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A review by book_concierge
When Books Went to War: The Stories that Helped Us Win World War II by Molly Guptill Manning
4.0
While Nazis were burning books in Europe, Americans were trying to get more books distributed to the men fighting in the war. Their first efforts were a massive book drive, collecting about 10 million books to send to various training camps and overseas bases to support military libraries. But the hardcover books that were donated were too heavy for soldiers to carry into combat. So an unprecedented collaboration was born, including publishers, librarians and the military, and the Armed Service Edition (ASE) was launched.
The ASEs were printed on thinner paper with smaller type, and small enough to fit in a pocket. Soldiers and sailors were eager for this reading material and many wrote letters of thanks to authors, publishers and the council who ran the program.
Manning does a wonderful job of including the history of the times and the challenges faced by the Council, including efforts to censor the books that would be included. I was completely fascinated and engaged from beginning to end. This was an episode of our history about which I had never heard. How I wish I had read this book when my father was still alive, so I could ask him about it; he spent 33 months in the Pacific, making landings from New Guinea to the Philippines and eventually helping with the clean-up in Hiroshima. He hardly ever talked about his experiences, and I know so little about what he went through.
The ASEs were printed on thinner paper with smaller type, and small enough to fit in a pocket. Soldiers and sailors were eager for this reading material and many wrote letters of thanks to authors, publishers and the council who ran the program.
Manning does a wonderful job of including the history of the times and the challenges faced by the Council, including efforts to censor the books that would be included. I was completely fascinated and engaged from beginning to end. This was an episode of our history about which I had never heard. How I wish I had read this book when my father was still alive, so I could ask him about it; he spent 33 months in the Pacific, making landings from New Guinea to the Philippines and eventually helping with the clean-up in Hiroshima. He hardly ever talked about his experiences, and I know so little about what he went through.