Joseph A. Fry is Distinguished Professor of History Emeritus at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He is the author of numerous books, including The American South and the Vietnam War: Belligerence, Protest, and Agony in Dixie and Lincoln, Seward, and US Foreign Relations in the Civil War Era.

Praise for Letters from the Southern Home Front

“Letters from the Southern Home Front amplifies the voices of average Americans during the Vietnam War and takes the reader on an emotional rollercoaster. The letters in this volume are taut with feeling, and collectively they reflect the racial, class, and other distinctive cultural and economic markers that distinguish the American South. Ranging from hostile to pleading, desperate to grief-stricken, the anguished expressions that fill this book provide a valuable and intimate look at the cost of this tragic conflict.”—Kari Frederickson, author of Cold War Dixie: Militarization and Modernization in the American South

“In this unique and extraordinary collection, Joseph A. Fry expertly highlights the contours and complexities of the South’s broad engagement with the Vietnam War from every side of the debate. A remarkable achievement.”—Andrew L. Johns, author of Vietnam’s Second Front: Domestic Politics, the Republican Party, and the War

“A riveting new portrait of southern feelings about the Vietnam War drawn from letters of everyday citizens written amid that tortuous experience.”—Tennant S. McWilliams, author of The New South Faces the World: Foreign Affairs and the Southern Sense of Self, 1877–1950

“Letters from the Southern Home Front is an indispensable primary-source guide to the divided America of the Vietnam War era. Fry’s careful curation of the correspondence sheds light on the complexities of both international affairs and lingering regional distinctions within the United States.”—Tore C. Olsson, author of Agrarian Crossings: Reformers and the Remaking of the US and Mexican Countryside

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