The War: An Intimate History, 1941-1945 |
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The War: An Intimate History, 1941-1945
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by Geoffrey C. Ward and Ken Burns
Sales Rank: 3822
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$7.94
At Amazon
on 6-23-2008.
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Features
Cover Type: Hard Cover with 480 pages
Published by: KnopfEdition: 1st Edition September 11, 2007
Written in: English
ISBN 10 Number: 0307262839
ISBN 13 Number: 978-0307262837
Book Dimensions:
11 x 9.5 x 1.3 inches
Weighs: 4.4 pounds
Product Review
History buffs, Ken Burns fans, and anyone whose life has been touched by war will be awed by Burns's new book, The War: An Intimate History, 1941-1945, a stunning companion to his PBS series airing in September 2007. Focusing on the citizens of four towns, The War follows more than forty people from 1941 to 1945. Maps and hundreds of photographs enrich this compelling, unflinching narrative. Check out some of the photographs and read the first chapter below. --Daphne Durham
Exclusive Photographs from The War
Read the First Chapter of The War
 A Necessary War
I don't think there is such a thing as a good war. There are sometimes necessary wars. And I think one might say, "just" wars. I never questioned the necessity of that war. And I still do not question it. It was something that had to be done. --Samuel Hynes
Sunday morning, December 7, 1941, began as most days do in Honolulu: warm and sunny with blue skies punctuated here and there by high wisps of cloud. At a few minutes after eight o'clock, the Hyotara Inouye family was at home on Coyne Street, getting ready for church. The sugary whine of Hawaiian music drifted through the house. The oldest of the four Inouye children, seventeen-year-old Daniel, a senior at William McKinley High and a Red Cross volunteer, was listening to station KGMB as he dressed. There were other sounds, too, muffled far-off sounds to which no one paid much attention at first because they had grown so familiar over the past few months. The drone of airplanes and the rumble of distant explosions had been commonplace since spring of the previous year, when the U.S. Pacific Fleet had shifted from the California coast to Pearl Harbor, some seven miles northwest of the Inouye home. Air-raid drills were frequent occurrences; so was practice firing of the big coastal defense batteries near Waikiki Beach.
But this was different. Daniel was just buttoning his shirt, he remembered, when the voice of disk jockey Webley Edwards broke into the music. "All army, navy, and marine personnel to report to duty," it said. At almost the same moment, Daniel's father shouted for him to come outside. Something strange was going on. Daniel hurried out into the sunshine and stood with his father by the side of the house, peering toward Pearl Harbor. They were too far away to see the fleet itself, and hills further obscured their view, but the sky above the harbor was filled with puffs of smoke. During drills the blank antiaircraft bursts had always been white. These were jet-black. Then, as the Inouyes watched in disbelief, the crrrump of distant explosions grew louder and more frequent and so much oily black smoke began billowing up into the sky that the mountains all but vanished and the horizon itself seemed about to disappear.
Read more from Chapter 1
From Publishers Weekly
This lavishly illustrated companion to the September PBS documentary series reduces the American side of WWII to the local and personal. Documentarian Burns (The Civil War) and historian Ward (The Civil War: An Illustrated History) foreground the iconic experiences of ordinary people, including a young girl interned in a Japanese camp in the Philippines, marines in the thick of combat in the Pacific and a fighter pilot who exchanges letters with his sweetheart. Their stories are full of anxiety and exhilaration, terror and pathos. (Sample vignette: a GI casually tosses pebbles into the skull of a Japanese machine-gunner, still upright and wide-eyed after the top of his head has been shot off). The authors' portrait of the home front glows with nostalgia—war bonds, scrap-metal drives, USO dances—but they also note racial tensions at a Mobile, Ala., shipyard and the bitterness of Japanese-American soldiers whose families were interned. In the background, Roosevelt and Churchill confer, Patton struts and growls, and arrows march across maps as the authors deftly sketch major campaigns and battles and offer tart criticism of inept generals. This visually appealing coffee-table book gives little idea of how and why America won, but a strong sense of what it felt like on the way to victory. Photos. (Sept. 12)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Reader Reviews
Following in the tradition his previous books on the Civil War, Jazz, and Baseball, Ken Burns has written another compelling and informative volume, this time on the Second World War. This book is loaded with photographs, maps, and testimonials from civilians and service people alike. It encompasses both the European and Pacific theaters of war, as well as the home front. The narrative is rich and easy to read, and the photographs show just what it was like to be in battle or work on an assembly line back home. The personal accounts from the front add an element of actually being in the fighting to the book. Of particular interest to me was the story of the Army's 442nd infantry. This unit was composed entirely of Japanese-Americans who fought in the European theater. Other points of interest include an informative section on the movement of Japanese-Americans to relocation camps inside the United States, war bond drives conducted throughout the war, and, mainly, the brutality of combat in both the European and Pacific theaters. I've read Burns' books on Baseball and the Civil War, and I've seen the companion video series to them as well. Burns has a knack for bringing out the "human" side to a particular event or situation, and he maintains this quality with the personal stories and historical narrative contained in this book. The excellent photographs and maps add a true sense of what it was really like at home and overseas during World War II. I give this fine book my highest recommendation. Ken Burns has written a terrific piece of military history which will remain a staple of the genre for years to come. This book is a must read for World War II readers.
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The War: An Intimate History, 1941-1945
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Updated on 6-23-2008.
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