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The World Within War: America's Combat Experience in World War II. By Gerald F. Linderman. New York: Free Press, 1997. ISBN 0-68482797-2. Endnotes. Bibliography. Index. Pp. x, 408. 126.00.
Gerald Linderman has written a social history of the American combat soldier's experience during World War II that explores an often overlooked dimension of the conflict. Drawing on memoirs, letters, and other sources, Linderman weaves his findings into a broad interpretive pattern. He concludes that the war had a "disintegrative" effect on the combatants, forcing them to cope with the stress of battle in ways that would change them for life. Moreover, these changes worked to isolate the combat soldier from not only civilian society, but also noncombat military personnel.
According to Linderman, new recruits, weaned on a diet of romantic notions of warfare and filled...