Tattooed on My Soul: Texas Veterans Remember World War II ed. by Stephen Sloan, Lois E. Myers, Michelle Holland (review)

An astounding amount of works have been produced on the Second World War. Due to the vastness of the conflict and the deep fascination that persists concerning it, new works seeking original ways to consider the conflict continue to appear. Tattooed on My Soul: Texas Veterans Remember World War II extends this pursuit by attempting to present a collection of oral histories by World War II veterans from Texas. However, what a close read of the work will quickly reveal is that the collection of narratives are diverse; so diverse that about 35 percent of the veterans highlighted were not born in Texas. Of the seventeen testimonies printed, two come from persons born in Germany, with four others born in various other states ranging from Ohio to Mississippi. What these veterans do share in common concerning Texas is that all of them did live in Texas at one point in their lives, either at birth or after retirement. Since the oral history segments presented focus on military service during the war, there is virtually no mention of Texas within the pages of this work. As such, the ties between Texas and these individuals seem a bit loose. That said, the narratives themselves are interesting and would fascinate any World War II enthusiast.

An overarching editorial narrative, synthesis, and analysis are all virtually non-existent, with only about sixteen pages of content outside of direct oral history material provided. The editors note that the absence of an editorial voice is intended to allow the collection of memories to speak for themselves. While the preface quotes Alessandro Portelli concerning memory and meaning, the work overall is more in line with the presentation style of Studs Terkel, though the groupings are broader and the individual accounts are lengthier than Terkel’s.

What this work does show is that oral histories can be used for a variety of research interests over time. All of the interviews contained in Tattooed on My Soul are part of the larger Baylor University Institute for Oral History collection. Additionally, the interviewees were not all selected for their wartime experiences. The interviews were originally conducted for many purposes, including to reveal the experiences of the interviewees at and contributions to Baylor and nearby communities. As part of the interview process, these narrators all spoke about their experiences during World War II, even when the war was not the primary focus of the interview. That oral history archives can incidentally collect such fascinating stories from individuals is a testimony to the strengths of oral history and its versatility as a historical source.

Overall, if one is seeking a work with a deep narrative connection to Texas, you might not find what you are looking for within this work. However, if a reader is seeking interesting wartime accounts of individuals with ties to the state of Texas, this work will in no way disappoint. This work should also serve to inspire historians to reexamine oral history testimonies for less apparent connections that may prove to be compelling.