The Darkest Year
The American Home Front, 1941-1942
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Narrated by:
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Stefan Rudnicki
About this listen
The Darkest Year is acclaimed author William K. Klingaman’s narrative history of the American home front from December 7, 1941 through the end of 1942, a psychological study of the nation under the pressure of total war.
For Americans on the home front, the 12 months following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor comprised the darkest year of World War Two. Despite government attempts to disguise the magnitude of American losses, it was clear that the nation had suffered a nearly unbroken string of military setbacks in the Pacific; by the autumn of 1942, government officials were openly acknowledging the possibility that the United States might lose the war.
Appeals for unity and declarations of support for the war effort in the aftermath of Pearl Harbor made it appear as though the class hostilities and partisan animosities that had beset the United States for decades - and grown sharper during the Depression - suddenly disappeared. They did not, and a deeply divided American society splintered further during 1942 as numerous interest groups sought to turn the wartime emergency to their own advantage.
Blunders and repeated displays of incompetence by the Roosevelt administration added to the sense of anxiety and uncertainty that hung over the nation.
The Darkest Year focuses on Americans’ state of mind not only through what they said, but in the day-to-day details of their behavior. Klingaman blends these psychological effects with the changes the war wrought in American society and culture, including shifts in family roles, race relations, economic pursuits, popular entertainment, education, and the arts.
©2019 William K. Klingaman (P)2018 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.Listeners also enjoyed...
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Our Mothers' War is an eye-opening and moving portrait of women during World War II, a war that forever transformed the way women participate in American society. Never before has the vast range of women's experiences during this pivotal era been brought together in one book.
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Amazing
- By Sam I on 02-04-22
By: Emily Yellin
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The Berlin Wall
- By: Frederick Taylor
- Narrated by: Daniel Philpott
- Length: 19 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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The appearance of a hastily constructed barbed wire entanglement through the heart of Berlin during the night of 12-13 August 1961 was both dramatic and unexpected. Within days, it had started to metamorphose into a structure that would come to symbolise the brutal insanity of the Cold War: the Berlin Wall. A city of almost four million was cut ruthlessly in two, unleashing a potentially catastrophic East-West crisis and plunging the entire world for the first time into the fear of imminent missile-borne apocalypse.
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TEAR. DOWN. THIS. WALL
- By Simone on 05-23-13
By: Frederick Taylor
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FDR Goes to War
- How Expanded Executive Power, Spiraling National Debt, and Restricted Civil Liberties Shaped Wartime America
- By: Burton W. Folsom, Anita Folson
- Narrated by: Alan Sklar
- Length: 13 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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FDR Goes to War expands on the premise that FDR's legacy has damaged America and helped lay the groundwork for the current economic crisis.
The Folsoms continue to expose the idyllic legend of Franklin D. Roosevelt as a myth of epic proportions. Many government programs that are widely used today have their seeds in the New Deal.
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Very good
- By Nick L on 11-03-12
By: Burton W. Folsom, and others
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A History of Modern Britain
- By: Andrew Marr
- Narrated by: David Timson
- Length: 29 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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A History of Modern Britain confronts head-on the victory of shopping over politics. It tells the story of how the great political visions of New Jerusalem or a second Elizabethan Age, rival idealisms, came to be defeated by a culture of consumerism, celebrity and self-gratification. In each decade political leaders think they know what they are doing but find themselves confounded. Every time the British people turn out to be stroppier and harder to herd than predicted.
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Masterful in focus, pace, content, performance
- By Philo on 11-10-16
By: Andrew Marr
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The Eagles of Heart Mountain
- A True Story of Football, Incarceration, and Resistance in World War II America
- By: Bradford Pearson
- Narrated by: Feodor Chin
- Length: 11 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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In the spring of 1942, the United States government forced 120,000 Japanese Americans from their homes in California, Oregon, Washington, and Arizona and sent them to incarceration camps across the West. Nearly 14,000 of them landed on the outskirts of Cody, Wyoming, at the base of Heart Mountain. Behind barbed wire fences, they faced racism, cruelty, and frozen winters. Trying to recreate comforts from home, they established Buddhist temples and sumo wrestling pits. Kabuki performances drew hundreds of spectators — yet there was little hope.
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I wanted to like it
- By Happy Mountain on 06-04-22
By: Bradford Pearson
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Only Yesterday
- An Informal History of the 1920s
- By: Frederick Lewis Allen
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 11 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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In this span between armistice and depression, Americans were kicking up their heels, but they were also bringing about major changes in the social and political structure of their country. Only Yesterday is a fond, witty, penetrating biography of this restless decade, a delightful reminiscence for those who can remember and a fascinating firsthand look for those who've only heard.
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Loved this book
- By Matthew M. Kayes on 06-11-07
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New World Coming
- The 1920s and the Making of Modern America
- By: Nathan Miller
- Narrated by: Lloyd James
- Length: 18 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Jazz. Bootleggers. Flappers. Talkies. Model T Fords. Lindbergh's history-making flight over the Atlantic. The 1920s was also the decade of the hard-won vote for women, racial injustice, censorship, social conflict, and the birth of organized crime.
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My High School History Class Never Told
- By Charles Stembridge on 06-29-04
By: Nathan Miller
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The Start
- 1904-1930
- By: William L. Shirer
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 22 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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William L. Shirer was a CBS foreign correspondent and renowned author of New York Times best-selling nonfiction about World War II, and this is the first part of his three-part autobiography. A renowned journalist and author of The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, William L. Shirer chronicles his own life story in a personal history that parallels the greater historical events for which he served as a witness.
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Clouds gathering on the horizon in Europe
- By Nancy on 08-12-20
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Britain at Bay
- The Epic Story of the Second World War, 1938-1941
- By: Alan Allport
- Narrated by: James Langton
- Length: 21 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Here is the many-faceted, world-historically significant story of Britain at war. In looking closely the military and political dimensions of the conflict's first crucial years, Alan Allport tackles questions such as: Could the war have been avoided? Could it have been lost? Were the strategic decisions the rights ones? How well did the British organize and fight? How well did the British live up to their own values? What difference did the war make in the end to the fate of the nation?
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A History worth your read
- By Norm the Nonfiction Reader on 08-18-21
By: Alan Allport
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Human Smoke
- The Beginnings of World War II, the End of Civilization
- By: Nicholson Baker
- Narrated by: Norman Dietz
- Length: 14 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Human Smoke delivers an indictment of the treasured myths that have romanticized much of the 1930s and '40s. Incorporating meticulous research and well-documented sources---including newspaper and magazine articles, radio speeches, memoirs, and diaries---the book juxtaposes hundreds of interrelated moments of decision, brutality, suffering, and mercy. Vivid glimpses of political leaders and their dissenters illuminate the gradual, horrifying advance toward overt global war and Holocaust.
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Not a "History Book" per se
- By Roy on 02-20-09
By: Nicholson Baker
What listeners say about The Darkest Year
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- J.Brock
- 12-10-19
Too Dry, Like Listening To A Grocery List
This book is one of those that would probably be better read than audibly listened to. It's much too clinical. It starts out relatively interestingly, and then slowly disintegrates into random, albeit uninteresting bullet points. So, much of the ideas are lost quickly on the listener. And the points overlap, so one point ends up where the last one started. This unfortunately doesn't play to narrator Stefan Rudnicki's strengths.
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- Marc R Luce
- 08-22-21
Unflinching recount of the US home front.
Wide-ranging and masterfully narrated. Our victory in WWII is made more impressive with this perspective.
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- Dominic
- 08-16-20
Excellent very informative of what life was like
Very well done use of clear well documented news of all that occurred during this historic time in our country. The detail of Dec 1941 after is outstanding with a real life view of the panic that occured
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- reader
- 10-07-24
An important book
Evidences America’s contentment before and hysteria in the year after Pearl Harbor, arousing for this reader parallels with today. I learned a lot about the Home Front then.
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- Frank Donnelly
- 10-30-20
A Well Documented Non Fiction of American Life in 1942
This is a well narrated audiobook about life inside America between the Attack on Pearl Harbor and the end of 1942. The story is about life within the United States mainly from the standpoint of civilian society, business, and government. It is not about military battles. I really liked this book.
I read the book on Kindle while listening. The audiobook is faithful to the Kindle text. As an audiobook I was easily able to follow the story while walking or commuting. I also double checked many details independently and found the details to be accurately reported.
The book also reports on social,issues, including injustice to African Americans, Japanese Americans, and women. I appreciated these reports. I learned a great deal. As far as the domestic aspect of American life at the beginning of World War II, I would not hesitate to recommend this book. Thank You....
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