Marching Home: To War and Back with the Men of One American Town

by Kevin Coyne

Of the sixteen million Americans who served in the armed forces during World War II, not quite a thousand were from Freehold, New Jersey—a bustling courthouse town home to a diverse populace that reflected the varied faces and aspirations of the nation. Award-winning author Kevin Coyne’s chronicle follows six young men from Freehold through the war and back home again—to a town and a nation on the brink of changes larger than any of them could have imagined. Their story is the story of millions of other veterans, thousands of other towns, and it is the great epic of the last century—the story of what America was then, in its hardest hours, and how it became what it is now.

Genres: Nonfiction, World War II

416 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Kevin Coyne was a singer, composer, writer and painter. The former Virgin Records "anti-star" was born January 27th 1944 in Derby, UK; he died in his adopted home of Nuremberg, Germany, December 2nd 2004.

"A national treasure who keeps getting better"

Reviews

[Zach Kelsey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book whilst looking through my Dad's book shelf and seeing that he had two copies. Being that I love history, I asked to borrow a copy and was stunned to find that the book was about gentlemen from our home town of Freehold, NJ. I was even more amazed when I found my Grandfathers name (Gene Kelsey) in the acknowledgements! All in all I found the book a great read, although the reason I give it 4 stars is because without the intimate knowledge that comes from growing up in a small town (ie. the exact layout of the town) I think readers outside of Freehold natives might find it a bit hard to really understand. All in all, a great book nonetheless.

[Kayna Lopez · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a good book but not great. I think it would have been better to tell each character's story by themselves instead of grouped together. I often got lost and lost interest finding it hard to get back into what I was reading. I often forgot that the characters were real.

[Gary Duszynski · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book! The way the author takes the reader through the individual war and life experiences made me feel emotionally tied to wanting them to survive and succeed. A great profile of the world through the decades involved.

[M · Rating 2 out of 5]

Just okay.

[Nemo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book, it was quite a bit different from the other WWII nonfiction I've read lately, as I've been reading Stephen Ambrose's works which read a bit more like history text books and this was actually about the men of the town and followed them through their lives to the end, or at least through retirement.

It was a bit of a different perspective, being written from the POV of a person who lived in the town that these men came from and also it was a bit weird to think of it as also being the town that Bruce Springsteen is from. Kind of puts into perspective that all of these men are real, they have families and neighbors and legacies beyond being heroes who fought in WWII.

I also really liked that it followed them through different theaters of war, Africa, the Pacific, Sicily and southern Europe, as well as D-Day and the invasion of the continent of Europe that I'm most familiar with.

All in all a good book and one that I would definitely reccommend to others.

[Flora · Rating 2 out of 5]

One of the coolest things about this book was the ending thank-yous, where I realized that the characters were real and that one of the editors he thanked was a favorite colleague. It was kind of neat to see some of the evolution in this little New Jersey town (there's still an exit sign for it), but overall it didn't feel very cohesive. Maybe better for YA readers, but it was a little too simplistic still.

[Andy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was particularly interesting to me because it is about my hometown, Freehold NJ. It tracks six young men through their early years, into their service during World War II, and then the post-war years in town. Although it centers around my hometown, the reason the author selected Freehold is that it was very typical of small towns of that time and could be Anytown USA. Definitely a must-read for Freehold folks, and a great snapshot of small town life during WW II for everyone.

[Suzanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although it took an ungodly long time to finish this , at about a chapter a day, the non fiction story of some hometown boys off to war and back was definitely worth reading.