Okay, we're live. Hi, this is William Ramsey. Welcome to William Ramsey Investigates on tonight show of a very special guest. Her name is Mary Louise Roberts, and she just published a book in April of 2021. The title of the book is Shear Misery, Soldiers in Battle in World War II. And Mary Louise Roberts, who likes to go by Lou. She is the Worf distinguished Lucy Albrecht Professor and Planner Bascom Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She has her PhD

from Brown University and a master's from Sarah Lawrence College. This is not her first book. She's

also written Disruptive Acts, the new woman in Fend Sicle, France, published March 15th, 2017,

also D-Day Through the French Eyes, Memoirs of Normandy, 1944, published 2014.

What Soldiers Do, Sex and the American G.I. and World War II, France, 2013.

And then she was also involved in a book titled Civilization Without Sexes, Reconstructing Gender in Post-War France, 1917, 1929.

That was published in 2009.

But again, the title of this book is Shear Misery.

Really a fascinating book.

It's a different kind of historical take on books I usually read where it's really she goes in detail about the life of the infantry men in World War II and sees the war from that perspective, really kind of in the trenches perspective.

But she can talk more about that. So Lou Roberts, are you there?

I'm good. Thanks so much for having me on, William. I appreciate it.

Great. Well, thanks for agreeing to the interview. For people, I mean, you have a,

you have a background with a lot of books. For people who may not have heard your background,

can you talk about your interest in World War II and what led you to write this book,

Shear Misery?

Sure.

I began as a French historian, and what I'm interested in is using different kinds of archives

from different countries to get new narratives.

So my book, What Soldiers Do, I use both American archives concerning GIs and

archives concerning French women and men and civilians.

And the perspective you get, if you look at both sides, is different,

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