Listening to War: Wisconsin’s Wartime Oral Histories

The Listening to War digital collection brings together first-person accounts of veterans and civilians in Wisconsin, from the Spanish-American War of 1898 to the 21st-century Afghanistan War. These stories of everyday life during wartime come from men and women who served on the battlefront; nurses, journalists, shipbuilders, and others who contributed to wartime work at home and abroad; Holocaust survivors who immigrated to Wisconsin after World War II; and Hmong refugees from Laos who were resettled in the state following the Vietnam War.

These audio and video recordings, which date from the 1970s to the 2010s, are the result of hundreds of hours of work by curators, archivists, historians, volunteers, teachers, and high school students to capture the wartime experiences of the people of Wisconsin. Most of these oral history interviews were recorded on analog formats including reel-to-reel tape and videocassette, and are made available here digitally for the first time. Although the quality and completeness of these interviews vary, each one represents a unique voice and an important story.

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NEH logoThis project is made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities: Exploring the human endeavor. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.