ISBN: 0-88739-475-2
472 pp.
Size: 6 x 9
Paperback Original
Price: $20.00
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Expectations and Realities
The True Feelings of a Generation about World War II
Duff Wyllie
Author Duff Wyllie’s collection of 400 interviews captures a generation’s emotional reaction to war and the lasting impressions left by childhood prejudices and world concepts. Focusing on eight nations, Expectations and Realities introduces an international base of people who experienced wartime as adolescents in 1939. Summaries of their responses touch upon subjects including politics, philosophy, and ethics. The Holocaust, the bombing of civilians, and the influence of government propaganda surface as topics of discussion as the wartime generation considers whether its youthful expectations have been met.
Review: "Through careful thematic selections, a steady chronological time frame, and appropriate historical markers, Wyllie creates a firm narrative...Expectations and Realities links a novelistic form of growth from innocence to experience, with a historical description of monumental events."
-Eric Solomon, Professor of English, San Francisco State University
"With skill and diligence, Duff Wyllie brings a profoundly human touch to a terrible time in our history. Through the voices of those who were there, he makes an unusual and most valuable contribution to our understanding of the events leading to a cataclysmic war."
-Ron Fimrite, former news reporter and columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle
"...Duff Wyllie's book [is] valuable because the variety of opinions he reports reflects the differences in knowledge and values---and the resulting prejudices---of his interviewees. Let us learn from that."
-R. Raack, Emeritus Professor of History, CSU Hayward
Bio: DUFF WYLLIE, a member of the generation interviewed for this book, was trained as a political scientist at the University of California, Berkeley. He served in the US Army and was marketing research manager for a Fortune 500 company for several years. Currently, he is writing an epistolary novel about World War I, and lives in San Francisco with his wife, Carmen, a printmaker.
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