History Publishing Company has announced that Christmas 1945 will be published in May 2010.
Author Matthew Litt, in Christmas 1945 recaptures the unique time in American history when the people across the nation celebrated the first Christmas after the four devastating years of World War II. During those war years, Americans had learned to celebrate Christmas with a reserve unique to the character of the time and the progress of the Allied efforts. As wartime sacrifices expanded, it became increasingly difficult for the Christmas spirit to alleviate the pain, anguish and anxieties of the people at home. The transition from Christmas celebration to solemn observation made the holiday less and less recognizable to an increasingly war weary country longing for an old-fashioned Christmas.
When the War ended, the warmth of the Christmas season enveloped the people of the nation giving rise to observances across the land as families and towns gathered to give thanks for the return of sons, husbands and daughters and to shed tears for those who did not. Matthew Litt captures those times showing how that generation of Americans celebrated from the town square to the hearthside as families gathered in homes with their returning sons and daughters.
Chanukah, less important on the Jewish calendar than Christmas to Christians, occurred in late November that year and was celebrated in a manner exceeding its normal warmth as the incredible horror experienced by the Jews was ended. Jewish families, like their Christian compatriots would weeks later, gathered shedding bittersweet tears as they gave thanks for the safe return of a family’s serviceman and the loss of a GI killed in combat.
A home side Christmas and Chanukah was not for all GI’s, however, many had to spend the holiday in far-flung outposts and Matthew Litt turns his attention to them as well, as he does to the sad and weary war- torn people of Europe and how they drew hope from the charred remains around them.
Christmas 1945 is a book that examines a generation, its spirit, its hopes and its thankfulness for survival on the days and period of the year that ignites the spark of renewal.
Matthew Litt is a member of the United States Supreme Court Historical Society and the Historical Society of the Courts of the State of
Advance Review Copies will be available for media reviewers.
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