num_pages: 315
description: In the summer of 1945 a great tide of battered soldiers began flowing back to the United States from around the globe. Though victorious these exhausted men were nevertheless too grief-stricken over the loss of comrades too guilt-ridden that they had survived and too numbed by trauma to share in the countrys euphoria. Most never saw a ticker-tape parade or stole a Times Square kiss. All they wanted was to settle back into quiet workaday lives without fear. How tragic that the forces unleashed by World War II made this simple wish impossible.Willie &amp; Joe: Back Home brilliantly chronicles the struggles and disillusionments of these early postwar years and in doing so tells Bill Mauldins own extraordinary story of his journey home to a wife he barely knew and a son he had only seen in pictures. The drawings capture the texture and feel the warp and woof of this confusing time: the ubiquitous hats and cigarettes the domestic rubs the rising fear of another war and new conflicts over Civil Rights civil liberties and free speech. This volume of Mauldins work identifies and restores the dozens of cartoons censored by Mauldins syndicate for their attacks on racial segregation and McCarthy-style witch hunts. Mauldin pleaded with his syndicate to let him out of his contract so that he could return to the simple quiet life so desired by Willie &amp; Joe. The syndicate refused so Mauldin did battle as always through pen and ink.(less)
language: English
title: Back Home
publisher: William Sloane Associates