When Our Mothers Went to War An Illustrated History of Women in World War II by Margaret Regis Sixty-five years ago, in a time of oil shortages, rising food prices and war, American women found the strength and skill to meet tremendous challenges. Their resourceful and energetic response to crisis, pictorially portrayed for the first time in the book When Our Mothers Went to War: An Illustrated History of Women in World War II, is an inspiring example for the nation today. The pressures of World War II on the home front and overseas thrust women into roles previously denied them by custom and law, and generated impressive new capabilities. With the men gone, women stepped up to factory, farm and office jobs of every kind to keep the nation running. They also salvaged an incredible array of needed commodities, recycling everything from nylons to bacon fat. In victory gardens and neighborhood canning centers, women joined together to preserve local foods and ensure food security. Their resilience and hard work did not end on the home front. Overseas, as frontline nurses, WACs, spies, news correspondents, resistance fighters, USO entertainers, Red Cross volunteers, and even prisoners of war, women risked the intensity and violence of the combat zone. When people think of women in World War II, they envision Rosie the Riveter or the “kiss in Times Square.” Women did that and so much more. When Our Mothers Went to War intermixes hundreds of photographs and a concise overview of the war with women’s personal stories to show the courage and accomplishments of U.S. women in a dangerous time.