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The Resource Our mothers' war : American women at home and at the front during World War II, Emily Yellin

Our mothers' war : American women at home and at the front during World War II, Emily Yellin

Creator
Summary
Our Mothers' War is a stunning and unprecedented portrait of women during World War II, a war that forever transformed the way women participate in American society. Never before has the vast range of American women's experience during this pivotal era been brought together in one book. Now, Our Mothers' War re-creates what American women from all walks of life were doing and thinking, on the home front and abroad. Like all great histories, Our Mothers' War began with an illuminating discovery. After finding a journal and letters her mother had written while serving with the Red Cross in the Pacific, journalist Emily Yellin started unearthing what her mother and other women of her mother's generation went through during a time when their country asked them to step into roles they had never been invited, or allowed, to fill before. Drawing on a wide range of sources, including personal interviews and previously unpublished letters and diaries, Yellin shows what went on in the hearts and minds of the real women behind the female images of World War II -- women working in war plants; mothers and wives sending their husbands and sons off to war and sometimes death; women joining the military for the first time in American history; nurses operating in battle zones in Europe, Africa, and the Pacific; and housewives coping with rationing. Yellin also delves into lesser-known stories, including: tales of female spies, pilots, movie stars, baseball players, politicians, prostitutes, journalists, and even fictional characters; firsthand accounts from the wives of the scientists who created the atomic bomb at Los Alamos, African-American women who faced Jim Crow segregation laws at home even as their men were fighting enemy bigotry and injustice abroad, and Japanese-American women locked up as prisoners in their own country. Yellin explains how Wonder Woman was created in 1941 to fight the Nazi menace and became the first female comic book superhero, as well as how Marilyn Monroe was discovered in 1944 while working with her mother-in-law packing parachutes at a war plant in Burbank, California. Our Mothers' War gives center stage to those who might be called "the other American soldiers." A tribute to the contributions of women during World War II examines how the war transformed traditional women's roles, drawing on letters, diaries, and interviews to describe the experiences of nurses, factory employees, the military's first women soldiers, female prisoners of war, and others
Language
eng
Work
Publication
Edition
1st Free Press trade pbk. ed.
Extent
1 online resource (xiv, 447 pages, [10] pages of plates
Contents
  • For Carol Lynn : unearthing our mothers' war years
  • To bring him home safely : wives, mothers, and sisters of servicemen
  • Soldiers without guns : female defense industry workers
  • Putting up a good front : female entertainers, fictional characters, and icons
  • This man's army : WACs
  • On duty at home : WAVES, SPARs, Marines, and WASPs
  • Save his life and fine your own : volunteers, Land Army, Red Cross girls, and nurses
  • Jane Crow : African-American women
  • Behind enemy lines : spies, propaganda workers, and those who worked for the enemy
  • A question of loyalty : Japanese-American women
  • Qualified successes : politicians, journalists, doctors, baseball players, and other professional women
  • The "wrong kind" of woman : prostitutes, unwed mothers, and lesbians
  • A war within the war : right-wing, anti-Semitic mothers' groups and Jewish-American women
  • Inside the secret city : wives and WACs in Los Alamos
  • Their legacy : our mother's war years resounding through our lives
Link
Instance
Label
Our mothers' war : American women at home and at the front during World War II
Title
Our mothers' war
Title remainder
American women at home and at the front during World War II
Statement of responsibility
Emily Yellin
Creator
Subject
Genre
Language
eng
Summary
Our Mothers' War is a stunning and unprecedented portrait of women during World War II, a war that forever transformed the way women participate in American society. Never before has the vast range of American women's experience during this pivotal era been brought together in one book. Now, Our Mothers' War re-creates what American women from all walks of life were doing and thinking, on the home front and abroad. Like all great histories, Our Mothers' War began with an illuminating discovery. After finding a journal and letters her mother had written while serving with the Red Cross in the Pacific, journalist Emily Yellin started unearthing what her mother and other women of her mother's generation went through during a time when their country asked them to step into roles they had never been invited, or allowed, to fill before. Drawing on a wide range of sources, including personal interviews and previously unpublished letters and diaries, Yellin shows what went on in the hearts and minds of the real women behind the female images of World War II -- women working in war plants; mothers and wives sending their husbands and sons off to war and sometimes death; women joining the military for the first time in American history; nurses operating in battle zones in Europe, Africa, and the Pacific; and housewives coping with rationing. Yellin also delves into lesser-known stories, including: tales of female spies, pilots, movie stars, baseball players, politicians, prostitutes, journalists, and even fictional characters; firsthand accounts from the wives of the scientists who created the atomic bomb at Los Alamos, African-American women who faced Jim Crow segregation laws at home even as their men were fighting enemy bigotry and injustice abroad, and Japanese-American women locked up as prisoners in their own country. Yellin explains how Wonder Woman was created in 1941 to fight the Nazi menace and became the first female comic book superhero, as well as how Marilyn Monroe was discovered in 1944 while working with her mother-in-law packing parachutes at a war plant in Burbank, California. Our Mothers' War gives center stage to those who might be called "the other American soldiers." A tribute to the contributions of women during World War II examines how the war transformed traditional women's roles, drawing on letters, diaries, and interviews to describe the experiences of nurses, factory employees, the military's first women soldiers, female prisoners of war, and others
Cataloging source
IOI
http://library.link/vocab/creatorDate
1961-
http://library.link/vocab/creatorName
Yellin, Emily
Dewey number
940.53082
Illustrations
  • illustrations
  • plates
Index
index present
LC call number
D810.W7
LC item number
Y45 2005
Literary form
non fiction
Nature of contents
  • dictionaries
  • bibliography
http://library.link/vocab/subjectName
  • World War, 1939-1945
  • World War, 1939-1945
  • Women
  • World War (1939-1945)
  • Military participation
  • Women
  • United States
Label
Our mothers' war : American women at home and at the front during World War II, Emily Yellin
Link
Instantiates
Publication
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references (pages 415-528) and index
Carrier category
volume
Carrier category code
nc
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier
Content category
text
Content type code
txt
Content type MARC source
rdacontent
Contents
For Carol Lynn : unearthing our mothers' war years -- To bring him home safely : wives, mothers, and sisters of servicemen -- Soldiers without guns : female defense industry workers -- Putting up a good front : female entertainers, fictional characters, and icons -- This man's army : WACs -- On duty at home : WAVES, SPARs, Marines, and WASPs -- Save his life and fine your own : volunteers, Land Army, Red Cross girls, and nurses -- Jane Crow : African-American women -- Behind enemy lines : spies, propaganda workers, and those who worked for the enemy -- A question of loyalty : Japanese-American women -- Qualified successes : politicians, journalists, doctors, baseball players, and other professional women -- The "wrong kind" of woman : prostitutes, unwed mothers, and lesbians -- A war within the war : right-wing, anti-Semitic mothers' groups and Jewish-American women -- Inside the secret city : wives and WACs in Los Alamos -- Their legacy : our mother's war years resounding through our lives
Edition
1st Free Press trade pbk. ed.
Extent
1 online resource (xiv, 447 pages, [10] pages of plates
Form of item
online
Media category
unmediated
Media MARC source
rdamedia
Media type code
n
Other physical details
illustrations)
Specific material designation
remote
System control number
(OCoLC)893679849
Label
Our mothers' war : American women at home and at the front during World War II, Emily Yellin
Link
Publication
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references (pages 415-528) and index
Carrier category
volume
Carrier category code
nc
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier
Content category
text
Content type code
txt
Content type MARC source
rdacontent
Contents
For Carol Lynn : unearthing our mothers' war years -- To bring him home safely : wives, mothers, and sisters of servicemen -- Soldiers without guns : female defense industry workers -- Putting up a good front : female entertainers, fictional characters, and icons -- This man's army : WACs -- On duty at home : WAVES, SPARs, Marines, and WASPs -- Save his life and fine your own : volunteers, Land Army, Red Cross girls, and nurses -- Jane Crow : African-American women -- Behind enemy lines : spies, propaganda workers, and those who worked for the enemy -- A question of loyalty : Japanese-American women -- Qualified successes : politicians, journalists, doctors, baseball players, and other professional women -- The "wrong kind" of woman : prostitutes, unwed mothers, and lesbians -- A war within the war : right-wing, anti-Semitic mothers' groups and Jewish-American women -- Inside the secret city : wives and WACs in Los Alamos -- Their legacy : our mother's war years resounding through our lives
Edition
1st Free Press trade pbk. ed.
Extent
1 online resource (xiv, 447 pages, [10] pages of plates
Form of item
online
Media category
unmediated
Media MARC source
rdamedia
Media type code
n
Other physical details
illustrations)
Specific material designation
remote
System control number
(OCoLC)893679849

Subject

Genre

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