The Good War: An Oral History of World War II

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Summary: A special book, an important message
Review: "The Good War" has had a profound on my perspective of history. I have always been a fascinated student of World War II, but Terkel's masterpiece led me to completely re-evaluate how I viewed the Second World War.

The book is somewhat deceiving because while it seems light, it is the exact opposite. Many of the accounts given by the men and women affected by the war are extremely powerful, and it is difficult to read through many of them in a row without having to stop and ponder their implications.

There is no doubt Terkel wrote this book to push his support of pacifism. While he probably edited the accounts to make his message more pointed, it does not really matter. Yes, World War II was "good" in that it was necessary to stop the Nazi war machine. But it was not "good" because no war can be good. World War II is often portrayed as this great event, but Terkel reveals the War for what it really was: vital for the future of the world, but devastating to millions whose lives were transformed by it.

"The Good War" is a lot of like "Flags of Our Fathers" by James Bradley. It is shows the amazing heroism displayed by people during the War, but at the same time vividly illustrates the horrors sometimes forgotten when people think about World War II. Make no mistake: I agree that the heroism of our vets during the war is unparalleled in history. I just think the book gives an important perspective that should not be ignored.

If you want to gain a new perspective of what many call the "good war" I highly recommend Studs Terkels' powerful book.

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Summary: people in the past
Review: Have you ever sat down and wonder about the people who have died in the battles that the planet earth has faced? The battles that America has been through to be a free and the powerful nation that it is today. The book " The Good War" by Studs Terkel, is a book that talks about World War Ð, the battles, the events, the life, it was in the war. Hearing the stories of soldiers and news reporters in the front lines. This book has different kinds of stories, stories of soldiers arriving in the battle scene to stories of the day of victory.

I bet you have seen videos of battles, wars, or how about historical videos. If you have, you have an idea what this book is about. I like this book but at the same time I kind of dislike it. I like it because of the straight details that the stories have, giving you details to have an exact picture in your mind. Lowell Steward is one of his stories that I really like, maybe because he is a pilot that I am interest to do in my future life. He is one out of 405 black pilot that help too win the skies during the war. His story is interesting, earning respect during his mission of flight. In the beginning, they're were only white pilots so as you can see Lowell didn't have respect. He and some of his black pilots were called "lonely eagles" because on their mission with white pilots they flew alone having no respect with the white pilots. Well as the time move on, he and his group got their respect and were joined by the white pilots to fly every mission. Being an unstoppable group. Lowell destroyed and damages 409 enemy aircraft. Stories like this make me be awake and keep on reading. I like how he describes the skies at night, flying through the clouds, can really see nothing, then in a mile away In front of him, fireworks start lighting up in the sky, a tremendous show but all the same color, but once you fly it, it is not fire works it is life. A little rephrases that he was trying to say so that u can understand his views.

Maybe you have relatives that tell stories about the war but have you herd a story from a news reporter in the front lines. Many reporters where in the front lines and many stories but putting it all together becomes a breath taking picture in your mind. Being in the line at night lying down on the floor, looking up then seeing flashes of light flying by, not knowing who is who. It will stop for a little while but as soon as the American troop order to light up the sky, the flashes happen again. You can say that these reporters were stupid, dumb, ignorant, but that is their job to let the people know what is happening in the war, without them we would not know if America would be winning or losing.

What about the wife's? Well they were back home doing the mens work, earning money to support their children. Their life is in this book. Also describing the their emotion every time, the mail man came. Knowing to see if it is for them or not. As the ladies staying home, they did all what they can do to move on with their life.

You have heard the exciting, fearsome little parts of some stories. But what I dislike but at the same time I understand why, is the sad part of the book. It's there to add some emotions, and feeling to the soldiers who have died to remember them of their service to the United State. Also there are stories of sadness, but not as a lot. There is a story in the book about the remembering the past, giving their views on what they saw in the battle fields, like brining back memories that don't want to talk about.

Back to the wife's at home becomes a sad scene too. Mail man brining the letter to a mother of two children, receiving and knowing what it is, this is a tragic crying sad moment. The children probably one and not getting to know their father. Well this is how it was in America. Every day in everybody life there is sadness, happiness, joy, anger, fear. Now take this image and put it in a heavier emotion and u will feel the same as the wife's.

Some people don't realize on the events that Planet earth has had. Some hear it but don't care. Now what would. They do if this would happen, would they care or just don't care. Yea they would care because they would be going to the war.

This book change a little bit of my view on soldiers, like memorial day has past, and people left their homes to pay respect on those soldiers, this is why America is number one. I don't have a relative that I know off that was in the war but I do have friends that have a relative that died in the war, and now I know how they feel when that day comes. To my knowledge that I have learned in my life, this book is an emotional, change points of view. Knowing the past can help and change something in the future, but what I do know is that America winning the war made the U.S. the powerful nation that it is today because of the soldiers that made it to be like this, because of their service their family friends are free.

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Summary: Amazing
Review: Studs Terkel is one of the most interesting journalists I have ever read. I picked up this book for my college US History class and I read far more entries than the ones assigned to us. Getting a clear picture of World War II is very difficult, especially given the nature of primary sources (like film reels advocating women to go to work, or whatever) which assert that the War was indisputably the "Good War." Through Terkel's book I have learned that WWII was much more complicated than a simple event of unity across the country. Making it work required a number of battles, and not every American citizen benefited from the events of the war. Terkel's striking vignettes provide a myriad fascinating perspectives from people affected by WWII in so many ways, and within each interview he finds a nugget of evidence that enhances (or sometimes redefines) history.

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Summary: World War II History From the Living Voices
Review: Studs Terkel's "The Good War" presented World War II as told by those who lived it. It appears that Terkel rounded up all the living legends that helped popularize the war effort, and have become somewhat iconiclastic heroes to American society. You've got the "gung ho" E.B. (Slegdehammer)Sledge who led the men of company K through the jungles of the Pacific, and of course, the Rosie the riveters who epitomized the working woman with their dungerees and working man boots. And ironically, Terkel also included the voices of dissent who had no sense of humanity and sided with the "other" side, that is, fascism, as a result of fear. The personal account by Erich Luth presents how war and the effects of war can have a major impact on an individual. Things can change in the process, and unfortunately, it was only through devastation that a person realized how wrong they had been to support a tyrranical form of government and leader, which existed with the Hitler regime. As Luth states: "You see, I belong to nation which has always been rich in military heroes, but is underdeveloped in civil courage...The young are beginning to understand" (433).

If history teaches anything, it teaches us to understand how people experienced hardships and also successes. These individuals survived and they had the courage to tell their stories. From scientists to the boy or girl next door, these people are Americans who participated in a society that combated the enemy from the Pacific and the Atlantic.

Terkel presented a variety of voices in "The Good War", and many great anecdotes and memoirs as told by these voices. It also asks the question if World War II had been romanticized as the "good war" or was it something more? All I can say is that this book is definitely worth reading in spite of the fact that much of the stories and eye-witness accounts bear much significance to yesterday, today, and tomorrow. This is a book about humanity and learning from what has been learned before.

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Summary: An oral history of the "so called" good war?
Review: Studs Terkel's Pulitzer Prize winning book "The Good War" is an amazing and startling history of the World War II. It gathers hundreds of interviews from all walks of life talking about their experiences in "the good war." It was a required reading for History 417 "United States History in Crisis 1917-1945" at Indiana State University. The book painted a genuine picture of the Second World War and put in plain words from individual experiences. The experiences of panic in Americans in the West Coast, radios announcing false reports of Japanese air attacks, and random shooting in the sky. The young American boys were turning in to savages in the Pacific campaign against a foe that had a code of honor. "Rosie" women working in the plants to help the war effect, never thought that the bombshells they were making was killing people. The book is an excellent choice, if you want to know what people thought about the war in the 1980s. My suggestions are to read the stories about John Garcia (a 16-year old Hawaiian living on Pearl harbor and joined the Army), Peggy Terry, Ray Wax and so many others stories.

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Summary: "There's no such thing as a good war or a bad peace"
Review: The above quotation was on the quote page of Studs Terkel's 1984 book "The Good War." "The Good War" is an oral history of World War II. That's something Mr. Terkel excels at. His other oral histories include Hard Times and
Working. This is a must for anyone's World War II bookshelf.
Don't give it away no matter what. Keep it under lock and key
because it's so precious. If you read only one book on World
War II, make it this one. Unlike Band of Brothers, which is about a company in a regiment of the 101st Airborne Division, this book wasn't made into an HBO miniseries. Buy it now. There are fewer World War II veterans now than there were twenty years ago. Once they're all dead, it's a lost
resource.

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Summary: Interesting Volume of personal experiences
Review: This is an interesting volume of many, many people's personal experiences during the war. The narrative is not exactly gripping, but with patience it can be rewarding. If you're interested in little tid bits of people's memories and brief summaries of their life during the war, this book might be helpful. Though, this book did not meet my expectations based on the glowing reviews given here. I thought it would be more interesting and more in-depth. Many parts are quite boring.

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Summary: Revealing
Review: This oral history about World War II captured the 1985 Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction. Author Studs Terkel interviews several dozen U.S. veterans, many of whom were still mourning lost comrades decades later. Among the memorable interviews, we hear from a veteran that married his dead comrade's widow, a future realtor wounded in a racist massacre at a U.S. army base, and STARS AND STRIPES cartoonist Bill Mauldin. Terkel also speaks with a dying Chicago taxi driver who later was buried as requested along the Elbe River in Germany where his unit first linked up with the Russians in 1945. Several interviewees saw no combat, including civilians that describe life on the home front. I'd heard war tales from my father (Air Corps) and uncle (Army), and most of the stories in this book ring true. Many interviewees seem to agree with the author that this "Good" war was a nauseating but necessary struggle against Hitler and fascism. As with Terkel's other books, the interviewees are largely from Chicago, and, on balance, they tend to reinforce his liberal views.

Some say Terkel isn't an author, but merely a good listener with a handy tape recorder. Either way, he's given us very good oral narratives like this one, HARD TIMES, WORKING, etc.

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Summary: Touching and Personal Views of WW II - Can't Put it Down
Review: To present multiple views of World War 2, Terkel has recorded the words of gung ho enlisted men, army nurses, mothers of soldiers, USO volunteers, officers, war scientists, conscientious objectors, the wounded and embittered, the children of those who served, survivors of Nazi cruelty, Germans, Japanese, and Americans of all races.

It is an amazingly emotionally moving oral history. Because the reader is confronted with the words of real people, the book becomes a very personal experience. Some of the combat tales are as horrific as any from the war in Viet Nam. Likewise, the bureaucratic nonsense, the prejudice, the loss of life, the cruelty, the simple acts of heroism and sacrifice. Enormously poignant at times; often humorous, sometimes devastatingly sad, always gripping.

I am not much of a history buff, and perhaps this is the best level of historical writing for me, so I would recommend this to anyone who has even the slightest interest in what Americans were doing during that war.

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Summary: The most eye-opening insights to any war ever published
Review: When I realized this book won the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-fiction in 1985 I decided to read it, since I am sort of trying to read all the Pulitzer prize winners. I had been somewhat put off by the idea of an oral history. But the minute I started on the book I found it very readable and the accounts absorbing. True, some of the interviewees said things that were disagreeable or dumb, but all were interesting to read. I find I like hearing about what experience one had in the war, and this book has such accounts of over 100 people, some quite famous, and others unknown. Some of the persons exhibited a bitter or cynical attitude, which might have been different if the interviews had been taken after the Cold War ended, but I suppose if they had been taken after Sept 11 a new note of pessimism would have been apparent. Reading this book raised to 20 the number of General Non-Fiction Pulitzer prize winners I have read, but there are 23 I have not read. I am glad this book won a Pulitzer prize, else I never would have read it.