Jewish-American War Novels- Leah Garrett

The central role of Jews in fictionalizing War World II for a postwar readership has gone unnoticed in literary and historical studies. Either the Jewishness of the writers is uncommented on, or the Jewishness of the text is negated. As this talk will show, this factor is actually central: Jewish authors wrote about the war in very unique ways, and, since their novels were bestsellers, they had a direct impact upon how postwar Americans understood the war effort.

This talk was presented at the University of Washington in Seattle as part of the Stroum Jewish Studies Program's Lunchtime Learning series.

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[fredericwright]

Terrific lecture...I'm looking forward to reading "Young Lions"...

[mattikarosenthal]

Wonderful lecture! I felt like I was in your classroom.

[mattikarosenthal]

One war novel that I loved reading in high school was about the Civil War and it was Andersonville. I followed CAPTAIN Levi Of the union army, I would even skip chapters looking for his character, and then of course I would have to go back and read the whole thing. He was just a character in a Civil War novel, but to a 15 year old it was very exciting to read the historical aspect of a Jewish officer during the Civil War, and his imprisonment and the suffering of the union troops at the hands of the confederate army. What was amazing was they also had Jewish officers in the confederate army as well.

As I’m listening to your lecture I see that my comment is off subject, as you are discussing World War II. My father served in North Africa, my husband’s father served at Anzio, in Italy. And they were both wounded in action.

My husband‘s uncle’s entire high school class dropped out and enlisted, all on the same day. Well they still graduated from Roosevelt high school in Los Angeles, class of 1944. They didn’t have a yearbook for that year.

[mattikarosenthal]

In Los Angeles the Jews and the Japanese were kindred spirits, especially the ones that grew up in Boyle Heights, where the entire high school was Japanese, Hispanic, and Jewish. It was one of the largest Jewish communities on the West Coast for decades. They are now renovating the largest temple there, the Breed Street Shul, They were just awarded a $14.9 million renovation budget, this is going to be a community center for the entire community.

[mattikarosenthal]

And what about Herman Wouk,
The Winds of War, and War and Remembrance?