Memorial Day Reading List: World War II by Marianna Vertsman, Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library (SNFL)May 25, 2018

US Coast Guard
Group photograph of the U.S. Coast Guard Quartet members while singing; New York, N.Y.; NYPL Digital Collections, Image ID: 1260358
This Memorial Day, we honor the memory of all those who lost their lives while serving in our country's armed forces. During World War II, around 900,000 New Yorkers served in the military, and the names of those who made the ultimate sacrifice are on the World War II Honor List, available on the New York State Military Museum website.
 
The titles recommended in this blog post focus on America's involvement in World War II; while the general Dewey Decimal Call Number for the subject of WWII at your local branch is 940.54 ,the majority of those books on the subject have a narrow focus. Other books on the war that are located across multiple parts of Dewey's spectrum can be challenging  to track down. To enhance your digital serendpitity, I have included a limited list of useful subject headings related to the Navy, Air Force, Pacific War, European Theater, and Women's Role in World War II. All digital images used here are part of the Library's Prints and Photographs Division of Shomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.
 

Air Force subject headings

 
 
 
 
 
 
Portrait of Tuskegee Airmen
 Group Portrait of Tugkegee Airmen, NYPL Digital Collections, Image ID:1823641 

Air Force recommended reading

 
Bow Side View of Liberty
Bow-side view of Liberty ship SS George Washington Carver as it slides down the way, Richmond Shipyard No. 1, NYPL Digital Collections, Image ID:1260238

Navy recommended reading

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Pacific War subject headings

 
 
 
African American Seamen
African American seamen delivering shells and loading the anti-aircraft gun aboard a vessel on the Atlantic patrol; NYPL Digital Collections, Image ID: 1260361

Pacific War recommended reading

The Fleet at Flood Tide: Ameican at Total War in the Pacific, 1944-1945 by James D. Hornfischer 

 
Implacable Foes: War in the Pacific,1944-1945 by Waldo Heinrichs and Marck Gallicchio 
 

Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand

 
 
 

European Theater subject headings

 
 
 
 
 
African American Soldiers in Vienna
Sixteen African American soldiers taking the Oath in Vienna, Austria; NYPL Digital Collections, Image ID: 1260282

European Theater recommended reading

Honor Before Glory; Epic World War II Story of the Japanese American GIs Who Rescued the Lost Batallion by Scott McGaugh

Band of Brothers: E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne from Normandy to Hitler's Eagle's Nest  by Stephen E. Ambrose

 

The Dead and Those About to Die : D-Day, the Big Red One at Omaha Beach  by John C. McManus 

Given up for Dead: American GIs in the Nazi Concentration Camp at Berga by Lint Whitlock

 
 

Women in WWII subject headings

World War, 1939-1945-Participation, Female 

Miss Anna Bland working on the SS George Washington
Miss Anna Bland, an African American woman, working on the SS George Washington CarverIMAGE ID 1260356

Women air pilots -- United States -- Biography

World War, 1939-1945 -- Cryptography 

Women in WWII recommended reading

Code Girls: The Untold Story of the American Women Code Breakers of World War II  by Liza Mundi

American Women and the World War II by Doris Weatherford 

Angels of the Underground: The American Women Who Resisted the Japanese in the Philippines in World War II by Theresa Kaminski

 
 
 

New York During World War II

African American Charity Adams, First Officer in the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps
African American Charity Adams, First Officer in the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps; NYPL Digital Collections, Image ID:1260343
 
 
WWII & NYC by Kenneth T. Jackson 
 

General History of the World War II 

 

The Second  World Wars: How the  First Global Conflict was Fought and Won  by Victor Davis Hanson

 
 
World War II  (electronic Resource ) 
 
On War and Writing by Samuel Hynes 
 
View all posts by Marianna Vertsman