Dear John
Love and Loyalty in Wartime America

A sweeping history of emotional life that explores how 'Dear John' letters became a rite of passage for American servicemen.

Susan L. Carruthers (Author)

9781108830775, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 6 January 2022

336 pages
23.5 x 15.8 x 2.3 cm, 0.64 kg

'Her account offers insights into a broader entanglement, involving the militarism that shores up modern nationhood; the emotional and sexual ties that sustain and can destroy men in the military; and the women on whom male soldiers have poured hatred as well as adoration.' Julia Laite, London Review of Books

Are 'Dear John' letters lethal weapons in the hands of men at war? Many US officers, servicemen, veterans, and civilians would say yes. Drawing on personal letters, oral histories, and psychiatric reports, as well as popular music and movies, Susan L. Carruthers shows how the armed forces and civilian society have attempted to weaponize romantic love in pursuit of martial ends, from World War II to today. Yet efforts to discipline feeling have frequently failed. And women have often borne the blame. This sweeping history of emotional life in wartime explores the interplay between letter-writing and storytelling, breakups and breakdowns, and between imploded intimacy and boosted camaraderie. Incorporating vivid personal experiences in lively and engaging prose – variously tragic, comic, and everything in between – this compelling study will change the way we think about wartime relationships.

Introduction: Picking up the pieces
1. The marital and the martial
2. Rules of engagement, or 'write right!'
3. Technologies of proximity
4. 'That's all she wrote': Telling Dear John stories
5. 'The modern Penelope': Aanalyzing the waiting wife
6. Emotional injury: Causes and consequences
7. Severed ties and suicide
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Second World War [HBWQ], Social & cultural history [HBTB], 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000 [HBLW], History of the Americas [HBJK]