World War 2 Research Sources
One of the best ways to procrastinate while writing a novel is to do too much research. Any good editor will leave months of your work on the cutting room floor. This happened with reading about World War II for Jeep Show. On the other hand, all that research helped me pick scenes and dialogue that connect with greater events and deeper meanings. I’ll call it my version of Ernest Hemingway’s’ iceberg theory of writing. There is a lot under the surface.
The following are not all the books I read before or while writing Jeep Show, but the ones I consulted the most.
– Robert B. O’Connor
Books on Life During WWII
- Mabel’s Letters, edited by Carolyn Hetzer Zuttel. Letters to and from Jim Hetzer, the inspiration for the fictional protagonist in Jeep Show. The letters are from the period of Hetzer’s Army service, and during his pre-war show business life in New York and The Catskills.
- G.I.: The American Soldier in World War II by Lee Kennett. An insightful and entertaining description of the WWII Army and its citizen soldiers.
- Upfront by Bill Mauldin. The solder/cartoonist gives a ground-level view of the war, and reprints many of his best Willie and Joe cartoons from Stars and Stripes.
- Brave Men by Ernie Pyle.
- Unsung Valor: A GI’s Story of WWII by A. Cleveland Harrison. One citizen-soldier’s experience in the Army in WWII. His description of training camp life and then the trip to Europe on the Queen Mary troopship were invaluable.
- Doing Battle: The Making of a Skeptic by Paul Fussell. Fussell was a young second lieutenant who found himself leading infantrymen in France. He describes the suffering and absurdity of combat.
- The Warriors by J. Glenn Grey.A meditation on how soldiers act and why. Grey was a PhD in Philosophy who saw combat service in North Africa, Italy, France, and Germany.
- The Heroes of Hosingen: Their Untold Story by Alice Flynn. Hosingen, Luxembourg is the setting for Chapters Five and Six of Jeep Show.
- The 110th Holds in The Ardennes by Walter Zapotoczny Jr.
- Alamo in the Ardennes: The Untold Story of the American Soldiers Who Made the Defense of Bastogne Possible by John C. McManus.
- The Filthy Thirteen: From the Dustbowl to Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest by Richard Killblane and Jake McNiece. Pathfinders, the most bad-ass of all paratroopers.
- Those Who Hold Bastogne: The True Story of the Soldiers and Civilians Who Fought in the Biggest Battle of the Bulge by Peter Schrijvers.
- American Girls, Beer, and Glenn Miller: GI Morale in World War II by James J. Cook.
- Greasepaint & Cordite: How ENSA Entertained the Troops During World War II by Andy Merriman. ENSA was the British version of the USO and the Morale Corps rolled into one.
- Finding Your Father’s War: A Practical Guide to Researching and Understanding Service in the World War II U.S. Armyby Jonathan Gawne.
- FUBAR: Soldier Slang in World War II by Gordon L. Rottman
- Guns at Last Light, volume three of The Liberation Trilogy by Rick Atkinson. Pulitzer Prize winning series about the U.S. and WWII. I agree with the New York Times Book Review: “Densely researched yet supremely readable.”
- Writing for Vaudeville by Brett Page
- Life Is Too Short by Mickey Rooney, He covers his WWII service, including Jeep shows, and name drops Jim Hetzer.
- Only Yesterday and Since Yesterday by Frederick Lewis Allen. A look back at American culture of the 1920s and 1930s.
- Daily Life in the United States, 1920-1939 by David E. Kyvig.
- Under The Big Tent: Revivalism and American Culture, 1885-1925 by Josh McMullen. Describes the enormous impact of Billy Sunday and other popular evangelists on American culture. At one point, Jeep Show had a long chapter on Billy Sunday. It is now a short coda after chapter two!
- The Adventures of Amos ‘N’ Andy: A Social History of an American Phenomenon by Melivin Patrick Ely.
- The American Circus by various authors.
- Year Zero: A History of 1945 by Ian Buruma.
- Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945 by Tony Judt.
- Catch-22 by Joseph Heller. The brilliant novel about, among other things, the absurd aspects of war American-style.
- Freedom From Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929-1945 by David M. Kennedy. The best U.S. history book I have ever read. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize. A detailed yet vivid review of national events during that period. Fascinating insights into Franklin Roosevelt’s decision-making. The chapters on WWII are a brilliant overview of the war and its effect on American society.
World War II Films and Videos
The following are not all the films/video I watched before or while writing Jeep Show, but the ones I consulted the most: