“ Were half the power, that fills the world with terror,
Were half the wealth bestowed on camps and courts,
Given to redeem the human mind from error,
There were no need of arsenal or forts.”
(Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, 1845)

Longfellow looks to the arsenal of weapons at Springfield, wondering what the world could be if we put as much into redeeming our minds as we did building our arsenals. In The Wartime Sisters, author Lynda Cohen Loigman takes us deeper into Longfellow’s words and the factories supporting the arsenals of war. She focuses on the rivalry of sisters and the anger and resentment that swells up inside each of us. This is the root of war and the place where redemption and peace are possible.