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hjparks 's review for:
When Books Went to War: The Stories that Helped Us Win World War II
by Molly Guptill Manning
I'm gonna give this a 3.5. I am not at the point yet where I love nonfiction as much as I love fiction, so it's difficult to rate them in the same manner. Overall, a very interesting account of the effort to wage a war of ideas. Initially a direct attack against banned and burned books in Nazi Europe, these massive projects soon collected, published and distributed millions of books to the soldiers of WWII (among others). I only have a couple complaints. One is that that some parts seemed to drag, but that could just be my fight with nonfiction... Another complaint: very often the diction seemed flowery and dramatic. Almost too righteous and monumental. In some ways, this seems to correspond well to the diction used during the days this book refers to, but I hesitate to love and admire something that toots its own horn in this way. Reading through this book of course reminded me of all the WWII movies and shows I've seen, and maybe I just never noticed it before now, but I don't feel like this story of books at war has ever been accurately expressed in the entertainment that I've seen. Last thing - I did like how well the author kept the reader engaged and informed about the history as she went through the events surrounded the Armed Forces Editions. It helped to be reminded of the what and why of WWII as she talked about one of the ways America explored the how to solve it.