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Divisions: A New History of Racism and Resistance in America's World War II Military
The first comprehensive narrative of racism in America's World War II military and the resistance to it.
America's World War II military was a force of unalloyed good. While saving the world from Nazism, it also managed to unify a famously fractious American people. At least that's the story many Americans have long told themselves.
Divisions offers a decidedly different view. Prizewinning historian Thomas A. Guglielmo draws together more than a decade of extensive research to tell sweeping yet personal stories of race and the military; of high command and ordinary GIs; and of African Americans, white Americans, Asian Americans, Latinos, and Native Americans. Guglielmo argues that the military built not one color line, but a complex tangle of them. Taken together, they represented a sprawling structure of white supremacy. Freedom struggles arose in response, democratizing portions of the wartime military and setting the stage for postwar desegregation and the subsequent civil rights movements. But the costs of the military's color lines were devastating. They impeded America's war effort; undermined the nation's rhetoric of the Four Freedoms; further naturalized the concept of race; deepened many whites' investments in white supremacy; and further fractured the American people.
Offering a dramatic narrative of America's World War II military and of the postwar world it helped to fashion, Guglielmo fundamentally reshapes our understanding of the war and of mid-twentieth-century America.
America's World War II military was a force of unalloyed good. While saving the world from Nazism, it also managed to unify a famously fractious American people. At least that's the story many Americans have long told themselves.
Divisions offers a decidedly different view. Prizewinning historian Thomas A. Guglielmo draws together more than a decade of extensive research to tell sweeping yet personal stories of race and the military; of high command and ordinary GIs; and of African Americans, white Americans, Asian Americans, Latinos, and Native Americans. Guglielmo argues that the military built not one color line, but a complex tangle of them. Taken together, they represented a sprawling structure of white supremacy. Freedom struggles arose in response, democratizing portions of the wartime military and setting the stage for postwar desegregation and the subsequent civil rights movements. But the costs of the military's color lines were devastating. They impeded America's war effort; undermined the nation's rhetoric of the Four Freedoms; further naturalized the concept of race; deepened many whites' investments in white supremacy; and further fractured the American people.
Offering a dramatic narrative of America's World War II military and of the postwar world it helped to fashion, Guglielmo fundamentally reshapes our understanding of the war and of mid-twentieth-century America.
528 pages, Hardcover
First published October 1, 2021
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
September 22, 2021
What a thoroughly researched and thoughtful work of history. Guglielmo leaves no stone unturned in a search to understand the extents of racism and division in America's World War II military. From the homefront to the frontlines, there was no place where those of color did not face some sort of discrimination, whether from their fellow soldiers or the civilians they encountered. This is a must read for anyone interested in history, especially the histories of race relations in America or of the Second World War. While not slandering the heroic efforts of those who fought, Guglielmo expertly uncovers the inequities faced by nonwhites and seeks to make their voices heard.
August 10, 2024
Although I'm giving this work a fairly high score, I did finish it with a certain question of who Gugleilmo's target audience really is, as I have enough exposure to the issues he's dealing with to not find this work all that novel. However, if the story of how the U.S. military, and its political handlers, tried to maintain "Jim Crow" style racial apartheid in an atmosphere of mass mobilization is news to you, then this might be the book for you. Though I suspect that this will be assigned class-room reading for most of the folks who do wind up reading it.
As for the guts of the narrative, Guglielmo is mostly comparing and contrasting the experiences of African and Japanese Americans, and the twists and turns of how the later went from being enemy aliens to being "model minorities." Again, if you've spent enough time reading this will not be news to you, though the depths to which the "deep state," that is to say, the bureaucratic mind, tried to maintain an unjust, inefficient and unwieldy system will be unfamiliar to most.
In the end, for all the inequities of the system, perhaps learning did take place from this experience, as when President Truman ordered the desegregation of the military, there was remarkably little outcry. Guglielmo dryly notes in the end that this system was also unfair to the White Man; the price of supposed racial privilege was to court a higher chance of death, injury, and mental degradation on the front line.
Also, I must give the author credit for hitting a personal nerve with me. While I'm familiar with most of his anecdotes of white officers being disappointed in the performance of many of the segregated units that were allowed to go into action, I found myself thinking of the old military truism that there is no such thing as bad soldiers, only bad officers. These command personnel deserve to be remembered for a certain level of military malpractice.
As for the guts of the narrative, Guglielmo is mostly comparing and contrasting the experiences of African and Japanese Americans, and the twists and turns of how the later went from being enemy aliens to being "model minorities." Again, if you've spent enough time reading this will not be news to you, though the depths to which the "deep state," that is to say, the bureaucratic mind, tried to maintain an unjust, inefficient and unwieldy system will be unfamiliar to most.
In the end, for all the inequities of the system, perhaps learning did take place from this experience, as when President Truman ordered the desegregation of the military, there was remarkably little outcry. Guglielmo dryly notes in the end that this system was also unfair to the White Man; the price of supposed racial privilege was to court a higher chance of death, injury, and mental degradation on the front line.
Also, I must give the author credit for hitting a personal nerve with me. While I'm familiar with most of his anecdotes of white officers being disappointed in the performance of many of the segregated units that were allowed to go into action, I found myself thinking of the old military truism that there is no such thing as bad soldiers, only bad officers. These command personnel deserve to be remembered for a certain level of military malpractice.
February 3, 2024
Fascinating read on the “black-white” and “white-non-white” color lines of WW2 military personnel. The level of detail is really hard to wrap your mind around. This is a good look at how our military was bending over backward to essentially run two distinct military units in the middle of a two front war. The end result was a segregated military that likely cost more money and lives than may have happened otherwise. At the same time, the military’s commitment to a segregated fighting force led to segregations demise in the armed forces and sowed the seeds for robust participation in the Civil Rights Movement across the color line. It’s a thick book, but reads well and will leave you realizing how futile racism truly is.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews