Barbara C. Bigelow - World War II, Primary Sources (1999).jpg

Presents fifteen excerpts from primary sources related to World War II, including speeches, diary entries, newspaper accounts, novels, poems, and memoirs.
Between 1939 and 1945 a war was fought among all the major powers of the world. It was a war that affected a vast percentage of the world’s population. More people died during World War II than had died in any previous war. From the soldiers on the front lines to the citizens on the home front, World War II: Primary Sources tells the story of the war in the words of the people who lived it.
While all aspects of a war of this scale could not be covered completely in one volume, every effort has been made to offer a variety of World War II experiences. Sixteen full or excerpted documents include speeches from world leaders, such as Winston Churchill’s “Blood, Toil, Tears, and Sweat” speech and Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “Day of Infamy” speech. The soldiers’ view of the war is presented in excerpts from such works as Stephen Ambrose’s Citizen Soldiers and Ernie Pyle’s dispatches from the front lines of the war, while such pieces as Since You Went Away: World War II Letters from American Women on the Home Front and The Hiroshima Maidens: A Story of Courage, Compassion, and Survival relate civilians’ war experiences.
Primary Sources allows your students to study 35 full or excerpted speeches, diary entries, newspaper accounts, novels, poems, memoirs and other materials related to the war. Excerpts are grouped together in broad subject categories so students can compare and contrast various viewpoints. Special features include: "Things to Remember While Reading, " "What Happened Next, " "Report Topics, " "Did You Know, " definitions of terms approximately 60 photographs and much, much more.