Visions of war

"World War II was, at least for Americans, a "good war." It was a war that was, seemingly, worth fighting. Even as the war was underway, a myriad of both fictional and non-fictional books began to appear examining one or another of the many parts of the conflict; the overwhelming flood has never stopped. Visions of War examines some of the best literature and popular culture that has, through the years, dealt with the war and the men and women whose lives were affected by it. Though there were a number of essays included here that look closely at the physical side of war as it was fought by men on both sides of the lines, this volume is in no way a work that looks exclusively at male-dominated scenes of battle. Many of the separate studies deal with women; several are about children; all concern themselves with the ways that the war changed persons' lives, whether on the war front or at home." "A number of the eighteen essays included in this volume focus on themes dealing with the United States, but there are works about Great Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Poland, Russia, and the Japanese as well. Though unique and capable of standing alone, the essays are also clearly connected. Each, in its own way, seeks to challenge its readers to rethink his or her often long-held views about World War II and to see that era in a new light. "War," as the Union Army's William Tecumsah Sherman said, more than a hundred years ago, "is all hell." Visions of War seeks to examine the many ways that such hell forever changed the persons who lived through its days of triumph and sorrow."--Jacket.