EBOOK
Voices from the Peace Corps
Fifty Years of Kentucky Volunteers
Angene WilsonSeries: Kentucky Remembered: An Oral History(0)
About
President John F. Kennedy established the Peace Corps on March 1, 1961. In the fifty years since, nearly 200,000 Americans have served in 139 countries, providing technical assistance, promoting a better understanding of American culture, and bringing the world back to the United States.
In Voices from the Peace Corps: Fifty Years of Kentucky Volunteers, Angene Wilson and Jack Wilson, who served in Liberia from 1962 to 1964, follow the experiences of volunteers as they make the decision to join, attend training, adjust to living overseas and the job, make friends, and eventually return home to serve in their communities. They also describe how the volunteers made a difference in their host countries and how they became citizens of the world for the rest of their lives. Among many others, the interviewees include a physics teacher who served in Nigeria in 1961, a smallpox vaccinator who arrived in Afghanistan in 1969, a nineteen-year-old Mexican American who worked in an agricultural program in Guatemala in the 1970s, a builder of schools and relationships who served in Gabon from 1989 to 1992, and a retired office administrator who taught business in Ukraine from 2000 to 2002. Voices from the Peace Corps emphasizes the value of practical idealism in building meaningful cultural connections that span the globe.
In Voices from the Peace Corps: Fifty Years of Kentucky Volunteers, Angene Wilson and Jack Wilson, who served in Liberia from 1962 to 1964, follow the experiences of volunteers as they make the decision to join, attend training, adjust to living overseas and the job, make friends, and eventually return home to serve in their communities. They also describe how the volunteers made a difference in their host countries and how they became citizens of the world for the rest of their lives. Among many others, the interviewees include a physics teacher who served in Nigeria in 1961, a smallpox vaccinator who arrived in Afghanistan in 1969, a nineteen-year-old Mexican American who worked in an agricultural program in Guatemala in the 1970s, a builder of schools and relationships who served in Gabon from 1989 to 1992, and a retired office administrator who taught business in Ukraine from 2000 to 2002. Voices from the Peace Corps emphasizes the value of practical idealism in building meaningful cultural connections that span the globe.
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Reviews
"Using the myriad stories from the men and women interviewed by Angene and Jack Wilson and others is, without much doubt, the best way to tell the Peace Corps's story. The stories and memories of five decades' worth of Peace Corps veterans show that the commercial was right: it was the toughest job they ever loved."
Troy Reeves, University of Wisconsin-Madison Oral History Program
"Angene and Jack Wilson have a lovely, crisp writing style that carries the narrative along, blending general information with individual stories. Voices from the Peace Corps describes an important piece of the American experience."
Elizabeth Cobbs, author of All You Need is Love: The Peace Corps and the Spirit of the 196
"Find a comfortable rocking chair. . . Angene and Jack Wilson have woven together a compelling and inspiring story of how Kentuckians were called to serve in the Peace Corps, and, in turn, how that experience changed their lives and contributed to Kentucky and the rest of the country. The Wilsons have provided a great and timely service to the entire Peace Corps community in collecting and sharing
Kevin Quigley, President, The National Peace Corps Association