Reviews - When Books Went to War: The Stories That Helped Us Win World War II

356 reviews for:

When Books Went to War: The Stories That Helped Us Win World War II

I teared up reading the introduction, other parts gave me chills. I had no idea such an effort was made to bring books to our soldiers and sailors. Reading is so powerful and this was an beautiful tribute to the emotional power books can have on us in times of conflict and uncertainty.

ameebs's review against another edition

5.0

emotional informative reflective slow-paced

librarydancer's review against another edition

1.0

This has an interesting premise -- how books helped soliders in WWII.

However, the basic history describing the events leading up to WWII were so simplistic and almost apologetic (concerning the surrender of France to Germany) that I couldn't force myself to continue. I skimmed a few more chapters, but just couldn't finish.

There seem to be some interesting and inspiring stories from the soliders. The author just really didn't have enough to make it a complete book without adding a lot of dense language and unnecessary background, and clearly doesn't give the reader enough credit with knowing some history of WWII before picking up this book.

redheadorganist's review against another edition

4.5

informative medium-paced

Content Warnings

brocodywatson's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous inspiring reflective fast-paced

jmr_books's review against another edition

4.0

This book taught me about an aspect of the war about which I knew nothing previously. I enjoyed the background on how the program started, and reading testimonials about the impact the books had on some of the men.

monicaloves2read's review against another edition

4.25

informative relaxing fast-paced

I had no idea that the US Government sent paperbacks to our military men during WWII. It started when the Nazis started burning books that were written by Jews or anyone else they found inferior to them. Millions of books were sent to the troops. They started out just sending a few, but soon they were reaching the million mark. The troops would pass the books around their units. Sometimes they would even trade cigarettes to be moved up the waiting list, if it was a popular book.
Our Allies military men were jealous and wondered why their governments didn't send them books. I think anyone interested in books or military history would enjoy this book.

😊 Happy Reading 😊

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