MHL will be closed on Friday, November 10th and Saturday, November 11th in observance of Veterans Day. (We will be open our normal hours of 1pm-5pm on Sunday, November 12th.) In honor of Veterans Day, here are some biographies and memoirs about American veterans throughout the years.
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Against all odds : a true story of ultimate courage and survival in World War II
by Alex Kershaw The bestselling author of The First Wave returns with the story of the four most decorated World War II soldiers, who fought in every major campaign and helped defeat Nazi Germanys finest troops. |
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Bridge to the sun : the secret role of the Japanese Americans who fought in the Pacific in World War II
by Bruce. Henderson The best-selling author of Sons and Soldiers tells the story of the Japanese American U.S. Army soldiers who fought in the Pacific theater while their families were back home in America held in government internment camps. |
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Fighting blind : a Green Beret's story of extraordinary courage
by Iván Castro Documents the story of a Green Beret sniper, who, after being blinded by mortar fire while serving in Iraq, fought through despair to eventually train as a marathon runner that was present at the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing. |
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Forgotten : the untold story of D-Day's Black heroes, at home and at war
by Linda Hervieux Drawing on newly uncovered military records and original interviews with surviving members of the 320th Barrage Balloon Battalion, a unit of African-American soldiers that has been overlooked by history and their families, the author tells the story of these heroic men charged with manning armed balloons meant to deter enemy aircraft on D-Day. |
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The greatest beer run ever : a memoir of friendship, loyalty, and war
by John J Donohue A U.S. Marine Corps veteran-turned-merchant mariner recounts how in 1967 he accepted a neighborhood challenge to sneak into Vietnam, track down local friends on the front line and share beer over messages of love from home. |
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Invisible storm : a soldier's memoir of politics and PTSD
by Jason Kander The former army intelligence officer and politician discusses his decade-long battle with depression and PTSD from his service in Afghanistan and how his family helped through the challenging treatments that helped him to heal. |
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Invisible wounds
by Jess Ruliffson Shares the stories of men, women and non-binary people who struggle to reconcile their wartime experiences with their postwar lives, revealing how America's endless entanglement in wars has affected the psyches of the people who wage them. |
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Ira Hayes : the Akimel O'odham Warrior, World War II, and the price of heroism
by Tom Holm This gripping, forgotten story of a Native American World War II legend who famously helped raise the flag at Iwo Jima explores the conflicting views of this haunted war hero, breaking apart the complexities of his short life in honor of all Native veterans who have been to war in the service of the U.S. Illustrations. |
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The last of the doughboys : the forgotten generation and their forgotten World War
by Richard Rubin Collected over 10 years, interviews with the last remaining World War I veterans, aged 101 to 113, paint a picture of a time and a generation that, despite memorials and history lessons, is quickly fading away. |
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A people's history of the U.S. military : ordinary soldiers reflect on their experience of war, from the American Revolution to Afghanistan
by Michael A. Bellesiles Draws from three centuries of soldiers' personal encounters with combat--through excerpts from letters, diaries, memoirs, audio recordings, film and blogs--to capture the essence of the American military experience firsthand, from the American Revolution to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. |
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Soldier girls : the battles of three women at home and at war
by Helen Thorpe Describes the experiences of three women soldiers deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq to reveal how their military service has affected their friendship, personal lives and families, detailing the realities of their work on bases and in war zones and how their choices and losses shaped their perspectives. |
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Washington's gay general : the legends and loves of Baron von Steuben
by Josh Trujillo Tells the true story of one of the most important--but largely forgotten--military leaders of the American Revolution, Baron von Steuben, who brought much-needed knowledge to the inexperienced and ill-prepared Continental Army. As its first Inspector General, von Steuben created an organizational framework for the US military, which included writing the Blue Book guide that became the standard for training American soldiers for more than a century. |