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Title: The Good Fight : How World War II Was Won by Stephen E. Ambrose ISBN: 0-689-84361-5 Publisher: Atheneum Pub. Date: 03 April, 2001 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.58 (12 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: World War II for American Teenagers of Today
Comment: Chances are that most teenagers today have or had grandfathers who served in World War II and grandmothers who helped with the war effort at home. Yet those experiences seem like ancient history to many young people. This superb volume should help bring home the message of why the American war effort was so important, and the magnitude of the sacrifices that were made on their behalf. Hopefully, these materials will then encourage these young people to ask their grandparents about their World War II experiences, and help create more connections to and understanding of those worthy elders.
This book is a brief pictoral history of the war from the American perspective. The book's format is to take about 30 themes and develop them briefly. The tools used are brief essays, moving quotes from participants, photographs, and battle maps. Most subjects are handled in two pages (including photographs), but some go on to become four pages (such as the Holocaust). My only complaint about the book is that some photographs are reproduced in one color that makes the detail hard to see. Black would have been less appealing, but the photographs would have been easier to examine.
Those who know Professor Ambrose's work will recognize the quotes. Sergeant Mike Ranney of Easy Company in the 101st tells this story about speaking with his grandson.
"'Grandpa, were you a hero in the war?'
'No,' I answered, 'but I served in a company of heroes.'"
Quotes like that are worth the price of the book for conveying the World War II experience to this generation of Americans.
The book is good for pointing out problems and injustice. You see black Americans training with World War I guns. You see Japanese-Americans being interned in concentration camps. The concentration camp at Belsen is displayed. The devastation at Nagasaki as well as the radiation burn scars on a boy are portrayed.
Many of the famous World War II photographs are here, such as the flag-raising on Iwo Jima, V-J Day in Times Square (the sailor and the nurse), soldiers wading ashore on D-Day into the surf on Omaha Beach, and the Navy battleships aflame at Pearl Harbor.
Professor Ambrose certainly knows this history better than I do, but I wondered about his description of the Japanese emperor's involvement in the decision to launch the attack on Pearl Harbor. The version here seemed closer to the original story favored by General MacArthur that the emperor was manipulated by the military leaders than what I have been reading other historians say, which is that the emperor was right in the middle of wanting to go to war.
Some of my other favorite photographs in the book include Hitler at a Nuremberg party rally (showing the propaganda machine in all of its might), Guadalcanal after a tropical storm (with tents underwater), an Army corpsman tending a wounded soldier, St. Lo after the liberation, an American soldier rescuing a shell-shocked girl in Manila, and Stalin, Truman and Churchill at Potsdam.
Lesser known parts of the war are covered here, such as Rosie the Riveter (including a photograph of women learning to weld).
After you read this book, I suggest that you also take time to tell your teenagers how you feel about America's involvement in World War II. Many of the participants are naturally reluctant to say very much. Your own sense of this incredible struggle can help fill the gap in understanding as well.
If you feel comfortable, you may also want to talk about the cold war.
Be glad that D-Day was a success!
Rating: 4
Summary: Essential for school libraries and young history readers
Comment: This book, geared towards young readers in middle school, is a useful, short book designed to give these readers some appreciation for World War II in both theaters of war. It semi-obviously promotes the American viewpoint, but still has enough interesting data and anecdotes to bring the human side of the conflict into focus. It has plenty of maps and illustrations/photos, and would be helpful in school sna libraries to provide younger citizens with an idea of what service is all about, and intirduce them to good history telling.
Rating: 5
Summary: The Best Book For Research
Comment: I was writing a research paper on world war two, and was required to have 6 sources, but only needed one. No Joke...GReat info packed book!
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Title: World War II for Kids: A History with 21 Activities by Richard Panchyk ISBN: 1556524552 Publisher: Chicago Review Press Pub. Date: September, 2002 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Eyewitness: World War II (Eyewitness Books) by Simon Adams, Andy Crawford, Adams. Simon ISBN: 0789462982 Publisher: DK Publishing Pub. Date: 01 June, 2000 List Price(USD): $15.99 |
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Title: Americans at War by Stephen E. Ambrose ISBN: 0425165108 Publisher: Berkley Pub Group Pub. Date: October, 1998 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: D Day: June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of World War II by Stephen E. Ambrose ISBN: 068480137X Publisher: Touchstone Books Pub. Date: 01 June, 1995 List Price(USD): $17.00 |
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Title: A Boy at War: A Novel of Pearl Harbor by Harry Mazer ISBN: 0689841604 Publisher: Aladdin Library Pub. Date: 01 November, 2002 List Price(USD): $4.99 |
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