Homeward Bound: American Families in the Cold War Era

Book Description

Uncovering startling connections between the Cold War and family life, a noted historian challenges assumptions of the "happy days" of the 1950s.

Customer Reviews:

Many Shortcomings.......2007-07-10

Elaine Tyler May's Homeward Bound: American Families in the Cold War Era encapsulates the life of the average American family from the decade prior to World War II through the decade of the 1980s, primarily focusing on the Cold War period of the 1940s through the 1960s. Although the threat of the Cold War and use of atomic weapons always loomed in the background, May's work essentially emphasized the social and economic happenings of the time. Homeward Bound is an easy read with each chapter following a format that introduces the reader to the chapter's subject, backs it with statistical data, and provides a summary. And lest the reader think the book is balanced and fair to men and women, later chapters show the author's true intent which is to show how American women were trapped into becoming housewives and not being able to explore their own interests or careers in favor of their husbands'. Nine chapters guide the reader through the Great Depression, World War II, the Eisenhower years, the turbulent decade of the 1960s and ends with the election of Ronald Reagan. Since the book was originally published in 1988, there is a follow-up section for the new 1999 edition. Further, there are several appendices with statistical data describing the demographics of the people about whom it is written. Also, the questionnaire from the Kelly Longitudinal Study, which is the basis for the data provided in the text, is also included.

Vice President Richard Nixon's "kitchen debate" with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev is the opening salvo in a book that paints a bleak picture for American women in the 1940s and 1950s. Much of the information provided to support the author's thesis is from the Kelly Longitudinal Study, which consisted of surveys of six hundred white middle-class families and spanned the period from the late-1930s to about 1955. Families actually began in the 1930s and 1940s for security and economic reasons and "...laid the foundation for a commitment to a stable home life...." Even though women worked outside the home and were in many ways functional within the job market, they were discouraged from working during the time of the Great Depression, since working women took jobs away from men. This changed after America's entry into World War II where full employment existed and the need for workers to drive the military production machine required that women enter the workforce. However, once the war ended and veterans returned from overseas, many women left the job market on their own or were forced out so that men could be employed. The expectation was for women to become housewives and mothers and cater to their families rather than have a career of their own. In fact, many government officials, like FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, for example, stated that being a housewife was one of the most important careers a woman could have to provide stability in the country as an attempt to thwart the growth of communism.

Many women were not satisfied with that life. Although the marriage rate increased significantly and the birth rate jumped after WWII (producing the "Baby Boom" generation), women from the survey experienced a sense of despair in their lives due to their societal subservience to their husbands. Though many believed raising a family and keeping a happy home was quite satisfactory to them, many women were depressed and unsatisfied with their lives in general. May describes in great detail the miserable lives of many of these women whose husbands treated them badly, were not affectionate or sexually gratifying, and who were inattentive fathers. The life of the average housewife was gloomy because she worked where she lived whereas men worked away from the house and saw their home as a sanctuary for them to relax and, seemingly, be waited on hand-and-foot by their jobless wife. Certainly divorce was available for these women; but, unless their husband was abusive or adulterous, most did not exercise that option since a high social stigma was attached to it during that era. Further, from an economic standpoint, most women with children could not survive on their own. Indeed, the economic fortunes of divorced women declined while that of divorced men increased.

Consumerism and the ideal American family bring the reader back to the Nixon - Khrushchev debate. New appliances, new homes, new cars, and other "big ticket" items were the staple of American life and what separated the U.S. from the U.S.S.R. and made American appear more affluent then their Communist counterparts. Not only did Americans want more things, they also wanted more children. Couples who had no children were seen as unsuccessful. "Large families were an indication of a man's potency and ability to provide and a woman's success as a professional homemaker." Women should be able to manage a larger household, after all, because many of the appliances (e.g., washing machines, vacuum cleaners, and electric irons) were invented to make their lives easier and thus enable them to have more time to raise children and keep a clean house.

This era of the nuclear family began to unravel in the early 1960s with the publication of the best-selling book The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan. In it, she questioned the status quo and "...spoke for thousands like herself whose dreams and desires withered under the weight of domesticity." Moreover, as the children of the baby boom era came of age themselves, they rebelled against the lifestyles of their parents and turned the 1960s in a decade that saw "free love" and the move away from the nuclear family. This brought about cohabitation without marriage, premarital sex, and an increase in the divorce rate. The author concluded that the conservative movement that helped Ronald Reagan to become elected president and harkened to return to the days of the nuclear family and the stable 1950s was misguided because that era actually diminished the role of women and prevented them from realizing their potential.

As stated earlier, the author shows herself as a feminist whose goal was to prove that women were kept down in subservience to men after World War II. From a statistical standpoint, since the surveyed families were mostly located in the New England area of the country it is debatable that the data the survey provided is applicable to the rest of the country. Basically, twelve hundred adults were surveyed from a 1950 population of over one hundred and fifty million. Does that really represent the American population as a whole, especially when the survey is geographic specific? Further, May is critical of the conservative movement and the supporters of Reagan which further paints her as a liberal feminist. Although there is nothing wrong with having that viewpoint, it diminishes the work in general. What starts out to be a statistical analysis of married couples during a specific time period results in a generalization of the country as a whole and sheds a negative light on men of that time. Although Homeward Bound gives the reader a glimpse of a time in recent American history, it should not be considered the decisive work for which to judge that generation.

How the Hetero-normative, Racialized, Exclusive Suburban Family Ideal Became a Unifying Aspiration of American Culture.......2006-03-25

This work contends that there was an anomalous rise in "marriage, parenthood, and traditional gender roles" in the post-World War II United States that was pan-racial, pan-economic, pan-ethnic, and pan-regional. It attributes this to social constructions of home and family that responded to governmental policy aims and cold war anxieties. The work seeks unearth what, precisely, drives the anxieties behind these social formations and why they dramatically distort the post-World War II child bearing generation from the radicalism that preceded and proceeded them.

May ascribes the geopolitical parlance of "containment" to the domestic cultural policies of the cold war United States. She asserts that the rhetoric and practice of the nuclear family served to contain subversive sexual and political behavior that might evoke contestation of gendered postwar consumerism, masculinist renderings of science qua exceptionalist prosperity, and endanger the social practices of unity, security, and stability that were understood to confer qualitative global advantage in the cold war. The author also engages the nuclear family as an aspiration that mobilized the majority of United States residents who were racially, economically, or otherwise excluded from its suburban actualization. The capacity of family to frame the intelligibility of "prosperity" for economic actors who were conferred unequal advantage is key, May suggests, to its postwar centrality in visions of an abundant and classless society.

In this context, May's suburbs emerge as liminal spaces that both enact and resolve the contradictions between pre-and postwar culture, replacing the aspiration for equal condition with the condition of uniform aspiration, reifying romance as the mutual consent of liberal individuals yet encasing it in an exclusionary propertization of private life, and substituting ethnic kinship and working class consciousness that situated life in power with a homogenous whiteness that rendered power unintelligible. This is artfully demonstrated as the text traces the dispositions and cohesions of families from the New Deal era thru the early 1960s.

The author's hybrid methodology combines statistical demographic data with qualitative analysis of cultural texts. May notes assiduously the key contradiction within this data; that while the imagery of suburban familial prosperity presented a level of prosperity that was realistically inaccessible for the majority of United States residents who encountered it, it nonetheless correlates with a strong voluntary entrance into the social formations of that aspiration that is evident across demographics. May goes as far as to entertain that the disconnect between the consumer aspirations of marginalized peoples and their social reality may have contributed to their motivation to pursue social change, also noting the strong political incentives to resolve visible racial inequality during the cold war. Indeed, the phenomenon through which the rhetoric of the Civil Rights movement became centered around an actualization of the postwar patriarchal family and economic opportunity--it was examples of consumer exclusion from diners, hotels, and municipal services as well as his daughter's weeping at a whites-only amusement park that Martin Luther King rooted his initial moral appeals in-would constitute an entirely separate study. This, if anything, is the question one is left with at the conclusion of Homeward Bound. To what extent has the lasting postwar articulation of the nuclear suburban home as the fruit of prosperity become the constantly greener grass to marginalized peoples, and how has this interfaced with social movements, rebellion, and self-destruction?

An intriguing premise.......2005-11-01

From the 1940s through the early 1960s, Americans married in greater numbers, at a younger age, and with a greater resistance to divorce than either their parents' or their children's generation. There occurred a remarkable dash into the domestic embrace of marriage and parenthood as American women abandoned their wartime jobs and joyfully rushed into the arms of returning World War II soldiers.

But what provided the impetus for this yearning? The World War II generation was raised by parents who had come of age basking in the hedonistic pleasures of the Roaring Twenties following their return from the First World War. And their Baby-Boom counter-culture offspring were certainly no traditionalists. Both of these generations had in fact challenged conventional sexual norms while pushing the divorce rate up and the birth rate down. What then made the World War II generation different? What motivated them to embrace the roles of the traditional family with such desperate fervor and commitment? Homeward Bound is Elaine Tyler May's attempt to explain this sociological phenomenon by linking it to international politics.

According to Tyler May, it was the Cold War that provided the impetus. Americans embraced domesticity during the early years of the Cold War because "the home seemed to offer a secure private nest removed from the dangers of the outside world." This mass retreat to the privacy and security of the home was in response to the twin threats of communist encroachment and potential nuclear attack by the Soviet Union. Specifically, Tyler May contends that the U.S. foreign policy of communist "containment" gave rise to the parallel societal view that the home could effectively contain the economic, sexual, and social desires of American women and men.

To this end, the dynamics of the home required the rigid adherence to gender roles. Specifically, societal pressure induced women to marry young, give birth early and often, shun career aspirations, and stay home to raise their multiple offspring. Men, for their part, were expected to provide a steady and reliable stream of income for their growing families, regardless of the frustrating and stifling constraints imposed by their employers.

Rather than painting a Norman Rockwell picture of comfortable domesticity, Tyler May chronicles a smoldering dissatisfaction with these rigid gender roles, causing guilt and resentment in the supposedly "happy days" world of the World War II generation.

The book is divided into nine chapters covering a variety of topics relating to home life, career choices, sex, reproduction, and consumerism. It concludes with a chapter relating how and why the Baby Boom generation rebelled against their parent's obsession with security.

Effective use is made of magazine articles, books (both popular and scholarly), newspaper reports, documentary films, government publications, and Hollywood movies. A revealing poll in which periodic surveys were taken among housewives and husbands - called the Kelly Longitudinal Studies - provides a wealth of fascinating and insightful data that is skillfully woven throughout the book

Tyler May makes a convincing case that the Cold War created a uneasy state of mind among Americans, fostering a "bunker mentality" that coerced the World War II generation into opting for security over independence and personal fulfillment: secure jobs, secure homes, and secure marriages in a secure country.

homeward bound.......2004-09-21

The book Homeward Bound properly illustrates the hardships that women had to endure throughout the depression, WWII, and the Cold War era. It shows that though women were given brief moments of emancipation they were always held back by a Male dominant society paranoid of their unrestrained freedom and sexuality. It was not until the feminist movement and the erosion of the Cold War Ideology that women realized they deserved more than the status quo and fought for their equality. This book illustrates that women were not housewives because they were well suited due to their differences from men; instead, it was male domination that caused difference and ultimately forced women in to submission. Elaine Tyler May is very convincing in her arguments about the ties between the various eras and their effect on the American family and gender roles/gender inequality. At times she may rely too much on the KLS study, which only covers the more affluent part of society during the 40's, 50's, and 60's. Nonetheless her book makes bold thought provoking claims that shed new light on the "Happy Days" of the 1950's.

Uneven in examining reproductive rights.......2002-11-19

I purchased this book for my graduate-level independent studies course hoping to find definitive answers to a hunch post-war controversy over reproductve rights actually had a larger tie-in to the era's blatant anti-communism.

After all, the advent of antiseptic surgery and antibiotics meant the driving reason behind 19th century anti-abortion campaigns was effectively negated by the post-war period, so opponents of women's rights had to construct a new justifcation for extending the laws beyond their original intent. Abortion was now dangerous because it increased women's autonomy and freedom.

While May does address reproductive policy, this work suprisingly does not delve heavily into how anti-communism and reproductive bias paralleled eachother.Considering many post-war restrictions (pregnancy-related job firing and school expulsion co-existed with illegality of abortion and contraception) were directly related to women's reproductive potential, a considerable amount of research was missing from her book. The research presented skimmed what I had already discovered from Solinger et al's other works and did not provide the insight I was desperatley seeking.

Because May is able to tie anti-communist objectives into television and other cultural arenas, I remain puzzled by the selective exclusion. However well written structurally, it also seemed as if she were skipping around the same argument, but electing not to explore it for whatever reason.

This book is not a good candidate for work with reproductive policy, but would be an excellent choice for a general study of American women's post-war political agency.

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Coping with Unrealistic Expectations about Re-Entry After Long Time Abroad

A must read for HRDs and all expatriates, especially spouses

This book belongs on every global citizen's shelf.......

Homeward Bound : A Spouse's Guide to Repatriation
Robin Pascoe
Manufacturer: Expatriate Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Parenting & Families | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

The Art of Coming Home

A Moveable Marriage: Relocate Your Relationship without Breaking It

Raising Global Nomads: Parenting Abroad in an On-Demand World

Third Culture Kids: The Experience of Growing Up Among Worlds

Footsteps Around the World: Relocation Tips for Teens, 2nd Ed.

ASIN: 0968676006

Book Description

Like the move overseas, the move home relies on a solid and stable person to act as the emotional touchstone in order to help everyone else in the family through re-entry shock. That someone is typically the spouse. Homeward Bound is a repatriation reality check to help spouses create new, meaningful lives when they return from abroad.

Customer Reviews:

Coping with Unrealistic Expectations about Re-Entry After Long Time Abroad.......2007-05-05

Robin Pascoe engages her readers with her soul-searching stories about how she managed her re-entry back to Canada after years as the non-employed spouse in countries all over the world. We hear her angst as she searches for herself...and ultimately finds herself. But her sometimes despairing note is always balanced with self-aware humor. I can imagine her keeping her audiences in stitches when she gives talks, as she often does.
Aside from story-telling, she includes sections with sound advice about how to do to do it better than she did. How to imagine what you're going to do next, after all the boxes are unpacked? What about your aspirations about getting your own career going, finally? How about re-settling your children who are now the "global nomads" with very different values and study habits than many of their peers? How to manage your new relationship with your spouse who may or may not have a challenging new job?

I like Pascoe's work immensely and look forward to reading her other work.
Karma Kitaj, Moving Away Or Coming Home.com

A must read for HRDs and all expatriates, especially spouses.......2000-08-15

August 15, 2000 So many spouses will be able to identify with Robin Pascoe's frank and humorous account of reentry (returning home after a period of time abroad). Efforts at reestablishing a career armed with a haphazard CV of constant reinvention and little or no network; trying to resettle kids and partner; feeling tired and overwhelmed and a bit "foreign" are issues with which so many of us are confronted once home. Robin Pascoe deals with these and many other reentry issues with honesty, wit and wisdom. Reading her book legitimized for me my own feelings of fatigue and frustration as a normal reaction to the physical, mental and emotional upheaval of reentry. Do read this book before embarking on reentry and then refer to it for comfort, and advice as required!

This book belongs on every global citizen's shelf..............2000-06-21

Robin Pascoe's witty, informative and devastatingly accurate account of the process of re-entry, from the spouse's perspective, is required reading for everyone considering an expatriate posting abroad, and especially for those in the process of returning home. Ms. Pascoe's step-by-step guide to coming home with partner & family in tow will make experienced repats weep with joy and recognition. As they know all too well, culture shock lasts for a period of months...re-entry shock lasts a lifetime. Take note HR departments everywhere: if you really want to make sure the expatriate assignment is a success, tell your people how to come home....

Homeward Bound!: A Magnetic Playbook (Dora the Explorer)

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GREAT BOOK SO MUCH FUN!!!

Homeward Bound!: A Magnetic Playbook (Dora the Explorer)
Sonali Fry
Manufacturer: Simon Spotlight/Nickelodeon
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Popular Culture | Literature | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

General | Literature | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

General | Ages 4-8 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

All 4-for-3 Deals | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books
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ASIN: 0689865090

Book Description

Dora, Boots, and Diego have to take Baby Llama back to his home, and they need some help. Readers can use the magnets in this interactive book to complete the scenes. Then Dora and her friends can cross the stream, go through the waterfall, and more!

Customer Reviews:

GREAT BOOK SO MUCH FUN!!!.......2005-08-07

My kids 3 and 5 think this is the BEST Book!! Magenets stick well to!!! Great Value to!!

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Homeward Bound
Harry Turtledove
Manufacturer: Del Rey
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

Historical | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

War | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

General | Science Fiction | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books

All 4-for-3 Deals | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books
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ASIN: 0345458478
Release Date: 2005-12-27

Book Description

The twentieth century was awash in war. World powers were pouring men and machines onto the killing fields of Europe. Then, in one dramatic stroke, a divided planet was changed forever. An alien race attacked Earth, and for every nation, every human being, new battle lines were drawn. .

HOMEWARD BOUND

With his epic novels of alternate history, Harry Turtledove shares a stunning vision of what might have been–and what might still be–if one moment in history were changed. In the WorldWar and Colonization series, an ancient, highly advanced alien species found itself locked in a bitter struggle with a distant, rebellious planet–Earth. For those defending the Earth, this all-out war for survival supercharged human technology, made friends of foes, and turned allies into bitter enemies.

For the aliens known as the Race, the conflict has yielded dire consequences. Mankind has developed nuclear technology years ahead of schedule, forcing the invaders to accept an uneasy truce with nations that possess the technology to defend themselves. But it is the Americans, with their primitive inventiveness, who discover a way to launch themselves through distant space–and reach the Race’s home planet itself.

Now–in the twenty-first century–a few daring men and women embark upon a journey no human has made before. Warriors, diplomats, traitors, and exiles–the humans who arrive in the place called Home find themselves genuine strangers on a strange world, and at the center of a flash point with terrifying potential. For their arrival on the alien home world may drive the enemy to make the ultimate decision–to annihilate an entire planet, rather than allow the human contagion to spread. It may be that nothing can deter them from this course.

With its extraordinary cast of characters–human, nonhuman, and some in between–Homeward Bound is a fascinating contemplation of cultures, armies, and individuals in collision. From the novelist USA Today calls “the leading author of alternate history,” this is a novel of vision, adventure, and constant, astounding surprise.

From the Hardcover edition.

Download Description

With his epic novels of alternate history, Harry Turtledove shares a stunning vision of what might have been—and what might still be—if one moment in history were changed. In the WorldWar and Colonization series, an ancient, highly advanced alien species found itself locked in a bitter struggle with a distant, rebellious planet—Earth. For those defending the Earth, this all–out war for survival supercharged human technology, made friends of foes, and turned allies into bitter enemies.

For the aliens known as the Race, the conflict has yielded dire consequences. Mankind has developed nuclear technology years ahead of schedule, forcing the invaders to accept an uneasy truce with nations that possess the technology to defend themselves. But it is the Americans, with their primitive inventiveness, who discover a way to launch themselves through distant space—and reach the Race’s home planet itself.

Now—in the twenty-first century—a few daring men and women embark upon a journey no human has made before. Warriors, diplomats, traitors, and exiles—the humans who arrive in the place called Home find themselves genuine strangers on a strange world, and at the center of a flash point with terrifying potential. For their arrival on the alien home world may drive the enemy to make the ultimate decision—to annihilate an entire planet, rather than allow the human contagion to spread. It may be that nothing can deter them from this course.

With its extraordinary cast of characters—human, nonhuman, and some in between—Homeward Bound is a fascinating contemplation of cultures, armies, and individuals in collision. From the novelist USA Today calls “the leading author of alternate history,” this is a novel of vision, adventure, and constant, astounding surprise.

Homeward Bound: American Veterans Return from War

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Homeward Bound: American Veterans Return from War
Richard H. Taylor
Manufacturer: Praeger Security International General Interest-Cloth
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Military | History | Subjects | Books

Military Science | History | Subjects | Books

General | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
ASIN: 0275983854

Book Description

The story of veterans coming home from wars has not been concisely recorded to highlight the major problems they've faced. Having gone to war and survived, they have expectations, hopes, and dreams of a better life. In Homeward Bound, Taylor chronicles their struggles to realize all of those expectations by tracing the experiences of American veterans from the Revolutionary War through the current conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. In doing so, he connects pieces of a longer, larger story that has traditionally been told only in individual parts. Homeward Bound delves into personal memoirs, dusty diaries, and teary interviews to link veterans' hopes for the future with the ways in which their dreams were fulfilled-or died. It shows how war changed these men and women, how they lived with their experiences despite the odds, and how alone they can be. Unlike most histories of American veterans or veterans' organizations that focus on groups from a specific conflict or era, Taylor's work chronicles the struggles faced by American veterans throughout our history. Each chapter begins with a battlefield vignette designed to take the reader back to a given conflict. This is followed by an explanation of the situation and of the reception veterans faced when they returned home, as well as the evolving response of the federal government to veterans' needs and benefits. Among the issues Taylor explores are social readjustment/acceptance, training, placement, and hiring preferences; medical care and disability compensation; education; retirement and burial. The work also examines to what extent the treatment of women/minority veterans has differed, as well as how veterans' issues have affected women/minorities in society. The chapters are followed by appendices that list veterans programs and organizations. Accompanying photographs relate still other stories--those written on our veterans' gallant faces.

Deathlands # 5 - Homeward Bound (Deathlands)

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The best of the Deathlands series.

Deathlands # 5 - Homeward Bound (Deathlands)
James Axler
Manufacturer: Graphic Audio
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio CD

General | Fantasy | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books

General | Science Fiction | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books

Action & Adventure | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 1599500159

Product Description

Unabridged

Customer Reviews:

The best of the Deathlands series........1998-08-24

Axler is one of the most creative sci fi writers that I have read in a long time. The Deathlands series is highly innovative and always action packed, albeit extremely violent.

Simply written in a simple style, the author creates a whole new post-holocaust world. His primary characters exhibit a basic moral code, more mindful of the Old Testament than the New.

Highly detail oriented, the writer is obsessive in his descriptions of weaponry. His fight and battle scenes are not for the squeamish.

Homeward Bound was the first of the series that I read and without a doubt, the best. Homeward Bound is typical of the series but has the added themes of sibling rivalry, patricide, incest and the resulting psycho-social damage.

In Homeward Bound, Ryan Cawdor returns to his home and confronts the painful past.

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Very Thorogh

Homeward Bound: A History of the Bahama Islands to 1850 With a Definitive Study of Abaco in the American Loyalist Plantation Period
Sandra Riley
Manufacturer: Island Research
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Bahamas | Caribbean & West Indies | Americas | History | Subjects | Books
General | Caribbean & West Indies | Americas | History | Subjects | Books
General | United States | Americas | History | Subjects | Books
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Bahama Saga: The Epic story of the Bahama Islands

Islanders in the Stream: A History of the Bahamian People: Volume Two: From the Ending of Slavery to the Twenty-First Century

The Bahamas from Slavery to Servitude, 1783-1933

ASIN: 0966531027

Customer Reviews:

Very Thorogh.......2006-04-04

Lots of detail for family trees and genealogy, especially from Virginia & the Carolinas.

Homeward Bound: The Demobilization of the Union & Confederate Armies, 1865-66

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Clarifying a Chaotic Time in U.S. History
trains, boats, and walking!

Homeward Bound: The Demobilization of the Union & Confederate Armies, 1865-66
William B. Holberton
Manufacturer: Stackpole Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Americas | History | Subjects | Books

Book Description

What happened to the hundreds of thousands of men in the Union and Confederate armies after they lay down their arms? According to William Holberton, many of these men had miles to travel before they were discharged from service, and the passage of these miles included some rather unique situations and experiences. As always, there was bureaucratic red tape and mishandled orders, and in some cases, tragic accidents, such as the Sultana disaster. Beginning with the surrender at Appomattox Court House, the author takes the reader through all the aspects and phases of demobilization, including the Grand Review in Washington, the desertions of soldiers overly eager to return home, the differences between Union and Confederate demobilization, the repatriation of prisoners of war, and the deferred demobilization of many black troops.

Customer Reviews:

Clarifying a Chaotic Time in U.S. History.......2004-08-28

I'll admit I find books such as these appealing, for the writers (in this case deceased before publication) are assembling information from lifelong passionate study, in this case, the American Civil War.

This topic is long neglected--the demobilization of the Armies. One would think that the period between Appomatox and the official end of Reconstruction was one of relative non-events...yet on personal levels, from which William Holberton draws, it was a period of passion and uncertainty that we would hardly bear quietly today.

During this time, however, was laid the blueprints for many current political issues--political correctness, repatriations to victims of slavery, the development of the Southern Heritage movement in various forms, and regionalization of the South which would last another 140-plus years.

As an example, hear the yearnings of a member of the 56th U.S. Colored Infantry Regiment, bound to return to the border state of Missouri..."There has severl redgements who enlisted one year after we did mustered out and gone home. We stood on the bank and she teers to think that we who had batled for our country over two years should still be retaineed and deprived of the privilege of seeing those who are so sear to us" (p. 139). This, from a man who came from those whom sociologists only recently learned had "family units" and loyaltie that would make a modern divorce lawyer wince.

And consider the many who died of disease AFTER the war, or the Ohioans in occupation who were camped south of New Orleans, only to fight alligators, polluted waters, only to move on to the occupation of Texas, an even more formidable assignment, many dying daily of dysentery and like illnesses.

My only criticism of this book would be the relative lack of documentation of Confederate demobilization--not surprising, given the manner in which Confederate veterans were treated. Unfortunately, Lincoln's "with malice toward none...with charity for all" dictum was not held in wide esteem or knowledge. The country today would be better for recognition that Confederates (often black or African-American, Jewish, or members of some other "minority" were fighting as Cicero said, "Pro Aris et Pro Focis" (for home and hearth) against an invasion, as much as for political beliefs.

A volume beloning in any Civil War historian or student's library.

trains, boats, and walking!.......2002-06-13

I purchased this book some time ago, with great anticipation, yet was somewhat disappointed. Oddly, the whole tale is outlined in the excerpt printed on the back cover! Johnny Reb was pretty much on his own, while the Northern troops had the advantages of the railways, and other means of transportation at their disposal. That is pretty much it! Granted, the late Fr. Holberton offers many "eye-witness" accounts of the trials and travails of the wanderings of both Federal and Confederate soldiers, yet even these become repetitive in their sameness.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent read! .......2005-02-17

This is an wonderful, well-written, informative book. It is a superb resource and it answers all questions of potential homeschoolers. Kimberly Hahn and Mary Hassen do a great job of not only emphasizing the importance of educating our children, but also how to incorporate our faith into educating our children.

Problematic.......2002-10-06

While this book is an easy to read guide to homeschooling, there are problems with its "Catholicity". Kimberly Hahn has recommended some sources which are Protestant -produced and anti-Catholic. There is an underlying tone of disapproval of traditional Catholic sources such as the baltimore Catechism which most homeschooling Catholic parents I know prefer to use.
Just beware. Why two "catholic" authors have chosen to do this only points to the fact that there are deep divisions in the Catholic hoemschooling movement. These two ladies see themselves as Catholic home educator leaders but they do not represent all.

Homeschooling Made Simple.......2002-08-22

Today there are so many books available on the market on how to homeschool your child. Many promote a certain curriculum, others just leave you confused and scratching your head.I love the way Hasson and Hahn keep it simple! You are able to glean from their experience, their triumphs and failures. It is written by "the experts" the homeschooling moms themselves.They are real/relevant in their approach to homeschooling. This book is directed towards people of the Catholic faith, however as I Christian I found it to be one of the best books on the market.

A resource that I keep learning from.......2000-03-06

Let me add one more thing to what so many others have already said. Our support group purchased two copies of "Catholic Education: Homeward Bound" when it first came out. Now, after my second reading, I can say that I got much more out of it this time than before. Maybe it's because I have more experience, whatever, I realize what a valuable resource this book is, one that I keep learning from.

But I agree with the suggestion made by another reviewer who suggested that the authors should think about adding a brief update to the end, so we might find out more about what other new resources have come out in the last few years.

It made my wife a believer.......2000-02-29

This book is outstanding. My two sisters have been home-schooling their kids for the last five years, but my wife didn't think it was possible for her to consider it. My older sister told me to get her this book. So I did. After reading it last summer, she got the materials together to begin teaching our oldest daughter in September. Here it is, six months later, and my wife says it is the best choice she's ever made. Thank you Mrs. Hahn and Mrs Hasson.

Liverpool Buttons & Homeward-Bound Stitches: Portrait of a Master Mariner

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Liverpool Buttons & Homeward-Bound Stitches: Portrait of a Master Mariner
Ottmar Friz
Manufacturer: Cypress House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1879384221

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