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librarianonparade's review
4.0
In the months prior to D-Day in the summer of 1944, the American 'invasion' of Britain reached its height, with some 1.65 million GIs stationed in the country awaiting the 'big push'. The story of the GIs in Britain has long been the subject of much myth - the old chestnut 'overpaid, over-sexed and over here' still has a great deal of currency even today.
David Reynolds set out to explore the neglected history behind that cliché, reminding the reader in the process of the important fact that this US army was a citizen army, that the soldier was also the civilian. Too often, he argues, social historians have left the war years to the military historians, who lump all the soldiers together in one gray-clad mass, handing them back to the social historians at the close of the war. This conveniently skates over the fact that the experiences of men who never intended to be soldiers, drafted into the armed forces and stationed in a country at once strange and familiar can allow a real insight into Anglo-American relations in this period.
Reynolds covers these years in admirable detail, ranging from initial problems of finding enough accommodation and barrack space for the GIs in an already crowded country, through to the various schemes and events organised to try and accommodate the GIs to the British population and vice versa. He explores issues such as venereal disease rates, wartime pregnancies and marriages, conflicts with British Tommies and local populations, the US imposition of segregation on a country unfamiliar with non-white faces, let alone the concept of segregation, how the troops were occupied on leave and entertained on base, all the way from the lowest ranking private to the efforts of Eisenhower, Roosevelt and Churchill to ensure a certain amount of harmony between the two countries' political and military hierarchies.
This is an excellent book, truly doing justice to the men and women of this period, all of whom, as Reynolds points out, defy any real attempts to portray the 'typical experience' of an American GI, a British Tommy, or a local community. And on a personal note, how refreshing to read a book that pays as much attention to women as men, the experience of GI girlfriends given as much attention as those of the GIs themselves.
David Reynolds set out to explore the neglected history behind that cliché, reminding the reader in the process of the important fact that this US army was a citizen army, that the soldier was also the civilian. Too often, he argues, social historians have left the war years to the military historians, who lump all the soldiers together in one gray-clad mass, handing them back to the social historians at the close of the war. This conveniently skates over the fact that the experiences of men who never intended to be soldiers, drafted into the armed forces and stationed in a country at once strange and familiar can allow a real insight into Anglo-American relations in this period.
Reynolds covers these years in admirable detail, ranging from initial problems of finding enough accommodation and barrack space for the GIs in an already crowded country, through to the various schemes and events organised to try and accommodate the GIs to the British population and vice versa. He explores issues such as venereal disease rates, wartime pregnancies and marriages, conflicts with British Tommies and local populations, the US imposition of segregation on a country unfamiliar with non-white faces, let alone the concept of segregation, how the troops were occupied on leave and entertained on base, all the way from the lowest ranking private to the efforts of Eisenhower, Roosevelt and Churchill to ensure a certain amount of harmony between the two countries' political and military hierarchies.
This is an excellent book, truly doing justice to the men and women of this period, all of whom, as Reynolds points out, defy any real attempts to portray the 'typical experience' of an American GI, a British Tommy, or a local community. And on a personal note, how refreshing to read a book that pays as much attention to women as men, the experience of GI girlfriends given as much attention as those of the GIs themselves.
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