cover image Let the Good Times Roll: Life at Home in America During World War II

Let the Good Times Roll: Life at Home in America During World War II

Paul D. Casdorph. Paragon House Publishers, $21.95 (276pp) ISBN 978-1-55778-164-2

A history professor at West Virginia State College, Casdorph shows that paradoxical good cheer animated the American home front from 1941 to 1945, but he offers no new enlightenment. His social and cultural history juxtaposes discussions of sugar and tire rationing, scrap metal and wastepaper drives and the disruption of homelife with accounts of the unprecedented widespread employment of blacks and women in diverse sectors of the economy, Hollywood scandals and celebrity romances, the rise of Frank Sinatra as a bobby-soxer idol, and wartime weddings. Frequent asides document the military campaign overseas. In less than 240 pages, Casdorph sweeps through these significant times, providing an interesting albeit cursory portrait. Photos not seen by PW. (Nov.)