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The girls next door : bringing the home front to the front lines / Kara Dixon Vuic.
LIBRA JZ6405.W66 V85 2019
Available from offsite location
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Vuic, Kara Dixon, 1977- author.
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- United States. Army.
- Women and war--United States--History--20th century.
- Women and war.
- Soldiers--Recreation--United States--History--20th century.
- Soldiers.
- World War, 1914-1918--War work.
- World War, 1914-1918.
- War work.
- World War, 1939-1945--War work.
- World War, 1939-1945.
- Korean War, 1950-1953--War work.
- Korean War, 1950-1953.
- Vietnam War, 1961-1975--War work.
- Vietnam War, 1961-1975.
- Military morale--United States--History--20th century.
- Military morale.
- Armed Forces--Military life.
- Soldiers--Recreation.
- United States. Army--Military life--History--20th century.
- United States.
- History.
- Genre:
- History.
- Physical Description:
- viii, 382 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm
- Place of Publication:
- Cambridge, Massachusetts : Harvard University Press, 2019.
- Summary:
- The emotional toll of war can be as debilitating to soldiers as hunger, disease, and injury. Beginning in World War I, in an effort to boost soldiers' morale and remind them of the stakes of victory, the American military formalized a recreation program that sent respectable young women and famous entertainers overseas. Kara Dixon Vuic builds her narrative around the young women from across the United States, many of whom had never traveled far from home, who volunteered to serve in one of the nation's most brutal work environments. From the "Lassies" in France and mini-skirted coeds in Vietnam to Marlene Dietrich and Marilyn Monroe, Vuic provides a fascinating glimpse into wartime gender roles and the tensions that continue to complicate American women's involvement in the military arena. The recreation-program volunteers heightened the passions of troops but also domesticated everyday life on the bases. Their presence mobilized support for the war back home, while exporting American culture abroad. Carefully recruited and selected as symbols of conventional femininity, these adventurous young women saw in the theater of war a bridge between public service and private ambition. This story of the women who talked and listened, danced and sang, adds an intimate chapter to the history of war and its ties to life in peacetime.-- Provided by publisher.
- Contents:
- A new kind of woman is following the army: canteening on the Western Front
- Take your prettiest dresses and go: a touch of home in World War II
- The difference between savagery and civilization: women in faraway places
- Dancing for democracy: entertaining citizen-soldiers in the early Cold War
- Look, but don't touch: sexuality and entertainment in the Vietnam War
- No beer, no booze, no babes: entertaining the all-volunteer military.
- Notes:
- Includes bibliographical references and index.
- ISBN:
- 9780674986381
- 0674986385
- OCLC:
- 1038032219
- Publisher Number:
- 99979353795
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