Andrew Carroll believes that American war veterans must save their letters. Letters are history’s most personal source, for they’re meant to be read by a narrow audience and lack the normal pretense of official reports, newspaper clippings and magazine articles. At the urging of many American veterans, Carroll, editor of the book “War Letters” and founder of the Legacy Project, has compiled a wonderful new collection of correspondence from around the world. “Between the Lines” (Scribner, 512 pages) includes the letters and e-mails of American men and women, allies, enemies and civilians, written from the time of the French and Indian War to the current actions in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Exposed in all these letters is the human side of men and women who were otherwise living in a man-made hell. They long for the comfort of home and loved ones, including children they may never see, or are crushed by the notorious “Dear John.” Some waits were long and uncertain, particularly for those who were POWs. Mail was rarely received or delivered by the Japanese or the Germans. A U.S. soldier, James Coleman, engaged Mary Parkman to be married in 1941. He was sent to the Philippines and was a POW until the end of the war. In 1945 he wrote from his hospital bed at Walter Reed, “You are the truest sweetest girl to have ever waited for a soldier”; they were married a few days later. Compare that to a POW who received a letter that read succinctly, “You were missing a month so I got married.”

Carroll also manages to bring humor to this collection. Veterans of the military will find comfort in the fact that armies are all the same, and very little has changed in the 240 years since the U.S. military first went into action. It has always been understood that an enlisted man must know “Thou shalt not use words NCOs cannot understand.” Lifers are still considered lazy, confusion reigns supreme and no matter where you serve the mess hall and finance can screw you. A Revolutionary War soldier wrote “our ofisers have left us without food or money,” while a member of the Air National Guard recommended to his wife that on his return from Operation Iraqi Freedom he not be fed at other than regular mess hall hours, as “the feeling of not being hungry may lead to shock.”

Soldiers’ and civilians’ letters reveal that their experiences are alike. Whether witnessing the firsthand effects of an atomic bomb at Ground Zero in Hiroshima in 1945 or hearing the plaints of a woman stranded in Baltimore as the British prepare to beset and ransack the city in 1814, the terror of the defenseless permeates the page.

War is the most inhumane of human endeavors. Its very nature shreds lives both physically and mentally. From a firsthand look from a woman who was at the World Trade Center complex on Sept. 11, 2001, to an accounting of the horrific methods that the Nazis used to attempt to make partisans from the French Underground give up information, these words portray the “thousand-mile stare” of a veteran who has seen too much but must go on with living.
There are also stories that offer a positive outlook, stories of enemies who become friends and of  strangers who learn tolerance and love.

Carroll and the Legacy Project, a volunteer effort to preserve war correspondence, have given us a unique look at the many voices of men and women who have been on either side of America’s armed endeavors. “Between the Lines” is a must-read for anyone who loves history and the extraordinary people who make it.

Andrew Carroll reads from “Between the Lines” Thursday, July 28 at 7 p.m.
York Public Library, York, Maine 207-363-2818