Good story hurt by episodic nature

I enjoyed the content of the Home Front and thought that Martin Sheen did a great job as usual. But the way I listen to books is in long irregular chunks, so I found it frustrating that every 35 minutes or so I had to go through a preview of the next episode and a list of who contributed to this one, or having to pull out my phone to skip it. This isn't a radio show, it is one long listen. Please treat it as such, one rolling of credits at the end is plenty and you can trust I don't need two descriptions of what comes next given that I will hear it right now.

126 of 129 people found this review helpful

Excellent! But incessant breaks with credits along the way.

I loved the audio insights. Keep these things coming!

But very annoying format with the incessant credits. There are 16 episodes. Each one starts with an intro "this is what you're going to hear in this episode" then the episode, then "this is what you are going to hear next," then just under 2 minutes of credits for that episode, then a new episode starts with "this is what you are going to hear."

Seriously, 30 minutes of that, altogether, throughout the program.

I listen at 2X so they kept coming and coming.

Get to the meat and potatoes and cut out the fluff. Put all the credits at the end and be done with it.

I would give it 5 stars if it weren't for the credits which slowed everything down.

193 of 199 people found this review helpful

Solid, but Some Annoying Flaws

A compelling narrative showing the less publicized aspects of war. The old-timey sound bites make it memorable. Sheen has a great voice for narration. I definitely enjoyed the content of the book - would just give caution to how you listen:

I would caution that this is less of an audio 'book' than a collection of audio 'short stories'. Each 20-30 min segment has an intro, a 'what we will be discussing this time' segment, as well as credits and acknowledgments. This is fine if listening to each segment separately on your commute or similar, but I listened back-to-back on a long trip and found it annoying how much of the time was spent repeating information and thanking all of the producers, etc. If they had a really good quote, it would play in the 'in the next episode' segment, in the 'in this episode' segment, and again in the episode itself - which is annoying if you hear it repeated 3 times in a five-minute span.

99 of 102 people found this review helpful

Well done, but a somewhat misleading title

I really enjoyed this, and Martin Sheen's narration is, as always, perfect.

I've only rated it 3 stars, however, because the title is somewhat misleading, and the content of this book is going to irritate some listeners. A better title would be "The Civil Rights Struggle During WW2".

Nearly every essay focuses on some aspect of social injustice on the American homefront, whether that be the treatment of Blacks, Hispanics (there's a large section on the Zoot Suit riots), and women. Their roles, their stories and their struggles are indeed all important parts of the WW2 homefront narrative, but time constraints mean the intense focus on these aspects of the homefront leaves little room for description of the overall American experience during the war.

For example, rationing and recycling drives get barely a mention, as do war bonds. We don't hear anything about what it was like to be a child of any race or sex, or how people coped with rationing. A section on the black market would have been fascinating, but all we know from this series is that there was one.

If you're already familiar with this period of our history, you'll probably enjoy the focused coverage on aspects of American home life that are not often discussed. If this is your first foray into this period, you may find yourself perplexed at the frequent focus on everything that was wrong with America from a civil rights perspective. This is more of a branding issue than a problem with the material itself.

123 of 134 people found this review helpful

Needs Reformatting

All in all good but obviously just a serial strung together. I don't need the credit at the beginning and end of each chapter. I don't need to know the credentials and especially the book the expert wrote each time they speak.

52 of 57 people found this review helpful

The Home Front

Any additional comments?

An early foray into developing original content for Audible lands solidly in this radio style documentary of life in America during WWII. Martin Sheen's narration anchors this series of 8 episodes that takes us from the beginnings of WWII when America was not a participant in combat through to the early post war years. Compelling and original the documentary draws heavily on real life stories gathered by the Rosie the Riveter project that lends a Ken Burns feel to the drama. Recommended.

29 of 32 people found this review helpful

Very mixed feelings about this audio book

Is there anything you would change about this book?

Better balance all the negative stories with the accounts of the United States goodness and willingness to sacrifice.

Any additional comments?

I am torn about this audio book. On the one hand hearing actual recordings from people that lived through it is very meaningful. There is something about hearing first hand accounts that brings the sacrifices people made that much closer.
On the other hand it attempts to judge a nation in the 30's and 40's through a 21st century lens. Learning from the past and never forgetting those mistakes is vital, but almost every chapter in this book has it's main focus on what was wrong with the nation instead of what was right.
I can definitely see why other people would think there is a political agenda to this book simply because of where it devotes most of it coverage and how it so often portrays white males as the villains.

127 of 148 people found this review helpful

Could Have Been So Much Better

I expected this series would have a lot of stories of accomplishment and shared sacrifice on the home front of World War II. After all, the economy went from the end of the Depression to all out war production in a very short period of time. What the U.S. accomplished to stem the tide of totalitarianism in a very short period of time was truly astonishing. There is a little of this in the series, but not much.

Instead--in what seems to be a homage to the "hate America first" crowd--the series largely focuses on many social ills that were also part of the story: The internment of Japanese Americans, the poor treatment of African Americans, and many more. Don't get me wrong: This history also needs to be preserved. But the series seems to have been put together largely with 20/20 hindsight that judges such injustice from the point of view of the Twenty-First Century, rather than the context in which it occurred. For example, there is no doubt that African Americans who fought and died valiantly for their country were not treated as first class citizens. On the other hand, there is little doubt that the sacrifice of the war and the economic progress that resulted from it served as springboard for the Civil Rights Movement and much of the change that followed. There is not enough of this perspective.

That said, some of the segments are good, particularly toward the end. The plight of Jewish refugees is well told. The segment regarding problems of re-adjustment after the war--both for returning soldiers and women who worked on the home front--is well done. But there are other segments in which much is lacking.

The production and performance leave a lot to be desired. This is a series of segments, and there has been no editing of the music and credits that roll at the beginning and the end of each segment. It adds nothing and is very distracting. Why couldn't it have been edited with the credits rolling at the end? Sheen is a decent narrator.

World War II was the most important historical event of the Twentieth Century. It shapes the world today. it is important to preserve this history. It is important to preserve it in a more balanced and complete way than was done in this presentation.

A better choice on this subject is the Arsenal of Democracy by A.J. Baime. It does not hide the problems, but presents a much more complete view.

65 of 76 people found this review helpful

One sided

If you want to hear voices from WWII, this series of compiled stories will appeal to you. The recording quality was excellent and it seemed like I was listening to a series of podcasts rather than a book.

However, this is by no means an exhaustive or even fair-minded, "Review (of) The Home Front".

For instance, in the first two chapters, only two historians (with very similar viewpoints) were referenced. Further on, when discussing women in the workforce, a historian says she was scandalized that 'we' would encourage women to go back to their traditional role as a homemaker. The truth is that all change is incremental and applying 2017 standards to the 1940s is simply foolish.

As I continued to listen, it became obvious that a plurality of viewpoints was not sought in this project, with the sole exception coming during the chapter on internment of US citizens during the war.

In the end, if you are a WWII buff, you will probably not hear anything new. If you are a novice, I would encourage you to keep your mind open to other interpretations the historical facts as they are presented in this audiobook.

41 of 48 people found this review helpful

Unfairly biased

This is a great concept but unfairly biased. As other reviewers state looks at the 1930s and 40s through a 21st century perspective. Do we really think we are that much better of people than those that lived through this time? Disappointed in the extreme bias against America.

9 of 10 people found this review helpful