Common Cause: a History of the World War II Home Front Devin Mckinney Gettysburg College
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Gettysburg College Faculty Books 2018 Common Cause: A History of the World War II Home Front Devin McKinney Gettysburg College Michael J. Birkner Gettysburg College Follow this and additional works at: https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/books Part of the Archival Science Commons, Oral History Commons, and the United States History Commons Share feedback about the accessibility of this item. Devin McKinney and Michael J. Birkner, eds. Common Cause: An Oral History of the World War II Home Front. Gettysburg, PA: Musselman Library, 2018. This is the publisher's version of the work. This publication appears in Gettysburg College's institutional repository by permission of the copyright owner for personal use, not for redistribution. Cupola permanent link: https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/books/150 This open access book is brought to you by The uC pola: Scholarship at Gettysburg College. It has been accepted for inclusion by an authorized administrator of The uC pola. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Common Cause: A History of the World War II Home Front Description In excerpts drawn from Musselman Library's Oral History Archive, the World War II years are recalled by dozens of the men and women—adults, teenagers, children—who endured them on the home front. The home front experience was by turns exhilarating, fearsome, depressing, and banal. Some civilians had it relatively easy, while others had it hard. Righteous confidence was offset by looming uncertainty, patriotism was often buttressed by bigotry, and the joys of victory and reunion were shadowed by irreplaceable losses. In this volume, the speech of ordinary citizens in extraordinary times is augmented by abundant illustration, much of it in color—photographs, posters, artifacts, and other evocations of a past that still fascinates us. Through word and image, in tones of humor, warmth, anger, and sadness, Common Cause brings back the unique features of American life at that time, and the daily reality of being a nation at war. Keywords World War II, Oral History, Gettysburg College, Adams County History Disciplines Archival Science | Oral History | United States History Publisher Musselman Library This book is available at The uC pola: Scholarship at Gettysburg College: https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/books/150 An Oral History of the World War II Home Front War World the History of Oral An COMMON CAUSE COMMON CAUSE COMMON CAUSE An Oral History of the World War II Home Front An Oral History of the World War II Home Front War World the History of Oral An Edited by Devin McKinney and Michael J. Birkner | 142 | — COMMON CAUSE : AN ORAL HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR II HOME FRONT — GCML-001-18_ Common Cause.indd 142 12/5/18 2:15 PM GCML-001-18_ Common Cause.indd 1 12/5/18 2:14 PM An Oral History of the World War II Home Front War World the History of Oral An COMMON CAUSE GCML-001-18_ Common Cause.indd 2-3 12/5/18 2:14 PM COMMON CAUSE An Oral History of the World War II Home Front Edited by Devin McKinney and Michael J. Birkner Cover: A blue-star flag hung during the war by the Troxell family of Gettysburg. Musselman Library, Gettysburg College, 2018 End Pages: Wartime ration stamps belonging to Donald C. Haynes. GCML-001-18_ Common Cause.indd 4-5 12/5/18 2:14 PM COMMON CAUSE An Oral History of the World War II Home Front Edited by Devin McKinney and Michael J. Birkner Cover: A blue-star flag hung during the war by the Troxell family of Gettysburg. Musselman Library, Gettysburg College, 2018 End Pages: Wartime ration stamps belonging to Donald C. Haynes. GCML-001-18_ Common Cause.indd 4-5 12/5/18 2:14 PM ©2018 Musselman Library Gettysburg College Gettysburg, Pennsylvania All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written permission from the copyright holder. GCML-001-18_ Common Cause.indd 6-7 12/5/18 2:14 PM ©2018 Musselman Library Gettysburg College Gettysburg, Pennsylvania All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written permission from the copyright holder. GCML-001-18_ Common Cause.indd 6-7 12/5/18 2:14 PM CONTENTS Preface 1 Introduction 2 The Interviewees 6 Omens 15 Pearl Harbor 25 FDR 32 Joining up 36 Chipping in 43 Women’s roles 52 Patriotism and morale 60 Conservation and rationing 71 Life in wartime 85 On American soil 93 Women without men 104 The media 107 Losses 111 The death of FDR 120 Victory in Europe 122 Victory in Japan 127 The Virginia Starting over 131 Memorial, Last thoughts 135 c. 1940. Acknowledgments 137 — COMMON CAUSE : AN ORAL HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR II HOME FRONT — GCML-001-18_ Common Cause.indd 8-9 12/5/18 2:14 PM CONTENTS Preface 1 Introduction 2 The Interviewees 6 Omens 15 Pearl Harbor 25 FDR 32 Joining up 36 Chipping in 43 Women’s roles 52 Patriotism and morale 60 Conservation and rationing 71 Life in wartime 85 On American soil 93 Women without men 104 The media 107 Losses 111 The death of FDR 120 Victory in Europe 122 Victory in Japan 127 The Virginia Starting over 131 Memorial, Last thoughts 135 c. 1940. Acknowledgments 137 — COMMON CAUSE : AN ORAL HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR II HOME FRONT — GCML-001-18_ Common Cause.indd 8-9 12/5/18 2:14 PM Gettysburg in the 1940s, looking northwest from the Observation Tower on Cemetery Hill. – PREFACE – This book is drawn from the Musselman Library Oral History Archive at Gettysburg College, a collection of some 1,500 interviews conducted over nearly three decades. Hundreds of these are accessible through the library website, with many more held in the Rosenberger Reading Room of the College Archives. The collection continues to grow, with many new documents added each year. Most interviews have been done by Gettysburg College students under the aegis of Prof. Michael Birkner’s Historical Methods class. A perennial assignment has been to initiate, research, conduct, and transcribe an oral history with an individual – sometimes a family member, but usually a stranger. Interviews have focused on topics of regional, national, and global significance: the history of Gettysburg College; the history of the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg; the building of the Lincoln Highway; making a life in post-war America – and the World War II era, as recalled by both veterans and civilians on the home front. In selecting the excerpts for this book, we sought vividness, specificity, and the telling personal detail. In compiling them, we sought a comprehensive picture of the home front experience. In editing them, finally, we sought readability and flow – which is to say that most of the hesitations, repetitions, and sentence fragments preserved in the original transcripts have been excised. Nowhere does this have the effect of altering a speaker’s meaning. It is done only to allow the clear line of a recollection – that vivid, specific, telling detail – to emerge more sharply. Let us say that the underbrush has been cleared, so that we may better appreciate the tree. Care was also taken to preserve tones of humor, warmth, sadness, and anger. The war years at home were, as you’ll discover, by turns exhilarating, fearsome, depressing, and banal for those who endured them. Some civilians had it relatively easy, while others had it hard. Righteous confidence was offset by looming uncertainty, patriotism was often buttressed by bigotry, and the joys of victory and reunion were shadowed by irreplaceable losses. To suggest anything simpler would be to devalue the meaning of these experiences, of a war that changed history, and of history itself – history which, as Americans, we all share, if only as its inheritors. It’s that history, as well as those who lived it, that we’ve sought to honor here. Devin McKinney Special Collections and College Archives Musselman Library, Gettysburg College | 1 | GCML-001-18_ Common Cause.indd 10-1 12/5/18 2:14 PM Gettysburg in the 1940s, looking northwest from the Observation Tower on Cemetery Hill. – PREFACE – This book is drawn from the Musselman Library Oral History Archive at Gettysburg College, a collection of some 1,500 interviews conducted over nearly three decades. Hundreds of these are accessible through the library website, with many more held in the Rosenberger Reading Room of the College Archives. The collection continues to grow, with many new documents added each year. Most interviews have been done by Gettysburg College students under the aegis of Prof. Michael Birkner’s Historical Methods class. A perennial assignment has been to initiate, research, conduct, and transcribe an oral history with an individual – sometimes a family member, but usually a stranger. Interviews have focused on topics of regional, national, and global significance: the history of Gettysburg College; the history of the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg; the building of the Lincoln Highway; making a life in post-war America – and the World War II era, as recalled by both veterans and civilians on the home front. In selecting the excerpts for this book, we sought vividness, specificity, and the telling personal detail. In compiling them, we sought a comprehensive picture of the home front experience. In editing them, finally, we sought readability and flow – which is to say that most of the hesitations, repetitions, and sentence fragments preserved in the original transcripts have been excised. Nowhere does this have the effect of altering a speaker’s meaning. It is done only to allow the clear line of a recollection – that vivid, specific, telling detail – to emerge more sharply.