Home Fires: An Intimate Portrait of One Middle-Class Family in Postwar America

Home Fires: An Intimate Portrait of One Middle-Class Family in Postwar America is a narrative nonfiction book by Don Katz. Originally published in 1992, it was reissued in 2014 in ebook and audiobook formats with a new introduction by Jonathan Alter.^[1]

Summary

"Home Fires" tells the story of the Gordon family – real people, names unchanged - over nearly five decades, from the end of World War II to the early 1990s. The book chronicles the turbulent postwar era, illuminating the interplay between private life and profound cultural changes. Juxtaposing day-to-day family life with landmark public events, "Home Fires" is a revealing portrait of the second half of the 20th century in America.

Reception

"Home Fires" received widespread critical acclaim. Publishers Weekly described it as a "moving, perceptive social history" and "riveting reading."^[2] The New York Times called it "mesmerizing, important" and Glamour called it "a flat-out marvel of reportage." ^[3] Author Jonathan Alter, who also wrote the introduction for the 2014 edition, wrote "Katz’s familial lens on recent history belongs on a shelf with classics. There is Balzac here, and Theodore Dreiser, with a touch of John Gunther, John Dos Passos and William Manchester." ^[4]

Awards and honors

Home Fires was nominated for a National Book Critics Circle Award in 1992.^[5]

References