or item as does some books on this topic, but instead moved as quickly over one topic as well as did the others, not bogging down the flow of the work, making for quick and enjoyable reading. She is indeed a must read.
January 13, 2017
Nostalgia
I was born in 1943. My father came home from the army in 1946 just as my capacities to remember were developing. My earliest memories were of people discussing their experiences during the war, and this book helps fill in the gaps. Seventy years later I can now better appreciate and understand what they were talking about.
I was born in 1943. My father came home from the army in 1946 just as my capacities to remember were developing. My earliest memories were of people discussing their experiences during the war, and this book helps fill in the gaps. Seventy years later I can now better appreciate and understand what they were talking about.
Read
February 12, 2017I had a preconceived idea of this book. It's actually better than I thought it was going to be.
March 11, 2013
Wonderful book! I had to take a hiatus for a few weeks due to school, but as soon as I picked it back up I was entranced. I finished it in about a day, and instantly felt sad it was over. I immediately started looking for other WWII & NYC books - luckily, there are a handful of others!
September 18, 2010
A superb book, very well written and thoroughly enjoyable reading. You can picture (with the prose augmented by the photos), NYC during WWII
January 27, 2013
Wonderful. Really fascinating account. Just enough details. Well written. Loved it.
March 28, 2015
Very entertaining and nostalgic look at New York during the war. The only drawback was that I found some of the chapters out of order or confusing why they were written where they were.
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews