A primary account of teenage life in the Great Depression and prewar era retrieved from history
Wednesday, December 10, 1941:“Hitler speaks to Reichstag tomorrow. We just heard the first casualty lists over the radio. . . . Lots of boys from Michigan and Illinois. Oh my God! . . . Life goes on though. We read our books in the library and eat lunch, bridge, etc. Phy. Sci. and Calculus. Darn Descartes. Reading Walt Whitman now.”
This diary of a smart, astute, and funny teenager provides a fascinating record of what an everyday American girl felt and thought during the Depression and the lead-up to World War II. Young Chicagoan Joan Wehlen describes her daily life growing up in the city and ruminates about the impending war, daily headlines, and major touchstones of the era—FDR’s radio addresses, the Lindbergh kidnapping,Goodbye Mr. ChipsandCitizen Kane, Churchill and Hitler, war work and Red Cross meetings. Included are Joan’s charming doodles of her latest dress or haircut reflective of the era.Home Front Girlis not only an entertaining and delightful read but an important primary source—a vivid account of arealAmerican girl’s lived experiences.
“An important and refreshingly engaging word painting of a far more innocent time in U.S. history. Home Front Girlis all about the thrill of being young, of questioning, and dreaming . . . and how those dreams can so easily begin to shatter under the crush of impending world events. The perspective here could not be more pure. Recommended!” —Graham Salisbury, author, Under the Blood-Red Sunand Eyes of the Emperor
“This captivating diary of the years leading into World War II provides a fresh view of the American scene, before and after the attack on Pearl Harbor." —Donald A. Ritchie, author,Doing Oral HistorlS.
![Home Front Girl A Diary of Love, Literature, and Growing Up in Wartime America [Paperback]](/itemImage/2/0/4/7/2_1276654.jpg)