15 Years of War

15 Years of War
Author: Kristine Schellhaas
Publisher: Grub Street Publishers
Total Pages: 459
Release: 2017-03-19
Genre: Family & Relationships
ISBN: 1611213495

“First-time author Schellhaas presents a moving memoir of her life with her husband, Ross . . . after [he] is deployed to Iraq after the events of 9/11.” —Publishers Weekly Less than 1 percent of our nation will ever serve in our armed forces, leaving many to wonder what life is really like for military families. He answers the call of duty in Afghanistan, Iraq, and the Pacific; she keeps the home fires burning. Worlds apart, and in the face of indescribable grief, their relationship is pushed to the limits. 15 Years of War provides a unique he said/she said perspective on coping with war in modern-day America. It reveals a true account of how a dedicated Marine and his equally committed spouse faced unfathomable challenges and achieved triumph, from the days just before 9/11 through fifteen years of training workups, deployments, and other separations. This story of faith, love, and resilience offers insight into how a decade and a half of war has redefined what it means to be a military family. “[A] tough-minded but open-hearted memoir . . . a frank description of what it takes for a spouse and family to support a soldier. The Schellhaases’ story is deeply personal and unique, but it will resonate with other families, both civilian and military.” —Foreword Magazine “Kristine Schellhaas is a beautiful and transcendent voice of truth and consequence, and her memoir, 15 Years of War, should be required reading for every American who wants to understand just exactly what they have asked of the chosen 1 [percent].” —Angela Ricketts, author of No Man’s War: Irreverent Confession of an Infantry Wife

War and Family Life

War and Family Life
Author: Shelley MacDermid Wadsworth
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 349
Release: 2015-12-16
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 3319214888

This unique resource provides findings and insights regarding the multiple impacts of military duty on service members and veterans, specifically from a family standpoint. Broad areas of coverage include marital and family relationships, parenting issues, family effects of war injuries, and family concerns of single service members. The book's diverse contents highlight understudied populations and topics gaining wider interest while examining the immediate and long-term impact of service on family functioning. In addition to raising awareness of issues, chapters point to potential solutions including science-based pre- and post-deployment programs, more responsive training for practitioners, and more focused research and policy directions. Among the topics covered: • Deployment and divorce: an in-depth analysis by relevant demographic and military characteristics. • Military couples and posttraumatic stress: interpersonally based behaviors and cognitions as mechanisms of individual and couple distress. • Warfare and parent care: armed conflict and the social logic of child and national protection. • Understanding the experiences of women and LGBT veterans in Department of Veterans Affairs care. • Risk and resilience factors in combat military health care providers. • Tangible, instrumental, and emotional support among homeless veterans. War and Family Life offers up-to-date understanding for mental health professionals who serve military families, both in the U.S. and abroad.

Neverhome

Neverhome
Author: Laird Hunt
Publisher: Little, Brown
Total Pages: 202
Release: 2014-09-09
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0316370126

She calls herself Ash, but that's not her real name. She is a farmer's faithful wife, but she has left her husband to don the uniform of a Union soldier in the Civil War. Neverhome/.i tells the harrowing story of Ash Thompson during the battle for the South. Through bloodshed and hysteria and heartbreak, she becomes a hero, a folk legend, a madwoman and a traitor to the American cause. Laird Hunt's dazzling novel throws a light on the adventurous women who chose to fight instead of stay behind. It is also a mystery story: why did Ash leave and her husband stay? Why can she not return? What will she have to go through to make it back home? In gorgeous prose, Hunt's rebellious young heroine fights her way through history, and back home to her husband, and finally into our hearts.

Stress in Post-War Britain, 1945–85

Stress in Post-War Britain, 1945–85
Author: Mark Jackson
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 268
Release: 2016-12-05
Genre: History
ISBN: 1317318048

In the years following World War II the health and well-being of the nation was of primary concern to the British government. The essays in this collection examine the relationship between health and stress in post-war Britain through a series of carefully connected case studies.

The Divided Family in Civil War America

The Divided Family in Civil War America
Author: Amy Murrell Taylor
Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Press
Total Pages: 336
Release: 2009-11-04
Genre: History
ISBN: 0807899070

The Civil War has long been described as a war pitting "brother against brother." The divided family is an enduring metaphor for the divided nation, but it also accurately reflects the reality of America's bloodiest war. Connecting the metaphor to the real experiences of families whose households were split by conflicting opinions about the war, Amy Murrell Taylor provides a social and cultural history of the divided family in Civil War America. In hundreds of border state households, brothers--and sisters--really did fight one another, while fathers and sons argued over secession and husbands and wives struggled with opposing national loyalties. Even enslaved men and women found themselves divided over how to respond to the war. Taylor studies letters, diaries, newspapers, and government documents to understand how families coped with the unprecedented intrusion of war into their private lives. Family divisions inflamed the national crisis while simultaneously embodying it on a small scale--something noticed by writers of popular fiction and political rhetoric, who drew explicit connections between the ordeal of divided families and that of the nation. Weaving together an analysis of this popular imagery with the experiences of real families, Taylor demonstrates how the effects of the Civil War went far beyond the battlefield to penetrate many facets of everyday life.

The War that Saved My Life

The War that Saved My Life
Author: Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 322
Release: 2015-01-08
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 1101637803

* Newbery Honor Book * #1 New York Times Bestseller * Winner of the Schneider Family Book Award * Forbes 25 Top Historical Fiction Books Of All Time selection * Wall Street Journal Best Children's Books of the Year selection * New York Public Library's 100 Books for Reading and Sharing selection An exceptionally moving story of triumph against all odds set during World War II, from the acclaimed author of Fighting Words, and for fans of Fish in a Tree and Number the Stars. Ten-year-old Ada has never left her one-room apartment. Her mother is too humiliated by Ada’s twisted foot to let her outside. So when her little brother Jamie is shipped out of London to escape the war, Ada doesn’t waste a minute—she sneaks out to join him. So begins a new adventure for Ada, and for Susan Smith, the woman who is forced to take the two kids in. As Ada teaches herself to ride a pony, learns to read, and watches for German spies, she begins to trust Susan—and Susan begins to love Ada and Jamie. But in the end, will their bond be enough to hold them together through wartime? Or will Ada and her brother fall back into the cruel hands of their mother? This masterful work of historical fiction is equal parts adventure and a moving tale of family and identity—a classic in the making. "Achingly lovely...Nuanced and emotionally acute."—The Wall Street Journal "Unforgettable...unflinching."—Common Sense Media "Touching...Emotionally charged." —Forbes ★ “Brisk and honest...Cause for celebration.” —Kirkus, starred review ★ "Poignant."—Publishers Weekly, starred review ★ "Powerful."—The Horn Book, starred review "Affecting."—Booklist "Emotionally satisfying...[A] page-turner."—BCCB “Exquisitely written...Heart-lifting.” —SLJ "Astounding...This book is remarkable."—Karen Cushman, author The Midwife's Apprentice "Beautifully told."—Patricia MacLachlan, author of Sarah, Plain and Tall "I read this novel in two big gulps."—Gary D. Schmidt, author of Okay for Now "I love Ada's bold heart...Her story's riveting."—Sheila Turnage, author of Three Times Lucky

A Battle Plan for Supporting Military Families

A Battle Plan for Supporting Military Families
Author: Linda Hughes-Kirchubel
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 373
Release: 2018-01-08
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 3319689843

This unique reference integrates knowledge culled from fifteen years of U.S. deployments to create an action plan for supporting military and veteran families during future conflicts. Its innovative ideas stretch beyond designated governmental agencies (e.g., Department of Defense, VA) to include participation from, and possible collaborations with, the business/corporate, academic, advocacy, and philanthropic sectors. Contributors identify ongoing and emerging issues affecting military and veteran families and recommend specific strategies toward expanding and enhancing current programs and policy. This proactive agenda also outlines new directions for mobilizing the research community, featuring strategies for addressing institutional challenges and improving access to critical data. Included in the coverage: Lessons learned inside the Pentagon. Merging reintegration streams for veterans and military families. The unique role of professional associations in assisting military families: a case study. Philanthropy for military and veteran families: challenges past, recommendations for tomorrow. Rules of engagement: media coverage of military families during war. Designing and implementing strategic research studies to support military families. A Battle Plan for Supporting Military Families is of immediate usefulness to leaders, professionals, and future professionals in interdisciplinary academic, governmental, advocacy, and philanthropic areas of focus interested in the theoretical, practical, and real-life concerns and needs of military-affiliated families.

Family Life: A Novel

Family Life: A Novel
Author: Akhil Sharma
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Total Pages: 224
Release: 2014-04-07
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0393242315

Winner of the 2016 International Dublin Literary Award "Gorgeously tender at its core…beautiful, heartstopping…Family Life really blazes." —Sonali Deraniyagala, New York Times Book Review Hailed as a "supreme storyteller" (Philadelphia Inquirer) for his "cunning, dismaying and beautifully conceived" fiction (New York Times), Akhil Sharma is possessed of a narrative voice "as hypnotic as those found in the pages of Dostoyevsky" (The Nation). In his highly anticipated second novel, Family Life, he delivers a story of astonishing intensity and emotional precision. We meet the Mishra family in Delhi in 1978, where eight-year-old Ajay and his older brother Birju play cricket in the streets, waiting for the day when their plane tickets will arrive and they and their mother can fly across the world and join their father in America. America to the Mishras is, indeed, everything they could have imagined and more: when automatic glass doors open before them, they feel that surely they must have been mistaken for somebody important. Pressing an elevator button and the elevator closing its doors and rising, they have a feeling of power at the fact that the elevator is obeying them. Life is extraordinary until tragedy strikes, leaving one brother severely brain-damaged and the other lost and virtually orphaned in a strange land. Ajay, the family’s younger son, prays to a God he envisions as Superman, longing to find his place amid the ruins of his family’s new life. Heart-wrenching and darkly funny, Family Life is a universal story of a boy torn between duty and his own survival.

Of War and Men

Of War and Men
Author: Ralph LaRossa
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 322
Release: 2011-07-15
Genre: Family & Relationships
ISBN: 0226467430

Fathers in the 1950s tend to be portrayed as wise and genial pipe-smokers or distant, emotionless patriarchs. To uncover the real story of fatherhood during the 1950s, LaRossa takes the long view, revealing the myriad ways that World War II and its aftermath shaped men.

Serving Military Families in the 21st Century

Serving Military Families in the 21st Century
Author: Karen Blaisure
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 305
Release: 2012
Genre: Family & Relationships
ISBN: 0415880653

This text introduces readers to military families, their resilience, and the challenges of military life. Personal stories from active duty, National Guard, reservists, veterans, and their families, from all branches and ranks of the military, and those who work with military personnel, bring their experiences to life. A review of the latest research, theories, policies, and programs better prepares readers for working with military families. Objectives, key terms, tables, figures, summaries, and exercises, including web based exercises, serve as a chapter review. The book concludes with a glossary of key terms. Engaging vignettes are featured throughout: Voices from the Frontline offer personal accounts of issues faced by actual program leaders, practitioners, researchers, policy makers, service members, and their families. Spotlight on Research highlights the latest studies on dealing with combat related issues. Best Practices review the optimal strategies used in the field. Tips from the Frontline offer suggestions from experienced personnel. The book opens with an introduction to military culture and family life. Joining the military and why people do so are explored in chapter 2. Next, life in the military including relocation, employment, education, and deployment are examined. Daily lives of children in military families are explored in chapter 4. How stress and resilience theories are used in working with military families are then reviewed. Chapter 6 focuses on milestones experienced by service members and programs that support them through these transitions. Everyday issues caused by the trauma of war are reviewed in Chapters 7 and 8. Programs, policies, and organizations that serve military families in dealing with deployment, education, and health and child care are explored in chapters 9 and 10 followed by initiatives supporting reintegration and reunification issues. Next, how to work with families and those who have experienced traumatic events is considered. The book concludes with a review of career opportunities and stories from working professionals. Intended as a text for advanced undergraduate or graduate courses on military families or as a supplement for courses on the family, marriage and family, stress and coping, or family systems taught in family studies, human development, clinical or counseling psychology, sociology, social work, and nursing, this book also appeals to helping professionals who work with military families.