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Chewing gum, candy bars, and beer the Army PX in World War II

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  • "The Army Exchange System (AES) was dedicated to providing soldiers with some of the comforts they had enjoyed in civilian life. In chronicling the history of the AES, the author harks back to the Civil War, in which sutlers sold basic items to the Yankee troops for exorbitant prices, and to the First World War, when morale-building provisions were brought in by agencies such as the Red Cross. He then traces the evolution of the PX from the beginning to the end of World War II from the point of view of those who ran the service and that of the soldiers who used it, blending administrative history with colorful anecdotes and interspersing letters from GIs. He views the PX as a manifestation of American mobility, materialism, and the cultural revolution of mass consumerism that flourished in the 1920s, serving soldiers who were themselves products of this new American way of retail and expected a high level of material support in time of war. He emphasizes the accomplishments of Major General Joseph W. Byron, Chief PX Officer from 1941 to 1943, and his deputy, Colonel Frank Kerr. The author also tells how the PX dealt with the presence of large numbers of women in uniform and the need to meet their demands in exchange offerings. By 1945, General Byron could boast that the Army Exchange Service operated the world's largest department store chain, serving the grandest army the United States had ever put in the field, and today the PX is still a central factor of military life. Yet as Cooke shows, the key to the AES' importance was ultimately the way it bolstered morale-- and helped give our fighting men the will to keep fighting."

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  • "Electronic books"@en
  • "History"@en
  • "History"
  • "Livres électroniques"

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  • "Chewing gum, candy bars, and beer the Army PX in World War II"@en
  • "Chewing gum, candy bars, and beer the Army PX in World War II"
  • "Chewing gum, candy bars, and beer : the Army PX in World War II"

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