The Year of Peril, Tracy Campbell
The Year of Peril, Tracy Campbell
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The Year of Peril
America in 1942

Author: Tracy Campbell

Narrator: Paul Heitsch

Unabridged: 14 hr 7 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 07/18/2020

Synopsis

A fascinating chronicle of how the character of American society revealed itself under the duress of World War II.The Second World War exists in the American historical imagination as a time of unity and optimism. In 1942, however, after a series of defeats in the Pacific and the struggle to establish a beachhead on the European front, America seemed to be on the brink of defeat and was beginning to splinter from within.Exploring this precarious moment, Tracy Campbell paints a portrait of the deep social, economic, and political fault lines that pitted factions of citizens against each other in the post–Pearl Harbor era, even as the nation mobilized, government-aided industrial infrastructure blossomed, and parents sent their sons off to war. This captivating look at how American society responded to the greatest stress experienced since the Civil War reveals the various ways, both good and bad, that the trauma of 1942 forced Americans to redefine their relationship with democracy in ways that continue to affect us today.

About Tracy Campbell

Tracy Campbell is the E. Vernon Smith and Eloise C. Smith Professor of American History at the University of Kentucky. His previous books include The Gateway Arch: A Biography and Deliver the Vote: A History of Election Fraud, an American Political Tradition, 1742–2004.

About Paul Heitsch

After producing, directing, and engineering spoken word recordings for over twenty years, Paul Heitsch began narrating audiobooks in 2011, and has recorded many bestselling titles as both himself and under a pseudonym. A classically trained pianist, Paul is also a composer and sound designer, and is currently the director of music for the James Madison University School of Theatre and Dance, and an adjunct instructor for the JMU School of Music. He and his family live in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley region of Virginia (although Chicago will always be his hometown).

Reviews

Goodreads review by CoachJim on October 29, 2022

Why Study History? What relevance is there in reading about events from 80 years ago, when we are currently facing a threat to our Constitution and Democracy by an ex-president and his ilk, or facing climate change with its dangerous consequences to our health and wellbeing. Shouldn’t we be thinki......more

Goodreads review by John on July 27, 2020

The book follows the year in America after the unexpected Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. There are parallels for Americans coping with COVID-19 in 2020; people hoarding; charges of incompetence hurled at Congress and the administration; misinformation spreading amok; incessant anxiety about an unk......more

Goodreads review by Joyce on October 14, 2021

Absolutely fascinating look at events--political, military, social--in the critical year following the attack on Pearl Harbor. I had no idea things were so precarious! I assumed that FDR managed the New Deal and war preparations without serious opposition-ha! Lots of political wrangling, defeat afte......more

Goodreads review by Ted on May 24, 2021

I can't remember where I first read about this little gem of a book, but I am certainly pleased that I was made aware of it. For those looking for a definitive study of the United States in World War II, this is not your book. It focuses simply on the year 1942 (each chapter studies one month of tha......more

Goodreads review by Ben on July 08, 2020

The book wasn't not written for 2020, but it is a great book to read in the perspective of 2020. It reminds us that there are many voices and different opinions, even with something as dramatic as being bombed less than a month earlier. There are issues we forget about, such as the demand that blood......more

Quotes

“A war-torn world menaced by fascism, a fragile democracy crippled by racism, as ordinary citizens confront the crisis; Campbell’s riveting history reveals our current predicaments to be the same poisons that almost killed America in 1942.” Timothy B. Tyson, New York Times bestselling author

“The shock of Pearl Harbor seemingly united Americans to fight a ‘total war,’ but The Year of Peril reveals how intensely many citizens resented wartime taxes, rationing, and price setting, and how divided they remained due to deep-seated racial prejudices. Tracy Campbell splendidly re-creates the era and dispels its myths.” Donald A. Ritchie, historian emeritus of the U.S. Senate and author of Electing FDR: The New Deal Campaign of 1932

“It seems incredible today that the U.S. had no confidence, in the chaos of 1942, that it would win the war or even remain a world power. Tracy Campbell, in this robust and engaging read, has built a mesmerizing narrative re-creation of that momentous year on the home front, a retelling built on assiduous research, the perfect election of small details, and the discipline to write as if he didn’t know the outcome.” Hank Klibanoff, co-author of The Race Beat: The Press, the Civil Rights Struggle, and the Awakening of a Nation, winner of the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for History

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