Love, War, and the 96th Engineers (Colored): The World War II New Guinea Diaries of Captain Hyman Samuelson - Hardcover

"A superb collection of diaries and letters... Although the war provides the essential background for the script, this is much more than letters and diaries from the front. It is a love story--with Dora, with the Army, with the troops, with New Guinea, with America... The book is a literary achievement." -- Stephen Ambrose, author of D-day, June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of World War II "[Samuelson] provides insight into race relations within the military as well as documenting the psychological, emotional, and physical demands of long-term service in the Pacific theater... This is an illuminating account of the underside of the 'good' war." -- Library Journal "Hall has fashioned a discerning portrait of the World War II experience, as well as the culture of the American soldier. [This is] a welcome addition to the literature on the African American experience in World War II... [A] compelling, and personal, look at an important aspect of American history." -- Paul D. Gelpi Jr., Southern Historian

The author of this diary was a civil engineer raised in Louisiana. The U.S. Army of WWII believed such a combination ideal for assignment to a segregated unit: white Southerners were considered better able than Northerners to "handle" blacks. The 96th Engineers (Colored) was a "general service" regiment whose missions included building docks and airfields, maintaining roads and defending its work against Japanese raiders. The 96th fought its war in the southwest Pacific, at the bottom of both the list for equipment and a racially determined pecking order. Samuelson's diary entries vividly depict the hardships of jungle war even when safely behind the front lines. They document as well a growing awareness of racial issues on the part of a young man who had previously accepted the existing order as a given. This work is a significant contribution to military history and ethnic studies. Hall is a history professor at Rutgers Univ. Photos not seen by PW.
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