When Is Daddy Coming Home?: An American Family During World War II Contributor(s): Haney, Richard Carlton (Author) |
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ISBN: 0870203649 ISBN-13: 9780870203640 Publisher: Wisconsin Historical Society Press OUR PRICE: $17.06 Product Type: Hardcover Published: October 2004 Annotation: ""When Is Daddy Coming Home?"" is the moving story of one young American family during World War II. The war was coming to a close in Europe, and Richard Carlton Haney was only four years old when a telegram arrived at his family's home, informing them of his father's death. That moment was burned into the young boy's memory and it changed his and his mother's lives forever. Sixty years later Haney, now a professional historian, reconstructs his parents' lives during the war, drawing from their letters, his mother's recollections, and his own memories to create a unique blend of history and memoir. As the author recounts his father's experiences in the 17th Airborne Division, he also recalls the effects of wartime rationing, scrap drives, and censored mail on his family at home. Richard Haney is an expert on early-twentieth-century American history and on military history. Combining his personal memories and experiences with his knowledge of history, he has created a compelling, and often heart-rending, picture of life in wartime America. No one who reads this powerful story will come away unmoved. Distributed for the Wisconsin Historical Society Press |
Additional Information |
BISAC Categories: - Biography & Autobiography | Military - History | United States - 20th Century - History | Military - World War Ii |
Dewey: B |
LCCN: 2004008456 |
Physical Information: 0.63" H x 5.86" W x 8.74" (0.78 lbs) 160 pages |
Themes: - Chronological Period - 1940's |
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
Publisher Description: World War II was coming to a close in Europe and Richard Haney was only four years old when the telegram arrived at his family's home in Janesville, Wisconsin. That moment, when Haney learned of his father's death in the final months of fighting, changed his and his mother's lives forever. In this emotionally powerful book, Haney, now a professional historian, explores the impact of war on an American family. Unlike many of America's 183,000 World War II orphans, Richard Haney has vivid memories of his father. He skillfully weaves together those memories with his parents' wartime letters and his mother's recollections to create a unique blend of history and memoir. Through his father's letters he reveals the war's effect on a man who fought in the Battle of the Bulge with the 17th Airborne but wanted nothing more than to return home, a man who expressed the feelings of thousands when he wrote to his wife, "I've seen and been through a lot but want to forget it all as soon as I can." Haney illuminates life on the home front in small-town America as well, describing how profoundly the war changed such communities. At the same time, his memories of an idyllic family life make clear what soldiers like Clyde Haney felt they were defending. With "When Is Daddy Coming Home?", Richard Haney makes an exceptional contribution to the literature on the Greatest Generation - one that is both devastatingly personal and representative of what families all over America endured during that testing time. No one who reads this powerful story will come away unmoved. |