A Democracy at War: America’s Fight at Home and Abroad in World War II - Softcover

A distinct and splendid historical style...O'Neill writes with wit and clarity...He offers new and colorful treatment of such topics as immigration policy, women and the war, films and other entertainments, minorities, and labor relations. His chapter on "everyday life" is a minor masterpiece in which he repeatedly captures a new trend in a pithy phrase. -- George Q. Flynn American Historical Review A grand and sensitive synthesis of what the war meant to an entire generation and of how unity, valor, and victory came only after a period of profound unpreparedness, confusion, and reluctance. O'Neill writes with vivid clarity. -- Douglas Brinkley Houston Chronicle An excellent book...perceptive and sensitive...bears resemblance to Tolstoy's great novel War and Peace, not as literature but as a humane perspective that juxtaposes the average soldier who fights on bravely and stoically to generals and political leaders who make a mess of things. -- John Patrick Diggins New Leader O'Neill has written, with passion and vivid clarity, a wide ranging social, cultural, political, military and diplomatic history which examines "how and why America won the war" despite its late entry, cumbersome political system and debilitating prejudices...The result of this ambitious project is a grand synthesis which draws on many of the scholarly texts, biographies and memoirs generated by this momentous period, as well as contemporary media accounts and published correspondence...Written with warmth and humour, indignation and outrage, and with a profound affection for America's democratic culture, O'Neill has produced an informative synthesis which raises important questions about American democracy and the relationship in it between popular opinion, electoral ambitions and policymaking. -- Dianne Kirby Borderlines: Studies in American Culture A grand and sensitive synthesis of what the war meant to an entire generation and of how unity, valor, and victory came only after a period of profound unpreparedness, confusion, and reluctance. O'Neill writes with vivid clarity. -- Douglas Brinkley Houston Chronicle

As America fought to defend democratic ideals in Europe and Asia during World War II, our own democratic politics at home paradoxically created a far less than efficient war effort on both civilian and military fronts. While America's glorious triumphs in World War II are well known, the story of our country's failure to swiftly and effectively mobilize and energize our war machine is yet to be fully told. Now, in a broad-ranged domestic, military, and diplomatic history, William O'Neill tells the story of America's strengths and its weaknesses in fighting the Good War. The United States won its victory in World War II not, as legend has it, because of superior numbers and material predominance. Reluctant even to enter the war, the American government proceeded by costly half-measures even after committing to fight. Official reticence and bureaucratic bungling led to inferior and defective weapons, too few infantrymen, the squandering of GI's lives in strategically useless attacks, and other tragic mistakes. The Sherman tank was a deathtrap and the torpedoes of American submarines routinely malfunctioned. Afraid to alarm voters, Congress failed to act on many issues, such as the decision to increase military spending before the war, which could have brought the conflict to a faster end, with less bloodshed. O'Neill traces much of the official bungling to domestic politics and paradoxically to the democratic process itself, which limited Roosevelt's flexibility in wartime. Yet, despite these obstacles, the blood and valor of the men who fought and the strength and struggles of those who remained at home made up for an overly cautious and ambivalent democratic leadership. William O'Neillbrings this war generation to life to tell the story of the country which had long seemed willing to ignore the world but ultimately roused itself to defend it.