World War II: A History in Documents (Pages from History)
Grade 8 Up—Avid readers about the period will find this title intriguing. Arranged in eight chapters of broad topics, the text is a collection of excerpts from primary sources. A different font distinguishes the introductory narratives from the original documents. One of the most interesting is the first page of the first draft of FDR's "Day of Infamy" speech. The photo shows the typed speech with hand-written revisions. A variety of sources has been used to convey the thoughts of people of many nationalities and walks of life. There are quotes from official documents and laws, personal letters, books, and music lyrics. Black-and-white period photos, most of which are commonly seen in books on this topic, appear throughout. Captions are very good. Wide sidebars contain examples of political cartoons and propaganda posters, additional quotes from speeches and oral histories, and a glossary, when needed. One chapter focuses entirely on war posters. The final section, "War Memories," includes atrocities and apologies, museums and memorials, and the controversy over exhibiting theEnola Gayat the Smithsonian. An extensive further-reading list is subdivided by continent/country and topic, and the list of Web sites contains 16 impressive entries. This unique volume is possibly a little more balanced than most other books in the genre in that it contains primary sources from China, Japan, Germany, and Russia, in addition to the U.S. It belongs in most secondary collections.—Eldon Younce, formerly at Harper Elementary School, KSCopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.