{"id":1500,"date":"2011-03-29T01:00:21","date_gmt":"2011-03-29T05:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/info-libraries.mit.edu\/150books\/?p=1500"},"modified":"2023-07-12T15:41:42","modified_gmt":"2023-07-12T15:41:42","slug":"1942","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/150books\/2011\/03\/29\/1942\/","title":{"rendered":"Year 82 &#8211; 1942: Victory Through Air Power by Major Alexander P. de Seversky"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Published: New York, 1942<a href=\"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/150books\/2011\/03\/29\/1942\/1942-ill4\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-1506\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-1506 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/app\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2011\/03\/1942-ill4-300x172.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"172\" srcset=\"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/app\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2011\/03\/1942-ill4-300x172.jpg 300w, https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/app\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2011\/03\/1942-ill4-1024x587.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/app\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2011\/03\/1942-ill4-768x440.jpg 768w, https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/app\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2011\/03\/1942-ill4-624x358.jpg 624w, https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/app\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2011\/03\/1942-ill4.jpg 1411w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>This book is blatant propaganda, but the market was no \u00a0doubt ripe for such literature just after the United States entered World War II. \u00a0Indeed, <em>Victory Through Air Power<\/em> was the #1 <em>New York Times<\/em> bestseller for a month straight and would even go on to become an animated Disney film. Make no mistake, this book was designed to shape public opinion. In an attempt at due diligence, the publishers issue an alert:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Warning to laymen: in reading this remarkable book about the air, keep your feet on the ground! Only with such a cautionary word as this do the Book-of-the-Month Club and its judges feel comfortable in distributing several hundred thousand copies of this book among opinion-making citizens.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>This book has a rightful place on the shelves of the MIT Libraries, not only because it was immensely popular, but also because of the Institute\u2019s important contributions to Allied efforts during the Second World War.<a href=\"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/150books\/2011\/03\/29\/1942\/1942-title\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-1508\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-1508 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/app\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2011\/03\/1942-title-200x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/app\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2011\/03\/1942-title-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/app\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2011\/03\/1942-title-683x1024.jpg 683w, https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/app\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2011\/03\/1942-title-768x1151.jpg 768w, https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/app\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2011\/03\/1942-title-624x935.jpg 624w, https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/app\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2011\/03\/1942-title.jpg 989w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Of course that\u2019s not to say every reader at MIT agreed with the author. The title page of our copy contains some incisive commentary. \u201cThis book is not worth reading,\u201d one ground-level critic wrote. \u201cYou are absolutely right!\u201d a later reader replied.<\/p>\n<p>As stated in earlier entries, we most definitely do not condone writing in library books; it\u2019s a form of vandalism. But it must be said that dialogues carried out in the margins of books \u2013 or on their title pages \u2013 have a very long history that has always fascinated, and will likely continue to fascinate, scholars and the reading public alike.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/150books\/2011\/03\/29\/1942\/1942-ill1\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-1501\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-1501 size-thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/app\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2011\/03\/1942-ill1-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/150books\/2011\/03\/29\/1942\/1942-ill2\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-1504\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-1504 size-thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/app\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2011\/03\/1942-ill2-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/150books\/2011\/03\/29\/1942\/1942-ill3\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-1505\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-1505 size-thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/app\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2011\/03\/1942-ill3-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/150books\/2011\/03\/29\/1942\/1942-ill5\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-1507\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-1507 size-thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/app\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2011\/03\/1942-ill5-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/mit.primo.exlibrisgroup.com\/permalink\/01MIT_INST\/jp08pj\/alma990005819830106761\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Find it in the library<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Published: New York, 1942 This book is blatant propaganda, but the market was no \u00a0doubt ripe for such literature just after the United States entered World War II. \u00a0Indeed, Victory Through Air Power was the #1 New York Times bestseller for a month straight and would even go on to become an animated Disney film. Make no mistake, this book was designed to shape public opinion. In an attempt at due diligence, the publishers issue an alert: Warning to laymen: in reading this remarkable book about the air, keep your feet on the ground! Only with such a cautionary word [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":false,"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/150books\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1500","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/150books\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/150books\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/150books\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/150books\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1500"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/150books\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1500\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4296,"href":"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/150books\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1500\/revisions\/4296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/150books\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/150books\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraries.mit.edu\/150books\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}