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Thanks for the Memories: Love, Sex and World War II
by Jane Leder
After the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941, young Americans knew instinctively that their lives would never be the 
same. The “normal” sequence of events – education or work, marriage, children – had been blown to bits and, as they would soon discover, so had long held attitudes toward love and sex.
In Thanks for the Memories: Love, Sex, and World War II (Praeger Hardcover; October 2006), award-winning author Jane Mersky Leder argues that WWII challenged attitudes about love and sex and, in the process, set the stage for the second wave of the women’s liberation movement and the struggle for gay rights. Through interviews with members of the WWII generation, she tells the true story of how these men and women responded to the passions of war and how their lives and the relationships between the sexes were forever changed.
Thirty million American men and women were uprooted during the war, either as members of the military or as civilians in search of work and improved living conditions. Away from family and friends - living at a time of heightened fear and a heightened lust for life – they tested limits and often broke the rules. Thanks for the Memories paints a vivid picture of life on the home front and the love lives of American men overseas. From women welders to secretaries, from service wives to GIs, Leder tells a story that has rarely – if ever – been told. Leder exposes the sexual and romantic escapades of Americans during WWII and emphasizes the importance of how this pivotal time revolutionized the way American men and women work, love, mate, and ultimately partner with one another.
About Jane Leder
Jane Mersky Leder’s curiosity about how ordinary people react to extraordinary times and situations has driven her writing from the start. Whether it is her sensitive exploration of teenage suicide, her investigation of brothers and sisters from 
childhood to old age, or her most recent investigation of young men and women during World War II, Leder finds the unique yet universal story.
Had she not gone into teaching and eventually become a writer, she would no doubt have been a therapist or a documentary filmmaker.
Leder is the author of three nonfiction books for young adults and adults: Dead Serious (Atheneum/Avon), Brothers & Sisters (St. Martin’s/Ballantine), and Thanks For The Memories: Love, Sex, and World War II. She is an award-winning author who has appeared on local and national television, led workshops on teen suicide and sibling relationships, and been interviewed by journalists for a host of publications, including the Chicago Tribune, the Detroit News, and the Atlanta-Journal Constitution.
Visit the author’s website to learn more about her work.
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