by David Nasaw
First published 2025
Historian David Nasaw examines the hidden struggles of America's transition from World War II victory to peacetime reality. Drawing from personal memoirs and oral histories, he reveals how returning veterans faced broken promises and unmet expectations. Black soldiers discovered that their service had not eliminated racism. Jewish veterans found antisemitism still thriving. Wounded soldiers learned that America lacked understanding of their psychological injuries. Women lost their wartime jobs to returning men. Doctors could not treat what they did not understand about trauma. The nation struggled with housing shortages, rising crime, unemployment, and divorce rates. While the GI Bill offered hope, political maneuvering blocked many Black, gay, and female veterans from receiving benefits. Nasaw argues that the sunny narrative of postwar prosperity obscured deeper wounds that continue to shape American society today. His research exposes how media censorship during the war left civilians unprepared for the reality of homecoming trauma and national transition.
Genres: history, 20th-century, non-fiction, 21st-century, american-history
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: broken-promises, hidden-struggles, unmet-expectations
Period: Postwar
478 pages · Hardcover · Penguin Press
Content warnings: racism