The War Comes To Plum Street

by Smith, Bruce C.

• ISBN13: 9780253345349
• ISBN10: 0253345340
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-03-18
• Publisher: Indiana Univ Pr

Summary

"This remains a superb story. Bruce C. Smith has a wonderful eye for detail and a compelling perspective and voice. We care about this place and the people who live here." -- James H. Madison, author of Wendell Willkie: Hoosier Internationalist and A Lynching in the Heartland: Race and Memory in AmericaThe War Comes to Plum Street brings to life the Second World War through the eyes of a small group of neighbors from a Midwestern town. Bruce C. Smith presents their stories just as they happened, without explanation or interpretation. To experience the war as they did, insofar as it is possible, we must understand how they perceived everyday events and recognize the incompleteness of their knowledge of what was taking place in Europe and the Pacific. The inhabitants of Plum Street in New Castle, Indiana, resemble many other average Americans of their day. As we discover how they experienced those fateful years, these Americans may have something to teach us about how we live in our own turbulent time.

Author Biography

Bruce C. Smith is a native of New Castle, Indiana. He became involved in writing this local history of the Second World War while completing his doctorate at the University of Notre Dame. He lives in Daggett, Michigan.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	ix
Introduction	xi
1 Migration and a New Start in the 1920's	1	(19)
2 Coping with Hard Times in the 1930's	20	(27)
3 The Slow Pull Upward, Late 1930's	47	(26)
4 Into the Storm, 1939-1941	73	(17)
5 Duty Calls Every Citizen, 1942	90	(20)
6 Bearer of Bad News, 1942	110	(24)
7 Urgent Preparation, 1943	134	(31)
8 Together, and Alone, 1943	165	(29)
9 Despair and Bitter Hope, 1944	194	(20)
10 Invasion, 1944	214	(33)
11 Will It Never End? 1945	247	(25)
12 We'll Meet Again, 1945	272	(20)
Epilogue	292	(9)
Sources	301	(2)
Index	303