The history of those who shed those other tears, the history of those anonymous millions, is what Terkel wants readers and listeners to come away with. What's it like to be that goofy little soldier, scared stiff, with his bayonet aimed at Christ? What's it like to have been a woman in a defense-plant job during World War II? What's it like to be a kid at the front lines? It's all funny and tragic at the same time.
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You know — we've had to imagine the war here, and we have imagined that it was being fought by read more
You know — we've had to imagine the war here, and we have imagined that it was being fought by aging men like ourselves. We had forgotten that the wars were fought by babies. When I saw those freashly shaved faces, it was a shock. 'My God, my God —' I said to myself, 'it's the Children's Crusade.'
There is no such thing as an inevitable war. If war comes it will be from failure of human wisdom.
There is no such thing as an inevitable war. If war comes it will be from failure of human wisdom.
He who joyfully marches to music in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a read more
He who joyfully marches to music in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would suffice.
In wartime, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies.
In wartime, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies.
If it were proved to me that in making war, my ideal had a chance of being realized, I would read more
If it were proved to me that in making war, my ideal had a chance of being realized, I would still say "no" to war. For one does not create a human society on mounds of corpses.
We will fight them in the air, land and sea, and their aggression
will achieve nothing but failure.
We will fight them in the air, land and sea, and their aggression
will achieve nothing but failure.
What is absurd and monstrous about war is that men who have no personal quarrel should be trained to murder read more
What is absurd and monstrous about war is that men who have no personal quarrel should be trained to murder one another in cold blood.
Marriage is the only war in which you sleep with the enemy.
Marriage is the only war in which you sleep with the enemy.
I couldn't help but say to [Mr. Gorbachev], just think how easy his task and mine might be in these read more
I couldn't help but say to [Mr. Gorbachev], just think how easy his task and mine might be in these meetings that we held if suddenly there was a threat to this world from another planet. [We'd] find out once and for all that we really are all human beings here on this earth together.
