Offering an insightful analysis, this study helps young readers relate to the themes of disillusionment, guilt, and betrayal, the fear of failure, and intergenerational conflicts experienced by the teenaged characters in A Separate Peace. This casebook also situates the novel against the backdrop of World War II, enabling students to see the connections between the fictional world of the novel and the real World as it existed for the young people during the war years of 1942-45. Going well beyond a standard literary treatment, this interdisciplinary casebook provides a collection of historical primary documents drawn from official records, War Department orders, institutional histories, personal memoirs and letters, and poignant interviews.