Books from the war years, staged as radio drama.
Each program in Words At War adapts a book to come out of the Second World War, staged by NBC in cooperation with the Council on Books in Wartime. Its subjects run from home-front swindlers and merchant sailors adrift in lifeboats to a discharged corporal heading home and a poem of America adapted by its author.
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Words At War is what happened when American radio set out to dramatize the books of the Second World War while the war was still on. NBC produced the series in cooperation with the Council on Books in Wartime, and the announcements credit both before naming the night's book and its author. Sometimes the author comes with a credential attached: Louis Neisser is introduced as an American attorney, orator and writer, and George K. Pratt as a distinguished psychiatrist. The books range widely. On the home front there is 'Wartime Racketeers', from the book by Harry Lieber and Joseph Young, in which the swindler and the hijacker have traded dark alleys for the grocery store and the crowded station. 'Journey Through Chaos' follows a narrator through Buffalo, Cleveland, Portland and Mobile, collecting terms like 'latchkey kids' and 'victory girls' and doubting that reform schools make anyone better. Then there are the people in uniform. 'Lifeline' is a story of the United States Merchant Marine, told partly by a sailor named Al, who says people ashore will hear the truth this time. 'Soldier to Civilian' takes Pratt's conclusions as its guide and follows a returning corporal who is warned that two and a half years is a long time for the people waiting at home, too. Two episodes leave realism behind in different ways. 'What to Do with Germany' stages a nightmare: an American town in 1985 where slaves march home from the factory in formation. The program presents it as fancy founded on fact. 'My Country A Poem of America' is verse, Russell Davenport's own radio adaptation of his poem, full of propellers, wheels and wings and the fire of freedom. The craft is part of the appeal. Several programs open on a scene before any announcement, so a broadcast can begin with a con man taunting the audience or with a discharge form being signed. Monologue carries a lot of weight: Al's passage on the sea moves from South Pacific rollers and golden dawns to men parched and raving in lifeboats in the space of a few lines. 'Lifeline' closes with a cast list, music arranged and played by William Meter, and direction credited to Frank Papp. For a first listen, 'Wartime Racketeers' shows the series at its most theatrical. 'Lifeline' shows it at its most lyrical. Expect period rhetoric aimed squarely at Mr. and Mrs. America, and at least one episode in this feed arrives wrapped in present-day advertising. Heard now, the series preserves the arguments the war years were having about crime, youth, homecoming and what to do once the fighting stopped.
Made for: Suits a listener who enjoys vintage radio drama and wants to hear how books of the Second World War were staged for audiences at the time, from home-front crime and juvenile delinquency to returning soldiers and plans for postwar Germany.
What sets it apart: Each program starts from a named book or poem, and the announcer credits the author, sometimes with credentials. That makes the series a guide to what wartime writers had to say about racketeers, delinquency, the Merchant Marine, homecoming and Germany, and several of the plays speak directly to the listener.
In 1943, the United States Office of War Information (OWI), in cooperation with The Council on Books in Wartime, and the National Broadcasting Company combined to suggest a Radio program dramatisation some of the more important of these books. Words At WarThe Council on Books in Wartime was a non-profit organization founded in the Spring of 1942 by booksellers, publishers, librarians, and authors, with the purpose of channeling the use of books as “weapons in the war of ideas,” the Council’s motto. Its stated aims were “the promotion of books to influence the thinking of the American people regarding the war, to build and maintain the will to win, to expose the true nature of the enemy, to d…
Buffalo horns meet grounded bombers; suddenly you care about generator plugs.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A wartime radio drama about grounded bombers, missing plugs, and an unlikely buffalo-horn fix.
The Guys on the Ground finds sturdy drama in a repair problem far from the usual center of wartime action. Three fighter pilots come back from combat duty looking for rest, but the story soon turns to the Air Force personnel responsible for furnishing and fixing.
A roadside fable frames post-war employment policy as a choice between two roads.
Joseph Smith, freshly out of the army, is headed toward the post-war world when a roadside exchange turns a simple fork into a larger question about what kind of economy should come next.
Don Gentile's first solo flight turns a dream of the air into a funny, anxious family reckoning.
Don Gentile's first solo flight arrives at home as a quiet declaration of purpose. Clifton Fadiman sets One Man Air Force against American unease over Germany and Japan, then the drama settles on Don as he describes banking, turning, landing, and taking off alone with the calm…
Veteran stories with banter and backbone.
Power, spectacle, and the cost of rule.
Audio plays with sharp turns.
Weird history, sharp research, hidden women.
Dark chapters of history, talked through with jokes and tangents.
A radio dramatization of Russell Davenport's poem 'My Country' as part of a WWII-era series promoting books as weapons of ideas.
A dramatized adaptation of Louis Neisser's book 'What to Do with Germany' set in a fictional 1985 America with slaves, based on the Yalta Conference plans.
This episode dramatizes the book 'Wartime Racketeers' to expose profiteering and crime on the American home front during World War II.
A dramatization of the book 'Soldier to Civilian' exploring the challenges faced by soldiers returning to civilian life after WWII.
Words at War dramatizes Captain Alfred Friendly’s The Guys on the Ground, with Major Richard Collins, Captain Pennypacker, and the reporter Susie hearing how the Air Force’s mechanics keep bombers in action.
Words at War dramatizes William Beveridge's Full Employment in a Free Society through Joe Smith's choice between 'Depression' and 'Full Employment.' Ted Jewett explains Beveridge's three causes of unemployment—effective demand, direction of demand, and industry response—using layoffs, factory shifts, and a showroom car.
Words at War, with Clifton Fadiman, dramatizes One Man Air Force and the wartime career of Captain Don S.
Words at War dramatizes Agnes E.
Words at War adapts Robert Koss's Lifeline into a wartime account of the United States Merchant Marine, including the Murmansk Run and Guadalcanal.
Words at War dramatizes Tom Trainer's book "One Damn Thing After Another," his account of 21 months as an unaccredited Los Angeles Times war correspondent.
Words at War adapts Jim Phelan's novel Banshee Harvest, in which Captain Arthur Curtin returns to Kilavola and finds his uncle Barry Muswell firing a gun at peasant leader Tom O'Meara.