From a distance, Michael and Joleen Zarkades seem to have it all: a solid dependable marriage, two exciting careers, and children they adore. But after twelve years together, the couple has lost their way. They are unhappy and edging towards divorce. Then the Iraq war starts and an unexpected deployment will tear their already fragile family apart, sending one of them deep into harm's way and leaving the other at home, waiting for news. When the worst happens, each must face their darkest fear and fight for the future of their family. An intimate look at the inner landscape of a disintegrating marriage and a dramatic exploration of the price of war on a single American family. Home Front is a provocative and timely portrait of hope, honour, loss, forgiveness and the elusive nature of love.

Book on domesticity in literature

The US has been at war for 70 of the past 100 years. This startling collection of wartime letters, songs, poems, editorial cartoons, newspaper articles and government documents reveals the profound influence war has had on the country. Home Fronts offers a vivid cross-section of American intellectual, political and cultural life over the past century. Across the rich variety of social commentary, political critique and artistic expression, this title brings into sharp focus the startling continuities and contrasts of these experiences.

Kimble examines the U.S. Treasury’s eight war bond drives that raised over $185 billion—the largest single domestic propaganda campaign known to that time. The campaign enlisted such figures as Judy Garland, Norman Rockwell, Irving Berlin, and Donald Duck to cultivate national morale and convince Americans to buy war bonds.

A “fascinating” look at hardship, heroism, and civilian life in England during the Great War (World War One Illustrated). The truth about the sacrifice and suffering among British civilians during World War I is rarely discussed. In this book, people who were there speak about experiences and events that have remained buried for decades. Their testimony shows the same candor and courage we have become accustomed to hearing from military veterans of this war. Those interviewed include a survivor of a Zeppelin raid in 1915; a Welsh munitions worker recruited as a girl; and a woman rescued from a bombed school after five days. There are also accounts of rural famine, bereavement, and the effects on families back home—and even the story of a woman who planned to kill her family to save them further suffering.

Without trial and without due process, the United States government locked up nearly all of those citizens and longtime residents who were of Japanese descent during World War II. Ten concentration camps were set up across the country to confine over 120,000 inmates. Almost 20,000 of them were shipped to the only two camps in the segregated South—Jerome and Rohwer in Arkansas—locations that put them right in the heart of a much older, long-festering system of racist oppression. The first history of these Arkansas camps, Concentration Camps on the Home Front is an eye-opening account of the inmates’ experiences and a searing examination of American imperialism and racist hysteria. While the basic facts of Japanese-American incarceration are well known, John Howard’s extensive research gives voice to those whose stories have been forgotten or ignored. He highlights the roles of women, first-generation immigrants, and those who forcefully resisted their incarceration by speaking out against dangerous working conditions and white racism. In addition to this overlooked history of dissent, Howard also exposes the government’s aggressive campaign to Americanize the inmates and even convert them to Christianity. After the war ended, this movement culminated in the dispersal of the prisoners across the nation in a calculated effort to break up ethnic enclaves. Howard’s re-creation of life in the camps is powerful, provocative, and disturbing. Concentration Camps on the Home Front rewrites a notorious chapter in American history—a shameful story that nonetheless speaks to the strength of human resilience in the face of even the most grievous injustices.

This is a groundbreaking new study of an overlooked area of Second World War History.