Twenty years old when he entered the army in 1942, Leo Bogart was one of sixteen million Americans who served with the armed forces during World War II. Over the next four years he, and perhaps the nation, came of age. In numerous letters home, he provided a glimpse into the mind of a young American intellectual whose wartime journey carried him from New York to Germany and from adolescence to experience of the world's complexities.
As shown by the letters and the narrative that fills in the gaps between them, the war engaged him, as it did many others, long before he put on a uniform....