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Crash course : from the good war to the forever war / H. Bruce Franklin.

By: Material type: TextTextSeries: War culturePublisher: New Brunswick, New Jersey : Rutgers University Press, [2018]Description: ix, 315 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 25 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9781978800915
  • 1978800916
  • 9781978801202
  • 1978801203
Other title:
  • From the good war to the forever war
Subject(s): Genre/Form:
Contents:
The last victory? -- The bombs bursting in air, or, How we lost World War II -- New connections -- Working for communists during the Korean War -- On the water front -- Thirteen confessions of a Cold Warrior -- Wake-up time -- Burning illusions -- French connections -- Coming home -- The war comes home.
Summary: "Growing up during the Second World War, H. Bruce Franklin believed what he was told: that America's victory would lead to a new era of world peace. Like most Americans, he was soon led to believe in a world wide Communist conspiracy that menaced the United States, forcing the nation into a disastrous war in Korea. But once he joined the U.S. Air Force and began flying top-secret missions as a navigator and intelligence officer, what he learned was eye-opening: that even as the U.S. preached about peace and freedom, it was engaging in an endless cycle of warfare, bringing devastation and oppression to fledgling democracies across the globe. Now, after fifty years as a renowned cultural historian, Franklin offers a set of hard-learned lessons about modern American history. Crash Course is essential reading for anyone who wonders how America ended up where it is today: with a deeply divided and disillusioned populace, led by a dysfunctional government, and mired in unwinnable wars. It also finds startling parallels between America's foreign military exploits and the equally brutal tactics used on the home front to crush organized labor, antiwar, and civil rights movements."--JacketSummary: "How did the mightiest nation in the history of the planet end up forever fighting unwinnable wars under a dysfunctional government despised by an increasingly divided citizenry? To help make sense of this crash course, Bruce Franklin offers another kind of crash course, a personal odyssey through modern American history. Readers are plunged into history, partly by reliving some of the author's experience and evolving consciousness: born in the Depression, molded by the victory culture of World War II, acculturated into the anti-Communist frenzy of early postwar years, employed by Communists during the Korean War, plunged into class warfare while working on the New York waterfront, flying as a Strategic Air Command Arctic navigator and intelligence officer, becoming a leading anti-war and progressive activist and thus a target of COINTELPRO, and emerging as a trailblazing cultural historian. The main subject is America's wars, abroad against nations and peoples in every continent except Australia, at home along racial and class lines. By bringing multi-disciplinary knowledge and cutting-edge analysis to the forces that shaped and reshaped one American for eight decades, each chapter offers compelling and eye-opening reading to 21st-century Americans"-- Provided by publisher
Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Shelving location Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Adult Book Main Library Biography New FRANKLIN H. F832 Checked out 06/27/2024 33111011334584
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Growing up during the Second World War, H. Bruce Franklin believed what he was told: that America's victory would lead to a new era of world peace. Like most Americans, he was soon led to believe in a world-wide Communist conspiracy that menaced the United States, forcing the nation into a disastrous war in Korea. But once he joined the U.S. Air Force and began flying top-secret missions as a navigator and intelligence officer, what he learned was eye-opening. He saw that even as the U.S. preached about peace and freedom, it was engaging in an endless cycle of warfare, bringing devastation and oppression to fledgling democracies across the globe.



Now, after fifty years as a renowned cultural historian, Franklin offers a set of hard-learned lessons about modern American history. Crash Course is essential reading for anyone who wonders how America ended up where it is today: with a deeply divided and disillusioned populace, led by a dysfunctional government, and mired in unwinnable wars. It also finds startling parallels between America's foreign military exploits and the equally brutal tactics used on the home front to crush organized labor, antiwar, and civil rights movements.



More than just a memoir or a history book, Crash Course gives readers a unique firsthand look at the building of the American empire and the damage it has wrought. Shocking and gripping as any thriller, it exposes the endless deception of the American public, and reveals from inside how and why many millions of Americans have been struggling for decades against our own government in a fight for peace and justice.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 277-297) and index.

The last victory? -- The bombs bursting in air, or, How we lost World War II -- New connections -- Working for communists during the Korean War -- On the water front -- Thirteen confessions of a Cold Warrior -- Wake-up time -- Burning illusions -- French connections -- Coming home -- The war comes home.

"Growing up during the Second World War, H. Bruce Franklin believed what he was told: that America's victory would lead to a new era of world peace. Like most Americans, he was soon led to believe in a world wide Communist conspiracy that menaced the United States, forcing the nation into a disastrous war in Korea. But once he joined the U.S. Air Force and began flying top-secret missions as a navigator and intelligence officer, what he learned was eye-opening: that even as the U.S. preached about peace and freedom, it was engaging in an endless cycle of warfare, bringing devastation and oppression to fledgling democracies across the globe. Now, after fifty years as a renowned cultural historian, Franklin offers a set of hard-learned lessons about modern American history. Crash Course is essential reading for anyone who wonders how America ended up where it is today: with a deeply divided and disillusioned populace, led by a dysfunctional government, and mired in unwinnable wars. It also finds startling parallels between America's foreign military exploits and the equally brutal tactics used on the home front to crush organized labor, antiwar, and civil rights movements."--Jacket

"How did the mightiest nation in the history of the planet end up forever fighting unwinnable wars under a dysfunctional government despised by an increasingly divided citizenry? To help make sense of this crash course, Bruce Franklin offers another kind of crash course, a personal odyssey through modern American history. Readers are plunged into history, partly by reliving some of the author's experience and evolving consciousness: born in the Depression, molded by the victory culture of World War II, acculturated into the anti-Communist frenzy of early postwar years, employed by Communists during the Korean War, plunged into class warfare while working on the New York waterfront, flying as a Strategic Air Command Arctic navigator and intelligence officer, becoming a leading anti-war and progressive activist and thus a target of COINTELPRO, and emerging as a trailblazing cultural historian. The main subject is America's wars, abroad against nations and peoples in every continent except Australia, at home along racial and class lines. By bringing multi-disciplinary knowledge and cutting-edge analysis to the forces that shaped and reshaped one American for eight decades, each chapter offers compelling and eye-opening reading to 21st-century Americans"-- Provided by publisher

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