Reviews for The War: An Intimate History, 1941-1945

The average rating for The War: An Intimate History, 1941-1945 based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2014-05-27 00:00:00 Jason Antunez I haven't actually seen Ken Burns' PBS series The War to which this is a "companion book." The written work survives alone, but it did, at times, feel scattered. It's intended to give you a variety of perspectives from "everyday" people from across the United States, and it does manage to capture a wide range of voices. It's a good book (three stars is, after all, more than half), especially if you're looking for something short and sweeping. However, having recently read the likes of Cornelius Ryan's The Last Battle: The Classic History of the Battle for Berlin , I found Burns' work to be lacking in the 'oomph' department. Some interesting things I learned and/or had not previously considered: 1. Decoy Tanks We used them. I think I remember hearing about this before, but there's something that seemed so human to me about the use of this type of warfare. It's at once classic misdirection (Sun Tzu has a thing or two to say about deception in The Art of War), and something I imagine Wile E. Coyote doing. However, Operation Fortitude played no small part in the success of the 1944 Normandy landings. 2. Clash of Commanders So I wouldn't necessarily say that that the leaders of the allied military forces were coming to fisticuffs (though Bernard Montgomery and Eisenhower had more than a few heated debates), but the sheer size (larger than life most would say) of figures such as Douglas MacArthur and George Patton that struck me this time around. From MacArthur's dramatic speech (I couldn't bear to excerpt it, so check out the link) to the people of the Philippines, to Patton's stopping to urinate in the Rhine River, these men came across as individuals of epic proportions. 3. Knowing Thy Enemy and the Saipan Suicides There's little I can really say about the death of hundreds of Japanese civilians and soldiers off of Suicide Cliff in Saipan. Though pop culture has long-remembered the Bushido Code, there is something different about hearing of women throwing their children into the abyss rather than face captivity at enemy hands (though, my recent Ryan readings are a good reminder that there is nothing uniquely Japanese about this). Bonus Round/Obscure Archer Tie-In With the macabre humor often used to get through life on the front lines, American soldiers took to calling the German Schrapnellmine or S-mine , which would detonate and spray shrapnel (going about one click per second) at what Burns tastefully refers to as "groin height," Bouncing Betties . The S-mine, of course, was a precursor to the American-made M18 Claymore Mine which should, among other things, always have its front toward the enemy if you don't want a thousand steel balls to shred [your] genitals.

Review # 2 was written on 2008-03-24 00:00:00 Ty Turner I listened to the audio version of this book on eight CDs. It's abridged, but I wouldn't have known it if it didn't say so on the case. This book gave me a very thorough education about World War II, "The Big Picture." I've read a lot about the war before, but it was usually about specific areas only. This book gave me a clear understanding of what was happening on all the different fronts (including the home front). It switches back and forth from Europe to the Pacific (and a little of Africa), so I was able to see how all the different pieces fit together within the same time period. I also understand for the first time why our leaders felt it was necessary to drop "the bomb" on Japan. Not that it was right, but I see now how stubborn the Japanese leader was about refusing to surrender. The soldiers had to kill THEIR OWN women and children rather than allow them to surrender!