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Author Talk – David Nasaw in conversation with Brooke Allen

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Join us for this afternoon author talk with David Nasaw in conversation with Brooke Allen to explore Nasaw’s latest work from bestselling historian and two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist.
A brilliant re-examination of post-World War II America that looks beyond the victory parades and into the veterans’—and nation’s—unhealed traumas.

In its duration, geographical reach, and ferocity, World War II was unprecedented, and the effects on those who fought it and their loved ones at home, immeasurable. The heroism of the men and women who won the war may be well documented, but we know too little about the pain and hardships veterans endured upon their return home.

Drawing from veterans’ memoirs, oral histories, and government documents, acclaimed historian David Nasaw illuminates a hidden chapter of American history—one of trauma, resilience, and a country in transition in THE WOUNDED GENERATION: Coming Home After World War II. Nearly 16.4 million Americans served in the U.S. Armed Forces in World War II. This book “is an account of the aftereffects that lived on in the bodies, hearts, and minds of those who fought, those who awaited their return, and the nation that had won the war but had now to readjust to peace.”

Nasaw presents a complicated portrait of those who brought the war home with them, among whom were the period’s most influential political and cultural leaders, including John F. Kennedy, Robert Dole, and Henry Kissinger; J. D. Salinger and Kurt Vonnegut; Harry Belafonte and Jimmy Stewart. In The Wounded Generation, Nasaw illustrates the indelible stories of veterans and their loved ones as they confronted the aftershocks of World War II.

David Nasaw is a historian, two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist, and bestselling author of The Last Million, named a best book of the year by NPR, Kirkus Reviews, and History Today; The Patriarch, a New York Times Five Best Non-Fiction Books of the Year; Andrew Carnegie, a New York Times Notable Book of the Year and the winner of the American History Book Prize; and The Chief, winner of the Bancroft Prize. He was the Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. Professor of History at the CUNY Graduate Center and the president of the Society of American Historians. In 2023, he was honored by the New York Public Library as a “Library Lion.” Nasaw’s father served in the Army Medical Corps in Eritrea during World War II. He lives in New York City.

Brooke Allen has a BA from the University of Virginia and a PhD from Columbia University. She has written for many magazines and periodicals including The New York Times Book Review, The Wall Street Journal, The New Criterion, The Nation, and The Hudson Review. Her books include Moral Minority: Our Skeptical Founding Fathers (2006). She was on the literature faculty at Bennington College for several years and currently teaches History of Thought in the Bennington Prison Education Initiative. She lives in Hudson, New York.