We Were in the Big One: Experiences of the World War II Generation (review)

In this fine volume, Mark Parillo succeeds in capturing the spirit and flavor of the World War II experience for Americans, both civilian and military. He has done so through the editing and presentation of many dozens of original documents, ranging from magazine articles to American Legion publications to official government materials to personal letters from ordinary Americans. The latter constitute the bulk of the book and comprise its most compelling passages. Parillo's subjects explore a wide range of topics—military training, combat, medical care, rationing, the enormous job of keeping the war machine supplied, the collective experience of life at the home front, and the immediate aftermath of the war. These firsthand accounts are organized into topical chapters that are sandwiched between a thoughtful introduction and a well-written epilogue that provide perspective in terms of what the war meant, as well as how it changed America and Americans themselves.

We Were in the Big One should be of great use to any historian wishing to study the American experience in World War II. The book includes a nice variety of viewpoints, such as those of nurses, steelworkers, mothers, fathers, combat soldiers, WACs, sailors, aviators, and many others. Parillo sets up each account with an explanation of the person's background, or their circumstances. Scholars who are looking for reliable contemporary source material will find plenty to choose from in Parillo's volume. The vast majority of his accounts come from the World War II Participants and Contemporaries Collection at the Eisenhower Library in Abilene, Kansas.

Whether intentionally or not, Parillo's work shines a bright spotlight on that collection as a premier archival resource for those who study average Americans in the Second World War.

I have only a few mild criticisms of the book. One is philosophical, one is procedural, and the other has to do with its scope. First, in the introduction, Parillo implies that contemporary documentary sources are more reliable than postwar oral histories as source material for World War II historians. Certainly oral history has limitations (for one thing, memories can fade), but it does afford a sense of perspective and historical inquiry that are not present in contemporary sources. For those reasons, oral histories can sometimes be every bit as useful, even more illuminating than letters.

Second, the letters from servicemen rarely include the person's unit. This is a crucial piece of information for any historian who hopes to use that letter as a source in a battle account, or a study of soldiers at war. Perhaps the unit information was not available to Parillo.

Third, there are very few, if any, accounts from African Americans and that limits the book's scope somewhat. I suspect this omission reflects a limitation in the Eisenhower Library's collection rather than any oversight on Parillo's part.

Overall, We Were in the Big One is an excellent addition to our knowledge of World War II. It benefits from an obviously sagacious editor who understands the era quite well. Parillo deserves congratulations for an outstanding job of editing these first hand, documentary sources. His colleagues are now much the richer for his efforts.