Defending Baltimore Against Enemy Attack: A Boyhood Year During World War II

by Charles Osgood

Overview

From beloved broadcaster Charles Osgood, a poignant memoir about one unforgettable childhood year during World War II.

Defending Baltimore Against Enemy Attack is a gloriously funny and nostalgic slice of American life and a moving look at World War II from the perspective of a child far away from the fighting, but very conscious of the reverberations. With a sharp eye for details, Osgood captures the texture of life in a bygone era.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780316469647
Publisher:	Grand Central Publishing
Publication date:	04/08/2025
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	146
File size:	10 MB
Age Range:	13 - 18 Years

About the Author

Charles Osgood writes and anchors The Osgood File four times daily over the CBS radio network and anchors CBS television's Sunday Morning every week. He is the winner of two Emmys and three Peabody Awards; Washington Journalism Review named him "Best in the Business" five years running; and in 1990 he was inducted into the National Association of Broadcasters' Broadcasting Hall of Fame. He lives in New Jersey.

Read an Excerpt

"As a nine year-old patriot on the home front, I helped to collect scrap rubber, scrap metal, tinfoil, old newspapers, and even cans of fat for the war effort. Some of the tinfoil came from my father's packs of cigarettes, some of it came from my packs of gum, and some of the rubber came from rubber bands that I took home from school. Stealing them wasn't a sin because I kept hearing that God was on our side. Praise the Lord and pass the school supplies.

That year, 1942, was the best of times for a Baltimore boy who always seemed to be feeling good and the worst of times for a nation reeling from the first blows of World War Two."

Table of Contents

	Prelude: Norman Rockwell's Boy	1
1	Home Front, Sweet Home Front	13
2	I'll Be Seeing You	21
3	The Endless Play Date	39
4	Not Quite Huck Finn	57
5	There's No Place Like a Station House	69
6	Doo-Dah	85
7	Reading, Writing, and Is Maine in Spain?	105
8	Above the Orioles, My Bluebird	117
9	Yankee Doodle Dandy	131

Editorial Reviews

Osgood's memoir of growing up in Baltimore's Liberty Heights neighborhood circa 1942 echoes with the same measured cadence and disarmingly simple structure that the anchor uses in his CBS radio and TV broadcasts. The Emmy Award-winning broadcaster pulls readers into a seductive world, as he relates his obsession with baseball, his love of radio programs (which had a "profound influence" on him) and his experiences with other slices of Americana. Yet the war news affected Osgood, too, if in a minor way: he built a stink bomb with a friend ("weapons of mass disgust to waft at the enemy"), pinned a tiny Japanese flag over Manila on the map mounted on his bedroom wall and wondered "just how much of Africa needed liberating." His reminiscences are a basic nostalgic archetype, where plucky kids, strong families and sunny optimism are the order of the day, compared with Osgood's version of today's world, where ill-educated and pessimistic masses throng America's streets. The author talks about how, as a child aged eight to 12, he simply wanted to make people happy, imagining that if he were a child today, he'd be sent to a psychiatrist for such behavior. The golden-hued streets of Osgood's Liberty Heights are a bona fide paradise, drenched with more nostalgia than even Barry Levinson could offer, without a shred of acknowledgment of memory's distortion of events over time. Photos not seen by PW. Agent, Bill Adler. (May) Forecast: Father's Day promos, an author tour and inevitable plugs on the radio will boost sales to baby boomers and their parents. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

"One of the greatest talents in broadcasting today...His pieces on CBS radio and television are delightfully sage, compassionate, and witty." (Jim Lehrer)