8th AF Museum and Prentice Hall

Greg A · #1 (**permalink**) February 4th, 2003, 12:52 AM

I received “The Mighty Eighth News” this past weekend that is a publication of the 8th AF Museum in Savannah. The president and CEO had his own column and noted that the museum and Prentice Hall are working on a 124 page book on the history of the 8th AF that will be distributed to schools throughout the country. He notes that Prentice Hall is going to distribute it to the 8,000 school districts that subscribe to Prentice Hall books. A video will also be distributed with the books.

He mentions in the column how WWII history is glossed over in history classes so hopefully this will help a little.

Greg

Erich · #2 (**permalink**) February 4th, 2003, 02:40 AM

Greg :

I am real curious as to what it is going to cover in so small an edition with only 124 pages ?

Are you in close enough contact to aquire a copy ?

I imagine it will be utterly basic in text/pics.

E

Stevin · #3 (**permalink**) February 4th, 2003, 06:10 AM

Well, as it is going out to schools I would guess it is pretty basic stuff....In that case 124 pages on the 8th AF is not even that bad!

Must say I am glad that a publishing house is taking this initiative, so that a new generation gets aquinted with the subject. Who knows how many fires will start to burn in these young minds and hearts wanting to know more about these times. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Greg A · #4 (**permalink**) February 4th, 2003, 01:00 PM

Unfortunately I don't know what its going to cover and I'm nowhere near the museum so I can't check a copy. They do say it will be on sale in their store, and at some point they're promising an online store.

I never even remember going over WWII in my high school class so hopefully every little bit will help as Stevin said.

Greg

CrazyD · #5 (**permalink**) February 13th, 2003, 02:19 PM

Quote:

I imagine it will be utterly basic in text/pics.

Erich, you know I worked on this. Do you think I would allow an "utterly basic" WW2 product to go through??

Sorry for not seeing this sooner- busy week or so and whatnot...

"Honoring the American Past: The Stories of America's World War II Veterans", ISBN 0-13-181499-0.
At the moment, extra copies are hard to find around the office here, let alone enough to send out. But Erich- I should have a copy for you within a couple weeks. Just need to wait for the next print run.

On the book itself...

Basic- yes. Keep in mind that this is a book aimed at the High School market, so we had to make the content and technical detail appropriate.
Also, the book IS biased towards the American point of view, and it does have a decidedly pro-American tone.
(Hmmmm... can you gents find me a High School in the US that would buy it otherwise?!)

That being said, I'm VERY proud of this book. With the target audience in mind, Honoring the American past DOES do a good job of presenting the men, machines, and experiences of the 8th Air Force in Europe.
Chapter 1- 10 pages- Background, history of military avaition. Touches on early flight inventions, WWI avaition (including Red Baron!), and the advancements that led up to WW2 planes and even the ME262.
Chapter 2 - America at war... the 8th goes to Europe to fight the germans. Deatils on the formation, mission, training, etc. for the 8th.
Chapter 3 - Chapter on the campaign the 8th participated in against the germans. Details on the strategies for hitting industrial targets, the Schweinfurt raids, and the "Big Week" offensive.
Cahpter 4 - Road to Victory. Puching back the germans, D-Day, and also some details on what was happening in the Pacific theater at this time.
Chapter 5 - Completing the Mission. Victory in Europe and the Pacific, recollections, etc.

I'm sure there are some inaccuracies and minor errors in the book- Erich knows how well "exact numbers" work! But I must say I'm even more impressed with the book than I expected to be. Good coverage of most all the subject areas. Although there is something of a pro-American tone (again, we do need to SELL these books

), even the coverage of the British and German areas is handled rather well.

Definetely a product I'm proud to have my name on!

Although I should make on note- although I did work on this project a decent bit, I'm still far from a "expert" on the 8th or the air war. In fact, I'm VERY interested in hearing some comments from some people who are more well versed in this topic than I.

And I should make another note... this book demonstrates the skill, talent, and creativity of many of the editors, production folks, and others from Prentice Hall who worked on this project. The main authors would probably not be considered WW2 "buffs"... but they threw themselves into the project in quite an incredible fashion. And the designers... wow... Sorry to kind of soapbox, but I was only a small part of this, and to be quite honest the final product really suprised me in how impressive it is.

Erich- PM me your address if you'd like, and I can mail a copy as soon as I get an extra.
Anyone else that's interested in a copy, PM me... no promises, but I'll see what I can do!

[Later]
A couple clarifications- I'm not sure about getting many copies. I certainly can't just rampantly grab books and send them around! But I can likely get a few copies for people to check out. I'm thrilled to be able to share this book (can anyone tell I'm proud to have worked on it!?!?)- that's enough for me.

Exceptions...
Knight Templar- if you want a copy, I will require a signed document fully detailing your admiration for the Bush administration.
Friedrich- I'll send you a copy if you can recite some of Eminem's lyrics.
Otto- certainly welcome to a copy... as soon as you can successfully pin any THREE of the Gracie brothers. All at once.

[ 13. February 2003, 05:57 PM: Message edited by: CrazyD ]

Erich · #6 (**permalink**) February 13th, 2003, 03:08 PM

Very cool C ! Glad this book is going to become a reality......and not get stuck behind some failing school budget. It would never be able to happen here as the budget cuts are fierce and are always a huge matter of contention. Maybe one reason we have a good 1/2 of the populace as seniors. They are too comfortable and needless to say do not want to see change. Stiff necks they are.
Now once that book is published see if the school will be able to bring those vets in for a very special first person account(s). That should blow the kids away !

Much success on getting the book throughout the system.

E

CrazyD · #7 (**permalink**) February 13th, 2003, 03:51 PM

Unfortunately, Erich, getting the book into classrooms is not really in our hands.
I should clarify this a bit... We only create and publish the books. Each school district (in Texas!) or each state Board of Education makes the decision as to which books they will buy for which classes. In some ways,it is certainly unfortunate, but textbook publishing works much the same as any other business- we create the product and then sell it.

This could be a problem with "Honoring the American Past"... as you mention, many school boards are REALLY strapped for money right now. And thanks to the ridiculous standardized testing laws and "No Child Left Behind" initiative from Bush, many of these school districts and classrooms are essentially forced to spend nearly ALL THEIR TIME doing nothing other than test practice. Because now all federal school funding is based on student's test scores, teachers can often no longer teach their students about interesting stuff like this.

Whatever... that's along the same lines as my penchant for editing... if I let that bother me, I wouldn't be able to do my job.

However, on the bright side- the Honoring the American Past book IS very well done. And- over the past years, interest in WW2 has been on the upswing. So- it's going to be very interesting to see how well it does as far as sales go.

AS you can imagine, and likely agree with, I'd like to see this book make it into MANY classrooms. But we'll just have to see. If I can, I'll keep you gents updated on anything I hear about sales/classroom use of the book.

Erich · #8 (**permalink**) February 13th, 2003, 04:20 PM

True !

would like to see a book like this broadcasted over all of the US schools......it's needed.

please keep us posted on numbers and just where this book is going into what states if known.

E

Greg A · #9 (**permalink**) February 14th, 2003, 02:28 AM

Hey Crazy,

Great to hear that you worked on the book. I'm sure it will turn out well and if I go down to the Museum again this year which I am thinking and they have a copy in the bookstore I will be sure to pick it up.

Greg

CrazyD · #10 (**permalink**) February 14th, 2003, 05:19 PM

Damn straight, Greg... I had a blast! And I learned a good amount about the air war in Europe, on of the areas I have not yet studied.

As far as Honoring the American past goes... like I said before, I can try and get a few copies for people- but I'm not aure how and when that will work out. However- if anyone is really interested, and just can't wait to get a copy, you could try calling Prentice Hall and ordering one. I think the ordering line is usually for teachers and whatnot, but I imagine anyone can try it. At least worth a shot... # is 1-800-848-9500.

A quick aside... funny story from when I first started working here. Literally, the first week I was on the job, a few years back, I was tasked with proofing the Glossary for one of our titles. All we were looking for was design proof- making sure everything was where it should be, no run-over, etc.
So I'm working on the proof sheets, and my eyes wander across "D-Day" in the glossary. With the following definition... "Code name for the Allied invasion of France on June 6, 1944."

hee hee...

I case someone misses that, D-Day was simply the term used for the first day of an operation. Most of us probably know tht Overlord was the actual code name for the operation.

Bet my manager did not expect me to find a major error the first day on the job!!! A WW2 one, nonetheless!