Writing letters to a spouse or sweetheart deployed overseas was portrayed as a patriotic duty, a means to boost the morale of the fighting man. But what of the letter that broke off an engagement, or announced the intention to file for divorce? During World War II, such letters became known as “Dear Johns,” and the women who sent them were denounced as traitors.
Susan L. Carruthers, Professor in U.S. and International History, has listened to hundreds of hours of oral testimony from veterans to understand the stories men told each other about these breakup notes. Susan and Dan discuss who wrote the “Dear John” letter, wartime relationships and breakdowns from multiple perspectives and the expectations placed on women across miles and years of absence, and the role of constantly changing technologies in both facilitating intimacies and undermining it in wartime.
How can women be reinstated into the narrative of history when their presence is only faintly attested to in the remaining sources? How can fiction help us in imagining their lives? Is it legitimate to write fictionalised versions of people who really lived?
In this edition of Not Just the Tu...
A little update from Dan on where he is and how the journey to Antarctica is going!
Imagine jetting off on holiday only to land in a warzone and get taken hostage by Saddam Hussein. It might sound far-fetched, but in 1990 that's exactly the fate that awaited the passengers and crew of British Airlines Flight 149. What followed has been called the most shocking government cover-u...
