A quick note to my followers here that I do have a new book out. It is the 9th volume in the Things Our Fathers Saw series, and it’s finally about the Homefront and the women (I guess what our mothers saw!). I will leave you with a synopsis and a link below, or you can head to the Shop tab on this site.
I also wanted to let you know that if you are somewhat local to the Glens Falls area, I will be holding my holiday Meet the Author book tour at my shop in the Shirt Factory. The hours are posted in the graphic above.
In VOLUME 9 of The Things Our Fathers Saw® series, ‘Homefront/Women At War’, we will take an often-overlooked view of the story of World War II. You will visit with the people on the homefront, from schoolkids navigating growing up during the Great Depression and the War, to the women on the factory floor and the armed services, newly independent but having to fight for their rights and later, their jobs, laying the seeds of societal change for the future. You will meet war brides on the ships’ decks over the Atlantic, and follow the challenges they faced growing up in a Europe at war, meeting their GIs, and then starting new families in a new environment. Lastly, you will sit down with the displaced children of World War II who struggled to survive as totalitarian thugs marched into and upended their worlds for years to come, but who survived to tell their personal tales of suffering, and express their gratitude, to young Americans who took the time to listen to them.
“If it had not been for the women going out the door, there would have been no spring in 1944.”
280 PAGES
TABLE OF CONTENTS
AUTHOR’S NOTE
THE WATERSHED
PART ONE: WORKING
THE LABOR ACTIVIST
PAY DISCRIMINATION
WARTIME IN THE FACTORY
RECRUITING WOMEN WORKERS
THE UNION
‘WE FELT THE DANGER TO OUR COUNTRY’
‘I’M DOING A GOOD JOB WHERE I AM’
SHIFT WORK SISTERS
‘YOU’RE MORE TALENTED THAN THAT’
THIRTY CENTS AN HOUR
THE LOS ALAMOS SECRETARY
DR. FERMI AND DR. TELLER
‘AS IF IT WAS NOONTIME’
HOME
‘NEVER QUESTIONED ME ABOUT THE BOMB’
THE RESEARCH PHYSICIST
‘NOT ALLOWED TO DISCUSS THE NATURE OF OUR WORK’
‘I LOST TWO BROTHERS’
PART TWO: HOME & SCHOOL
THE SCHOOL TEACHER
DEPRESSION DAYS
‘NOBODY REALLY KNEW’
RATIONING
ENTERTAINMENT
TEACHING
MARRIAGE DURING WARTIME
THE BOYS IN THE WAR
D-DAY
‘THEY JUST WOULDN’T TELL ANYONE’
THE SCHOOLGIRL
THE VICTORY BIKE
SCHOOL
CULTURE AND MUSIC
THE NEIGHBORHOOD
‘WE FELT SO BAD FOR THEM’
THE PEARL HARBOR KID
FAMILY IN PEARL HARBOR
GOING ACROSS THE PACIFIC
PEARL CITY
MARTIAL LAW
‘THEIR HAIR HAD TURNED WHITE’
‘THIS WAS THEIR LAST CHANCE’
‘JUST ONE OF THOSE THINGS’
THE END OF THE WAR
BACK IN NEW YORK
PART THREE: SERVICE
US ARMY NURSE, EUROPE
THE DEPRESSION ERA
‘ONCE YOU DO THIS, YOU’RE THEIRS’
PEARL HARBOR
OVERSEAS
NORTH AFRICA AND CORSICA
MT. VESUVIUS
THE END OF THE WAR
‘WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO FOR ME?’
‘THEY ARE MOSTLY GONE’
US ARMY NURSE, PACIFIC
‘I WOULD KILL YOU’
OVERSEAS
HOME
THE WASP
THE WOMEN AIRFORCE SERVICE PILOTS
TRAINING AT SWEETWATER, TEXAS
B-25 TRAINING
TARGET TOWING
DISBANDED
KEEPING IN TOUCH
THE FLIGHT NURSE
‘I DIDN’T WANT TO TELL MY FATHER’
‘WE DIDN’T KNOW WHERE WE WERE GOING’
‘THIS ONE NEEDS ME’
‘A PLANELOAD OF PSYCHOS’
‘WE FLEW THE ENTIRE PACIFIC’
OLIVIA DE HAVILLAND AND BETTY GRABLE
THE PHILIPPINES
TARAWA
FOOD
MARRIAGE
THE WORLD WAR II FLIGHT NURSES ASSOCIATION
‘LEAVE ME ALONE’
THE WAVE
THE WAVES
WAVE QUARTERS ONE
MAPWORK
CELEBRITY BOND DRIVE
THE FLAG
AN COSMOPOLITAN WEDDING
INTERESTING PEOPLE
DISCHARGED
THE RECRUITER
AWAY FROM HOME
‘I FEEL RESPONSIBLE HE’S DEAD’
SMALL TOWNS
THE BAND CIRCUIT
FAMILY
BROTHER JACK
THE END OF THE WAR
THE WREN
DOODLE BUGS
LIFE IN ENGLAND
THE GIRL GUIDES
THE WRENS
WAR’S END
‘LIFE HAS CHANGED’
ANTI-WAR
PART FOUR: WAR BRIDES
THE WAR BRIDES
THE ATS
BOMBINGS
‘A LIFE’S SOUVENIR’
VE DAY
THE RIDING SCHOOL
LEADING THE HORSES
AIR RAIDS
THE GIS IN ENGLAND
WAR BRIDE
LONDON
‘SHE’LL NEVER LEAVE ME’
SINGING WITH THE WOUNDED GIS
THE NEW YORK SKYLINE
‘LIFE IN AMERICA WAS VERY DIFFERENT’
PART FIVE: THE DISPLACED
THE REFUGEE
ARREST
SIBERIA
‘I DO NOT THINK I COULD FIND THEIR GRAVES’
EAST AFRICA
TANZANIA
TO THE UNITED STATES
‘WHAT WAR DOES TO WOMEN AND CHILDREN’
THE GERMAN SCHOOLGIRL
‘OUR WAR STARTED’
‘A VERY HARD TIME’
‘THE RUSSIANS WERE REACHING THE BORDER’
DIFFICULT JOURNEY
‘WE LEFT EVERYTHING’
‘THERE WAS NO ONE ELSE TO BLAME’
REBUILDING AFTER THE WAR
THE HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR
THE ARRIVAL OF THE GERMANS
THE WARSAW GHETTO
THE GHETTO UPRISING
BERLIN
‘NO ONE SURVIVED FROM MY FAMILY’
‘I WANTED TO LIVE’
TO THE UNITED STATES
‘I KNOW WHAT WAR IS’
TO KEEP THEM WITH US
NOTES
Teaching History Matters 