The Good War: An Oral History of World War Two

In World War II memories, Terkel has found a great, untold story -- with fore-shadowings of Vietnam and aftershocks of atomic warfare. There are several things to be said about Terkel, and his material. He has sought out people with real, unpredictable, history-brushing (sometimes ...In World War II memories, Terkel has found a great, untold story -- with fore-shadowings of Vietnam and aftershocks of atomic warfare.

There are several things to be said about Terkel, and his material. He has sought out people with real, unpredictable, history-brushing (sometimes history-revising) stories--but also persons whose experiences could be called typical, who become archetypal (like the Chicago business executive, "the skinny nineteen-year-old kid who's gonna prove that he can measure up"). What is inescapable, though, is the recognition of war as brutal and brutalizing; the reservations about "the Good War" utterable only in Vietnam-and-after retrospect.

Ten, 20, 30 years from now the witnesses to World War II will be largely gone. Mr. Terkel has captured an especially broad and impressive chorus of voices, the words of the men and women who lived it.

Infantrymen, admirals, nurses, defense workers, bureaucrats, entertainers, conscientious objectors - all these and more are represented among the 120 people Mr. Terkel interviewed for this volume.