While They're at War: The True Story of American Families on the Homefront - Hardcover

Henderson, Kristin

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0618558756 ISBN 13: 9780618558759

Verlag: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2006

Inhaltsangabe

Book by Henderson Kristin

Über diesen Titel

Reseña del editor:

Kristin Henderson is a journalist married to a military chaplain who has served in the Persian Gulf, Afghanistan, and Iraq. In While They're at War, she draws upon the trust she's earned from military families and her unique access to military staff to give us a "powerful, revealing, and sometimes painful . . . look behind the scenes" (Booklist) at the modern military's untold story.

We first meet Marissa Bootes and Beth Pratt, new Army wives undergoing intense indoctrination on Fort Bragg, North Carolina, while their husbands are fighting in Iraq. Their stories unfold to reveal often hidden aspects of life on the homefront. Through gripping storytelling, we see families battling the overwhelming effects of isolation and anticipatory grief, the strongly enforced codes concerning infidelity, their feelings of alienation both from military staff and from nonmilitary citizens, and the harrowing impact of e-mail/cellphone/CNN culture. Moving scenes bring to life the special struggles of children and those who teach and care for them, as well as the toll that combat exposure takes on families, especially if it erupts into homecoming violence. Finally, Henderson reveals the life-changing solidarity experienced in an informal support group like Fort Bragg's Hooah Wives.

While They're at War is an indelible portrait, too, of virtually invisible figures such as homefront fathers raising teenagers alone. We meet the chaplains, social workers, and psychiatrists dedicated to helping military families cope. And, through Henderson's brilliant reporting from Walter Reed Army Medical Center's Ward 57, we are given a searing view of the wounded and their families confronting changed lives.

"In a country of nearly three hundred million people," Henderson writes, "only two and half million serve in the active duty armed forces. . . Yet in our American democracy, the warriors themselves don't get to decide when [sacrifices] are to be made. Civilians make that decision. It's up to our civilian Congress to declare war. . . and it's up to the civilians who elect those leaders to pay attention, to make sure that the cause of the hour is worth the sacrifices being made on their behalf." While They're at War is moving and necessary testimony for all Americans, from the military families who make possible America's way of war and way of life.

Kristin Henderson has written frequently on military issues; this book had its origins in two cover stories for the Washington Post Magazine. She is also the author of Driving by Moonlight, an account of her experience during her husband's deployment to Afghanistan. A practicing Quaker, she is married to a Navy chaplain serving with the Marines and is active in the Marine Corps's Key Volunteer family readiness program.

Biografía del autor:

KRISTIN HENDERSON has written frequently about military issues, including two cover stories for the Washington Post Magazine, where this book had its origins. A practicing Quaker and occasional amateur racer of Corvettes, Henderson is married to a Navy chaplain who served with the Marines in Afghanistan and Iraq, and she is active in the Marine Corps’ Key Volunteer family readiness program. The idea for Hidden Homefront came to Henderson when her husband was in Iraq and a neighbor asked, “Wow, what is that like, having him in harm’s way?” Henderson says, “It hit me then, that most Americans no longer personally know what it’s like to send someone you love to war.”

Über diese Auflage

• Verlag: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0618558756
• ISBN 13: 9780618558759
• Einband: Tapa dura
• Anzahl der Seiten: 317