''"The Good War": An Oral History of World War II'' (1984) is an

oral history Oral history is the collection and study of historical information from people, families, important events, or everyday life using audiotapes, videotapes, or transcriptions of planned interviews. These interviews are conducted with people who pa ...

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

compiled by Studs Terkel. The work received the 1985

Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction The Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes that are awarded annually for the "Letters, Drama, and Music" category. The award is given to a nonfiction book written by an American author and published du ...

. ''"The Good War"'' consists of a series of interviews with various men and women from across the globe who directly experienced the events leading up to, including, and following the Second World War.

Chapters

The book's chapters and subchapters, with the names and topics of the subjects involved, are as follows:

Book One

*"Sunday Morning"—John Garcia, Ron Veenker, Dennis Keegan, Peter Ota, Mayor Tom Bradley, Yuriko Hohri, Frank Keegan *"A Chance Encounter"—Robert Rasmus, Richard M. (Red) Prendergast *"Tales of the Pacific" -- E. B. (Sledgehammer) Sledge, Maurice E. (Jack) Wilson, Robert Lekachman, Peter Bezich, Anton Bilek *"The Good ''Reuben James''"—Bill Bailey, David Milton *"Rosie"—Peggy Terry, Pauline Kael, Sarah Killingsworth, Evelyn Fraser, Dellie Hahne, Betty Basye Hutchinson *"Neighborhood Boys" -- Mike Royko, Mayor Tom Bradley, Paul Pisicano, Mickey Ruiz, Jack Short, Dempsey Travis, Don McFadden, Win Stracke, Johnny DeGrazio *"Reflections on Machismo"—John H. Abbott, Roger Tuttrup, Ted Allenby

Book Two

*"High Rank" -- Admiral Gene LaRocque, General William Buster *"The Bombers and The Bombed" -- John Ciardi, Akira Miuri,

John Kenneth Galbraith John Kenneth Galbraith (October 15, 1908 – April 29, 2006), also known as Ken Galbraith, was a Canadian-American economist, diplomat, public official, and intellectual. His books on economic topics were bestsellers from the 1950s through the ...

, Eddie Costello and Ursula Bender, Jean Wood *"Growing Up: Here and There"—John Baker, Sheril Cunning, Yasuko Kurachi Dower, Galatea Berger, Werner Burkhardt, Jean Bartlett, Oleg Tsakumov, Marcel Ophuls *"D-Day and All That"—Elliott Johnson, Joe Hanley, Charles A. Gates, Timuel Black, Rosemary Hanley, Dr. Alex Shulman, Frieda Wolf *"Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" --

Maxene Andrews The Andrews Sisters were an American close harmony singing group of the swing and boogie-woogie eras. The group consisted of three sisters: contralto LaVerne Sophia Andrews (1911–1967), soprano Maxene Anglyn Andrews (1916–1995), and mezzo ...

Book Three

*"Sudden Money"—Ray Wax, George C. Page, Lee Oremont, A Quiet Little Boom Town *"The Big Panjandrum"—Thomas G. (Tommy the Cork) Corcoran, James Rowe, Hamilton Fish,

, Virginia Durr, Joe Marcus, Joseph L. Rauh Jr., W. Averell Harriman, Earl B. Dickerson *"Flying High" -- Lowell Steward *"Up Front with Pen, Camera, and Mike" -- John Houseman, Herman Kogan, Henry Hatfield, Alfred Duckett, Milton Caniff,

Garson Kanin Garson Kanin (November 24, 1912 – March 13, 1999) was an American writer and director of plays and films. Early life Garson Kanin was born in Rochester, New York; his Jewish family later relocated to Detroit then to New York City. He at ...

, Bill Mauldin, Richard Leacock, Walter Rosenblum

Book Four

*"Crime and Punishment"—Alvin (Tommy) Bridges, Joseph Small, Hans Gobler and James Sanders, Charlie Miller, Jacques Raboud, Walter and Olga Nowak, Erich Luth, Vitaly Korotich, Joseph Levine *"A Turning Point"— Joseph Polowsky, Galina Alexeyeva, Mikhail Nikolaevich Alexeyev, Viktor Andreyevich Kondratenko, Grigori Baklanov *"Chilly Winds" -- Telford Taylor, Eileen Barth, Arno Mayer, Anthony Scariano, Erhard Dabringhaus, Irving Goff, Milton Wolff, Hans Massaquoi *"Is You Is or Is You Ain't My Baby?"—Philip Morrison, John H. Grove, Marnie Seymour, Bill Barney, Father George Zabelka, Hajimi Kito and Hideko Tamura (Tammy) Friedman, Victor Tolley, John Smitherman, Joseph Stasiak *"Remembrance of Things Past"—Nancy Arnot Harjan, Paul Edwards

Epilogue: Boom Babies and Other New People

*Nora Watson, Joachim Adler and Marlene Schmidt, Steve McConnell, Debbie Cooney, George Seymour, Street-Corner Kids

Critical reception

''The Good War'' met with positive reviews upon its publication in the fall of 1984. Loudon Wainwright, writing for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', stated in a review published on October 7, 1984, "Ten, 20, 30 years from now the best witnesses to World War II will be largely gone. But Presidents honoring them will surely have access to a copy of Studs Terkel's most recent exercise in memory harvesting, ''The Good War.'' It is hard to see how any reader now or then can fail to benefit from its 600 pages." Gaddis Smith, in a capsule review in the journal ''

Foreign Affairs ''Foreign Affairs'' is an American magazine of international relations and foreign policy of the United States, U.S. foreign policy published by the Council on Foreign Relations, a nonprofit organization, nonprofit, nonpartisan, membership or ...

'', claimed, "This book sustains Studs Terkel's reputation as the nation's foremost practitioner of the difficult (although seemingly simple) art of oral history."

Kirkus Reviews ''Kirkus Reviews'' is an American book review magazine founded in 1933 by Virginia Kirkus. The magazine's publisher, Kirkus Media, is headquartered in New York City. ''Kirkus Reviews'' confers the annual Kirkus Prize to authors of fiction, no ...

assessment of the book, dated October 11, 1984, included the following: "In World War II memories, Terkel has found a great, untold story--with fore-shadowings of Vietnam and aftershocks of atomic warfare." In 1985, ''The Good War: An Oral History of World War Two'' won the

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prizes () are 23 annual awards given by Columbia University in New York City for achievements in the United States in "journalism, arts and letters". They were established in 1917 by the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made his fo ...

for General Nonfiction.

Subsequent influence

Max Brooks has said that ''The Good War'' inspired him to write his novel '' World War Z''. Brooks stated: "It's an oral history of World War II I read when I was a teenager, and it's sat with me ever since. When I sat down to write ''World War Z'', I wanted it to be in the vein of an oral history."

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Good War, The Oral history books World War II memoirs History books about World War II Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction–winning works 1984 non-fiction books Pantheon Books books