"[This book] is the story of what happened in the United States between Pearl Harbor and V-J Day. For those ... who were in this country then, the book will be a trip down memory lane. For others, it will be pure history. For all, it will be a thorough re-creation of the events, sometimes ludicrous and sometimes tragic, and personalities that left their mark upon America during a period of transition and upheaval. V-girls and V-mail, Willow Run and...

"In Double Lives, Lingeman explores friendships that span the centuries, straddle both coasts, and take in every gender combination. Mark Twain and William Dean Howells were co-curmudgeons who shared a sense of humor and a deep streak of generosity. Willa Cather had the great good fortune to encounter the older Yankee writer Sarah Orne Jewett at the precise moment when Cather was ready to embrace her own professional and sexual identity. F. Scott...