Reading in Wartime?

In 1943, the New York Times Book Review published a sergeant’s observations about reading in the military. “So help me,” he said, “American soldiers over here don’t read much of anything except their personal mail.” “Not one in twenty was in the habit of reading books before he joined the Army, and the Army in wartime is no place to learn how,” he declared.

The skepticism of this sergeant was hardly unique; his view seems to have been shared by many others—from civilians on the home front to starred generals. But the idea that American soldiers did not read was a myth. For most troops, 90 percent of war was spent waiting and the other 10 percent was a nightmare from which they wanted to escape. In their down time, soldiers craved distraction—to forget their fears, loneliness, homesickness, and worries. Books were a refuge. They were easy to carry and promised hours of diversion. In the words of the legendary World War II cartoonist Bill Mauldin, “soldiers at the front read K-ration labels when the contents are listed on the package, just to be reading something.” 

In both world wars, troops wanted books and the military needed help getting enough of them. Congressional funding was usually inadequate to meet demand but civilian organizations like the American Library Association had the resources and the infrastructure to efficiently get books into the hands of G.I.s. The military therefore collaborated with such groups to mobilize the public in these efforts. To persuade a dubious home front to donate books and money for troop libraries, government and civilian organizations launched nationwide poster campaigns featuring striking images and punchy taglines to demonstrate that books were popular in the armed services.

Perhaps the most famous book-related poster of World War I was designed by Charles Buckles Falls; it shows a soldier, his bayonet slung over his shoulder and a tower of books in his hands, who seems to look directly at the viewer. Its message was simple: “Books Wanted.” Donations could be left at a library. This powerful image from 1918 became the emblem of the war’s book drive, appearing on other posters as well as being printed as a bookplate that was pasted inside donated books.

Another of Falls’s World War I posters, issued in 1918, features an intimate image of a soldier absorbed in a book. He wears a full uniform with his pack strapped to his back and appears to be seeking a mental respite while on a short break. The poster asks civilians to donate exciting page-turners so that all troops might have the chance to escape into a story.

John Sheridan also designed several World War I posters. This one, from 1918, depicts a sailor immersed in a book while a soldier rallies for donations. The tagline makes the request personal and urgent—it is “your” money that must be donated so that troops can get the books “we need.” Such posters helped the public understand that books provided important entertainment for men at war. Within two years, more than seven million books were circulated to American servicemen.

During World War II, however, books not only provided a respite and entertainment but also served as a form of resistance. After Adolf Hitler became chancellor in 1933, the German government began banning and burning books that contained ideas contrary to Nazi ideology. This campaign ultimately extended to tens of thousands of titles and authors. As Americans watched Germans attempt to restrict and destroy intellectual freedom in this way, civilians were urged to protest and practice their democratic freedoms by reading and sharing books.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt led the charge, giving several speeches during the war about the importance of books and reading.This poster includes a quote from Roosevelt’s “Message to the American Booksellers Association” of April 23, 1942, which was reproduced in newspapers across the country. In his message, the president equated books with weapons, and asserted that “A war of ideas can no more be won without books than a naval war can be won without ships.” Just as Nazi Germany was trying to destroy the Allied armies, so too was it waging war on books and ideas. Soldiers needed weapons to fight on the battlefields but all Americans—civilians and those in uniform—had to be armed with books to effectively fight the war on ideas.

Many American posters during World War II used patriotic motifs to emphasize the connection between the reading of books and the preservation of democracy. This poster advertising the 1943 Victory Book Campaign shows the bald eagle, the classic symbol of American democracy, carrying a bundle of books for the troops. By no accident, the bird’s wings are shaped in a “V” for “Victory,” reinforcing the notion that books and ideas would help defeat the Axis powers.

This war bond poster, produced in 1942 by the Shulton Company, a manufacturer of toiletries, further demonstrates the connection between reading and democracy. It depicts a family reading in their living room beneath a pair of entwined American flags and the tagline “We’ll keep free by buying U.S’ War Bonds & Stamps.” It conveyed that Americans would continue to enjoy their freedoms, including the freedom to read, by supporting the Allied effort to preserve democracy. 

Servicemen read nearly one billion books, periodicals, and newspapers during World War II, and for decades after the war, book and magazine sales continued to rise. A generation of Americans not only developed the habit of reading but they also came to understand that the freedom of information and ideas was essential to maintaining democracy. It is important to remember this history today when book bans are on the rise in the United States, libraries face funding cuts, and the contours of democracy are being challenged. To take a page from America’s 1940s playbook, one of the best ways to preserve democracy is to resist censorship—and read.