by William M. Tuttle Jr.
Reviewed by Phil Nicolosi

Daddy’s Gone to War: The Second World War in the Lives of America’s Children, a uniquely and thoroughly researched book by William M. Tuttle Jr., covers a broad spectrum of the trials and challenges on the home front during World War II. From the bombing of Pearl Harbor to the soldiers returning home after the war, Tuttle tells the story of the home front through the eyes of those who experienced, and vividly remember, the sights, the smells, and the strong emotions that accompanied it. What makes Daddy’s Gone to War different than other books on the home front is Tuttle’s very original approach of focusing on how children were affected. By gathering over 2,500 recent letters from adults all over America who were children during World War II, Tuttle effectively uses other’s memories of a tumultuous time in US History to capture the essence of the long lasting impression this war had on America’s children.

Tuttle clearly acknowledges that he could not rely on the letters alone to write the book. In the preface, he admits that the letters were invaluable for uncovering the anonymity that hides regular people from view. He supplements these letters with the big-picture historical dimension as well as the insights derived from the other social sciences, particularly psychology. Tuttle incorporates his experiences studying psychology into his work as an historian and thus was able to take those memories and apply current psychological research to explain why and what people remember. He states that what is important is not only what happens in a child’s life, but when (at what age) the event occurs. Distinct to his writing is how each chapter not only covers home front challenges, but he also explains how these issues affected children of all ages – from toddler through school age.

Each chapter comes alive with the voices from those who experienced the events. For example, one of the chapters challenges the traditional notion that there was “one” America during the war. Tuttle examines how Americans were clearly divided by race, religion, class, gender, ethnicity, and sometimes even within individual households. Tuttle adds the recollections of so many people from all over the country who remember, but perhaps didn’t understand at the time, the often unfair treatments of Americans by society and the government.

A very dense and sometimes statistics-laced read, high school students will find it very challenging and probably, at times, a bit dry. There are also sections of certain chapters where Tuttle vividly describes the racist, anti-Semitic, anti-German, anti-Japanese and anti-Italian language and propaganda. Even though history can and should make us uncomfortable at times, that language and those topics should be approached carefully in a classroom setting as those references could easily trigger sensitivities.

A quick glance at the table of contents and one will see the topics clearly outlined. Carefully excerpted, these chapters could be of great value for anecdotes and statistics to enhance classroom lecture. A classroom teacher can use many examples from the chapters to explain the very conflicts and issues, which confronted American children of nearly every race, religion, ethnicity and social class. It may even be of greater value for the teacher to use parts of each chapter to demonstrate how the war affected the everyday life of school aged students around the same age of those we teach.

In addition, a teacher will surely want to use parts of the preface where Tuttle outlines his methodology and describes his use of recent letters from World War II children, who are now adults. It will surely open class discussion on the importance of historical memory and the reliability of accounts recalled many years later. His methodology will certainly demonstrate that traumatic events and childhood memories will stick with a person for many generations, often waiting to be recounted and retold. Daddy’s Gone to War gives the reader the chance to reflect on the uniqueness of history as a discipline, yet shows how other social sciences can be used to enliven and enrich the past. As Tuttle states, “the historian’s activity is an artistic one” and an historian’s explanation is one that satisfies us because it brings the variety of human experiences to life.

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