About this item
The story of the intrepid young women who volunteered to help and entertain American servicemen fighting overseas, from World War I through the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.The emotional toll of war can be as debilitating to soldiers as hunger, disease, and injury. Beginning in World War I, in an effort to boost soldiers' morale and remind them of the stakes of victory, the American military formalized a recreation program that sent respectable young women and famous entertainers overseas.Kara Dixon Vuic builds her narrative around the young women from across the United States, many of whom had never traveled far from home, who volunteered to serve in one of the nation's most brutal work environments. From the "Lassies" in France and mini-skirted coeds in Vietnam to Marlene Dietrich and Marilyn Monroe, Vuic provides a fascinating glimpse into wartime gender roles and the tensions that continue to complicate American women's involvement in the military arena. The recreation-program volunteers heightened the passions of troops but also domesticated everyday life on the bases. Their presence mobilized support for the war back home, while exporting American culture abroad. Carefully recruited and selected as symbols of conventional femininity, these adventurous young women saw in the theater of war a bridge between public service and private ambition.This story of the women who talked and listened, danced and sang, adds an intimate chapter to the history of war and its ties to life in peacetime.
About the Author
Dr. Kara Dixon Vuic is the Benjamin W. Schmidt Professor of War, Conflict, and Society at Texas Christian University. She holds a Ph.D. in History from Indiana University and teaches courses on U.S. history, war and society, women's history, and 20th century U.S. social and cultural history. Dr. Vuic's research focuses on questions of gender and militarism. Her first book, Officer, Nurse, Woman: The Army Nurse Corps in the Vietnam War (The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2010; paperback 2011) , examines the intersection of second-wave feminism with the Vietnam-era Army Nurse Corps. The book won the 2010 Lavinia L. Dock Book Award from the American Association for the History of Nursing, was named a 2010 Book of the Year in History and Public Policy by the American Journal of Nursing, and was a finalist for the Army Historical Foundation Distinguished Writing Award. She is completing a manuscript tentatively titled "Look but Don't Touch: Gender and Recreation in Twentieth Century Wars" (under contract with Harvard University Press) . This book will examine the history of military and civilian agencies' use of women to entertain American troops during World Wars I and II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and recent wars in the Middle East.
