Welcome to my blog where I share my book reviews
and life along the winding road

Friday, August 10, 2012

A War of Her Own by Sylvia Dickey Smith

I was fortunate to meet Sylvia Dickey Smith at a Weatherford College event a year ago. She introduced us to the world of Rosie the Riveter, a name given to the female workers during WWII. A War of Her Own follows a Texas family through the war years. Orange, Texas had once been a small town, but in 1943 with shipbuilding programs to help the war effort, people traveled there to find work and a population explosion took place. Not only were men hired, but also women and Bea found that she could escape her cheating husband and support herself and her child. Ms. Smith gives us a glimpse into the lives of many people who are caught in drastic changes that affected Americans during the 1940s. Germans were not welcome, gypsies were frowned upon and women, who had previously only had a place in the home, were now working. They Called it the War Effort was a book Sylvia Dickey Smith used as part of her research.