Hoping to “grasp a piece of the world that cannot be brought back,” Beaulieu is meticulous in charting Camp Haan’s purpose and operations, and he includes extensive photographs, maps, and schematics designed to resurrect the vibrancy of a rarely mentioned slice of military history. His attention to detail is remarkable: each individual camp tent is carefully plotted, chapel service schedules are reproduced, and Beaulieu goes so far as to jot down which military units traveled through the camp. History buffs will relish the entertaining snippets of daily life Beaulieu captures, like the Desert Sun article requesting that civilians host Camp Haan soldiers for Thanksgiving, or his outline of the wages paid to prisoners of war in exchange for their camp labors.
One conspicuous gap is in firsthand accounts of life in Camp Haan; as Beaulieu notes, he was unable to interview anyone who lived or worked there. That sense of lost history reverberates in Beaulieu’s descriptions of the camp’s current status: entirely dismantled, with only crumbling foundations remaining as a memorial to what once was a bustling military outpost. Beaulieu’s extensive archival research sets this glimpse of history apart, and he closes with several appendices that list Camp Haan’s buildings, known military units, and sample activity schedules.
Takeaway: Earnest and well-researched historical dive into U.S. military Camp Haan.
Comparable Titles: Marge Bitetti and Tony Bitetti’s The Aviation History of Greater Riverside, John H. Baker’s Camp Adair.
Production grades
Cover: A-
Design and typography: B
Illustrations: A
Editing: B
Marketing copy: A-
