Tag Archives: World War II

Exposing Stalin-Style Fake News

By Robin Bates | Published: March 3, 2019

Monday NeverTrumper Jennifer Rubin made a Stalin allusion on MSNBC’s A. M. Joy yesterday that caught my eye because I am currently reading a novel about Stalin’s Soviet Union during the German invasion. Vasily Grossman’s extraordinary Life and Fate (1960), resembles Tolstoy’s War and Peace in the way it captures the country at a moment […]

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A “Greatest Generation” Vet Reflects

By Robin Bates | Published: May 9, 2015

In the reminiscence about his World War II experiences, my father finds it difficult to capture what it was really like

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My Father Moved through Dooms of War

By Robin Bates | Published: June 6, 2014

My father’s recollections of the D Day beaches influenced his poetry.

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Vonnegut’s Sci Fi Says the Unsayable

By Robin Bates | Published: May 6, 2014

Yesterday I spent all day—from 9 am to 6 pm with occasional breaks—listening to our English majors present their senior projects. That I was energized rather than drained by the experience testifies to the strength of the talks. In today’s post I report on my student Chris Hammond’s essay on Kurt Vonnegut’s use of science […]

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Spring’s Triumph over War

By Robin Bates | Published: April 8, 2014

In Henry Reed’s “Naming of Parts,” sexual spring wins out over a bureaucratic drill sergeant.

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Lesson of War: Fear + Fear = Hate

By Robin Bates | Published: July 9, 2013

Two Scott Bates poems get at the dark days in America following World War II.

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The Meaning of Soldiers and Sex

By Robin Bates | Published: May 28, 2013

My father’s tales of soldiers’ sexual experience in World War II remind me of “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.”

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Still Falls the (Drone-Delivered) Rain

By Robin Bates | Published: October 22, 2012

As the U.S. steps up drone attacks, Edith Sitwell reminds us of the psychological cost to ourselves.

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World War II Internment Still Resonates

By Robin Bates | Published: August 2, 2012

American students of color respond in powerful ways to “When the Emperor Was Divine,” Julie Otsuka’s novel about Japanese Americans’ experience in World War II internment camps.

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