Our Mothers' War: American Women at Home and at the Front During World War II

by Emily Yellin

Book Overview

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... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0743245148
• ISBN13: 9780743245142
• Release Date: May 2004
• Publisher: Free Press
• Length: 464 Pages
• Weight: 1.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 6.3" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

I so enjoyed reading every page of this marvelous book that I bought another copy to give to a dear

Kindly read My Review in the Headline.

Fast, Entertaining Read

This book was a response to the popular Our Father's War, and I think it does a good job capturing the woman's perspective during the war. It is filled with popular history sources and first hand accounts which really gives the reader a clear understanding and a vivid picture of what a woman's life was like during the war. The book isn't too heavy on traditional historical evidence or prose but that is one of the reasons why it reads so fast. It's a great book to set the tone and instill ideas to be further researched by those interested in more detail. Overall, I highly recommend the book to anyone. It was very entertaining.

Great personal in-depth look

This isn't meant to be some exhaustive encyclopedia, but it's nevertheless a very solid thorough detailed account of what the women of the WWII generation went through, in many facets and fields. Besides just writing about the women in the military, in the factories, on the general homefront, and in the Japanese-American internment camps, there is also interesting insightful information on areas little covered, such as the women who worked at or who had husbands working at Los Alamos, prostitutes, women in right-wing pro-Fascist groups agitating against the American government, and spies. It's stunning to read about all the women of my grandmothers' generation had to struggle against to be accepted into the military, in factories, as professionals, in any capacity in fact besides that of wife, mother, sister, and girlfriend. Particularly horrifying was the section on the Victory Girls; the sexual double standard sent women (many of them proven innocent) suspected of passing VD to soldiers to jail, while giving these soldiers no punishment for cavorting with prostitutes and giving them the best care instead of forcing them to languish in dank unhygienic jail cells without medical attention. Blame the women and treat the men as innocent victims. Also shocking in modern times is how women believed to be lesbians in the military were treated, like they had a mental disorder and were deranged unnatural deviants, as well as how many women who had loyally punctually worked in the factories were handed their discharge slips on the day the boys came home. Still, even restrained by the double standard and beliefs of the era, these women had tasted freedom and greater possibilities, and thanks to everything they did, their knowledge of greater possibilities, they raised daughters who would help to bring about the womens' liberation movement in the next generation, knowing they could never go back to the limited world and possibilities that had existed prior to WWII.

Astonishing

This is a unique compilation of astonishing research and personal history that takes the crust off our mothers' wartime persona. Even the high profile women of WWII ? Dietrich, Lombard,Davis, et al ? are illuminated in thoroughly surprising ways. I read slowly and savored each page, and by the end I knew my mother and grandmothers and the human spirit, better. Kudos to Emily Yellin.

They deserve more credit than they have gotten.

A great read!This book is full of surprising, well-told stories of heroic, courageous, and fascinating women. Not just another history of the "supporting roles" of women during the war. This book goes far beyond the stock portrayals of WWII women to take you into their private thoughts and fears. There are pilots, war photographers, disc jockeys, spies, soldiers, members of congress -- so many women who stepped up and took part in the war, often in spite of great opposition. (And it doesn't shy away from telling about a few women who were not so noble during the war either.)I had never seen the women of WWII placed in this light -- as equal partners in fighting and winning. This book will make you want to know more about your own mother, your aunts, and your grandmothers. (Hopefully you still have a chance to discuss this book with them!) It should be read by every son, daughter, grandson and granddaughter of the Greatest Generation.