"This is one of the richest collections of primary sources I've seen for the study of war and ethnic family. What I like best is the detailed and rhythmic evocation the letters offer of everyday life during wartime. The reader gets to know the writer of the letters quite well, and develops a very good sense of the family dynamics ... Read moreof an extended Italian American family. I'm a social historian, interested in ethnicity, gender, and family, and I found it a totally gripping read. Once I started reading it, I didn't stop. I read it at one sitting!" — Donna Gabaccia, author of From Sicily to Elizabeth Street: Housing and Social Change among Italian Immigrants, 1880-1930 "This book provides a fascinating glimpse at the impact of World War II on people at home. It is a microcosmic study of the frustrations of serving in the military, and of trying to deal with family issues while performing military duties. The book gives us a vivid sense of Phil Aquila, a working class Italian American who wanted to do his part for the country but sometimes found it was not as easy as it seemed. "Aquila is telling a personal story—the story of his father—but it has a far more universal significance. His splendid introduction provides us with the larger context of ethnic tensions, gender patterns, and the general frustrations of working class life through the experience of one family in America. It could stand by itself as a capsule assessment of the impact of the war, and is a valuable prologue for the fascinating letters that follow. All of this is important social history." — Allan M. Winkler, Miami University of Ohio Show Less