World War II ─ A History in Documents

The documents in this book point readers to the major themes and issues of World War II, including major causes, course, and consequences of the war. The volume encourages understanding of the nature of total war and its potential for limitlessness. Coverage is worldwide, with attention to both the European and Pacific Theaters and to home front as well as battlefront issues. Diplomacy and strategy blend with insights into the lives of ordinary people around the world--as factory workers, soldiers, mothers, propagandists, political leaders, and survivors. And the volume encourages comparative perspectives and assists readers in thinking about continuity and change across the twentieth century, including focus on commemoration and memory to the present.
The documents include such diverse items as excerpts from Mein Kampf; the Nazi-Soviet Pact; Charles Lindbergh on America First; Churchill on the 'finest hour'; Geneva Conventions; letters from prisoners of war; a Thanksgiving dinner menu; a K ration pack; dispatches from Ernie Pyle; photos of Glenn Miller and Marlene Dietrich entertaining the troops; Woody Guthrie songs; movie posters; propaganda air drop leaflet; Japanese children's song; a ration cookbook; a comic book superhero; Simone de Beauvoir on occupation; the Japanese Emperor's surrender rescript; US censored haiku; an English war bride's marriage certificate; a Japanese lunchbox from the Smithsonian Enola Gay exhibit; transcripts of the Eichmann trial; and oral histories by America's "greatest generation."
The entire book is be profusely illustrated with graphics (posters, photographs, maps, etc.) that themselves serve as documents, and there is a picture essay on the 'racial community,' using propaganda posters, photographs, and film stills. Each section of the book has an introductory essay, and each document has a headnote or long caption. Back matter includes a chronology, further reading, and index. The author is a specialist on the American home front, for which he was won the Indiana Humanities Council Humanities Achievement Award, 1992, and has worked extensively on school and public history projects.

James H. Madison is Thomas and Kathryn Miller Professor of History at Indiana University. He is the author of A Lynching in the Heartland: Race and Memory in America (2001) and coauthor of The Americans: A Brief History, Fourth Edition (1985).