Rich Relations: The American occupation of Britain 1942–1945 - Hardcover

Reynolds, David

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0002551276 ISBN 13: 9780002551274

Publisher: HarperCollins, 1995

Synopsis

This study of the social, political and military history of the American presence in Britain during the World War II sets out to show its impact and legacy. The author uses documents from all over the US and the UK, and interviews with survivors, to indicate the variety of relationships between the homesick GIs, British women and the Allied soldiers. He examines the job of the US aircrews, and how Churchill's Government coped with the situation of having the US army based in the UK. The book also includes an estimate of the number of war-brides together with stories of illegitimate children of GIs looking for their fathers.

About this title

From the Publisher

“Wonderful...[it] touches on so many fascinating topics that a reviewer can hardly convey its scope and excellence” Angus Calder, Sunday Times

From the Back Cover

David Reynold's entertaining, illuminating book explores the rich variety of relations between pushy, homesick American GIs, famously lampooned as 'over-paid, over-sexed, over-fed and over here', and their British hosts – 'under-sexed, under-paid, under-fed and under Eisenhower' – during the Second World War.

"What a rare pleasure to find a book which achieves such high standards of readability and scholarship. It is also excellently produced with fine maps and lavish illustration...an important and original contribution to our understanding of the Second World War."
JOHN KEEGAN, 'Daily Telegraph'

"There have been studies of this transatlantic encounter before, but David Reynold's is so good, so thoroughly researched in both archives and the memories of those who were there, that it needs to be announced to the sound of trumpets...It deserves to be read by anyone and everyone interested in Anglo-American relations. At times it moves one to disgust, even shame; at times to a lump in the throat, if not to actual tears."
DAVID CAMERON WATT, 'Independent'

"David Reynolds's book is rich, ambitious in concept, irresistible in detail and written with a burning conviction that war is social history as much as the politics of power...(his) enormous skill lies in the interplay between the official statistics and reports and the individual emotional histories. What a relief, for once, to read a historian of soldiering who pays as much attention to women as men...the most riveting chapters are those on GI girlfriends...This book reeks with recollection. Reynolds enters into the realms of oral testimony most historians are scared of."
FIONA MACCARTHY, 'Observer'

"Reynolds marries the 'new' military history which studies armies in social and psychological terms, to political, diplomatic, economic and social history, and he articulates his astounding range of material with the fluency of a first-rate novelist...the paramount hero of Reynolds's book is GI Joe himself, eventually tested and not found wanting in the battles in France to which Reynolds at last turns. I won't tell you how his story ends. I fancy the last page will move others, like myself, to tears."
ANGUS CALDER, 'Sunday Times'

About this edition

• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0002551276
• ISBN 13: 9780002551274
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 512