REVIEW: Barbara G. Friedman, From the Battlefield to the Bridal Suite: Media Coverage of British War Brides, 1942-1946

H-NET BOOK REVIEW
Published by H-War@h-net.msu.edu (March 2008)

Barbara G. Friedman. _From the Battlefield to the Bridal Suite: Media Coverage of British War Brides, 1942-1946_. Columbia and London: University of Missouri Press, 2007. ix + 134 pp. Bibliography, index. $29.95 (cloth), ISBN 978-0826217189.

Reviewed for H-War by Jenny Thompson, Curator of Education, Evanston History Center

Women's War

During and immediately following World War II, one million marriages between American soldiers and women from countries other than the United States took place. In Great Britain, where two million American soldiers were stationed or passed through during the war, the inevitable
"fraternization" between GIs and British women constituted a concern for the U.S. and British governments, a newsworthy and debated subject on the American home front, and a real experience for thousands of men and women caught in the realities of a world at war. By 1947, 70,000 British women had left England for the United States to join their American husbands, most sailing there on "bride ships." The U.S. government's passage of the War Brides Act in December 1946 paved their way to enter the United States as non-quota immigrants (p. 97). Barbara G. Friedman, assistant professor of journalism and mass communication at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, explores the subject of British war brides by examining how their stories were presented, interpreted, and ultimately, "co-opted" (p. 2) in British and American mass media.

Drawing from a variety of disciplines including history, sociology, and communication, Friedman's book is an excellent chronicle of media coverage of the war bride phenomenon, both in the United States and Great Britain. It is also a fascinating study of related issues, including U.S. and British attitudes and experiences during the war, dominant discourses on sexuality and marriage, and the ways that fears and concerns about women's roles during wartime played out in the public sphere ...

Comments

[Michele Thomas]

I just wanted to let Barbara know that I have listed her book on my website, The American War Brides Experience at http://www.geocities.com/us_warbrides/ In October we will have a WWII War Bride reunion in Orlando, FL. This is open to all WWII War Brides and their families. I hope to see you there.