Young Lions: How Jewish Authors Reinvented the American War Novel shows how Jews, traditionally castigated as weak and cowardly, for the first time became the popular literary representatives of what it meant to be a soldier and what it meant to be an American. Revisiting best-selling works ranging from Norman Mailer's The Naked and the Dead to Joseph Heller's Catch-22, and uncovering a range of unknown archival material, Leah Garrett shows how Jewish writers used the theme of World War II to reshape the American public's ideas about war, the Holocaust, and the role of Jews in postwar life. In contrast to most previous war fiction these new "Jewish" war novels were often ironic, funny, and irreverent and sought to teach the reading public broader lessons about liberalism, masculinity, and pluralism.

About the Author
Leah Garrett is Loti Smorgon Professor of Contemporary Jewish Life and Culture at Monash University in Australia.


Book Information
ISBN 9780810131750
Author Leah Garrett
Format Paperback
Page Count 260
Imprint Northwestern University Press
Publisher Northwestern University Press
Weight(grams) 462g