When Books Went to War: The Stories that Helped Us Win World War II

When Books Went to War is the fascinating (for book nerds) story of the creation and subsequent success of the Armed Services Editions, the pocket-sized paperbacks that boosted the morale of troops stationed around the globe, revolutionized the publishing industry, and led to an increase in literacy that lasted well beyond the war. And that's to say nothing of the fact that certain of the ASEs, The Great Gatsby, for example, rescued otherwise-forgotten titles from obscurity and turned them into American classics. Not bad for a day's work, no?

Molly Guptill Manning has done a fine job rendering readable the highly political wranglings and bureaucratic decisions that went into the development of the ASEs. She begins with a history of the Victory Book Drives, which aimed to both collect books for the troops, as well as showcase the value of books in the U.S., as compared to Germany, where extensive, state-sponsored book burnings had become the norm. (Manning devotes no small amount of ink to the number of volumes - roughly 100 million - destroyed during the Nazis European adventures. This is in no way a criticism; as I said earlier in the post, I find this fascinating.) She also details the changes to the publishing process that enabled the ASEs to become reality, and the resulting paperbacks that have filled bookshelves around the world in the decades since.

Most interesting to me, though, was the hunger to read that Manning highlights time and again. From Alaska to the South Pacific and Australia to Africa, and across the whole of Europe, GIs filled their hours reading these books, sometimes while waiting for the heat of battle to end so they could be medically evacuated from the field. Of all the World War II books I have read, this is the first I recall learning of the prevalence of books. It's no small wonder that men who sought solace in the page as battles raged returned home with an abiding appreciation for the written word and spread a love of books through their families and communities.

I recognize that the audience that can truly appreciate When Books Went to War may be somewhat limited. That said, those who identify as that audience will love this book and be fascinated by the stories Manning tells.

Four stars.