baronessekat | 2020 Popsugar Reading Challenge: Book with a book on the cover

When Books Went to War: The Stories that Helped Us Win World War II by Molly Guptill Manning

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

4.5 stars

I found this book very interesting and dear to my heart... promotion of reading to help fight boredom and promote free ideas through books.

This is the story of how a drive to help alleviate boredom and support the troops helped change the world of publishing. Through a mission to bring books and printed material to the troops in Europe and the Pacific, a government funded operation brought the idea of making books small, light weight and portable. This lead to the development of mass market paperback books (at the time called ASE - or Armed Services Editions).

The Services credited these books in keeping up the morale of the troops, helped the sick and injured heal and even helped fight the fascist spread of censorship. Millions of these books brought such works as Plato, Dickens, and even modern tales and texts to the masses. By reading these books the troops were able to escape the trials of war, return to home and even learn new skills and find a love of reading (which helped when returning from war and going into college and earning a degree).

I highly recommend this book.

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