The War in American Culture

Society and Consciousness during World War II

Edited by Lewis A. Erenberg and Susan E. Hirsch

The War in American Culture (High Resolution)

Edited by Lewis A. Erenberg and Susan E. Hirsch

Paper $32.00 ISBN: 9780226215129 Published May 1996

E-book $10.00 to $31.99 About E-books ISBN: 9780226215105 Published December 2014

The War in American Culture explores the role of World War II in the transformation of American social, cultural, and political life.

World War II posed a crisis for American culture: to defeat the enemy, Americans had to unite across the class, racial and ethnic boundaries that had long divided them. Exploring government censorship of war photography, the revision of immigration laws, Hollywood moviemaking, swing music, and popular magazines, these essays reveal the creation of a new national identity that was pluralistic, but also controlled and sanitized. Concentrating on the home front and the impact of the war on the lives of ordinary Americans, the contributors give us a rich portrayal of family life, sexuality, cultural images, and working-class life in addition to detailed consideration of African Americans, Latinos, and women who lived through the unsettling and rapidly altered circumstances of wartime America.