Victors: Eisenhower and His Boys: The Men of World War II

Amazon.com
The Victors is like a compilation of Stephen E. Ambrose's greatest hits, drawing heavily from his biography of General Dwight D. Eisenhower and several military histories that recount the events of the Allied push across the European continent in 1944 and 1945 from the frontline trooper's perspective. The narrative is vintage Ambrose, full of engaging yet workmanlike prose that conveys the epic scope of its subject while paying careful attention to the details of the often inglorious lives of the GIs. Eisenhower looms large over this book, but it's the ordinary soldiers and their experiences who give the story real life. Readers who have already dipped into the Ambrose library may find sections of The Victors redundant, but for those who want an adept overview of what Ike and his men accomplished, this is a great place to start. --John J. Miller


From Publishers Weekly
Ambrose has established himself as both a major biographer of Dwight Eisenhower and the definitive chronicler of America's combat soldiers in the D-Day campaign of 1944-45. But after Citizen Soldiers, he'd sworn off war and given away his WWII books. Then his editor convinced him to do "a book on Ike and the GIs, drawing on my previous writings"Asuch as Citizen Soldiers, D-Day and The Supreme Commander. "Alice Mayhew made me do it," Ambrose writes here. Readers familiar with Ambrose's work will find familiar set pieces, familiar anecdotes, even familiar phrases, but this is more than a clip job. It stands on its own as the story of the GIs who fought their way from Normandy's beaches and hedgerows across Europe. Few were prepared for combat against a Wehrmacht that was dangerous even in decline, and both enlisted men and officers learned through hard-earned experience. While admiring Eisenhower's character and generally affirming his performance as supreme Allied commander, Ambrose is sharply critical of such costly slugging matches as the one in the Huertgen Forest, which continued during the fall and winter of 1944 on orders from senior officers unaware of conditions in the front lines and unable to develop an alternative to frontal assault. But by the final thrust into Germany in the spring of 1945, the U.S. Army's fighting power was second to none. Once more, Ambrose does what few others do as wellAvividly portray the sacrifices and achievements of democracy's army. Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From School Library Journal
YA-A reworking of material from several of Ambrose's earlier books that not only stands on its own, but in some ways also surpasses its predecessors. What might have been a mere sampler is actually a cohesive chronicle of American combat soldiers in the European theater of World War II, and of their Supreme Commander, Dwight D. Eisenhower. The author has conducted hundreds of interviews and reviewed countless original documents, and with a talent equal to his industry, he has put together a fascinating story, complete with unmistakable heroes, a clear moral theme, and a judicious use of captivating anecdotes. He depicts wartime Eisenhower as a figure of legend: the embodiment of leadership at a time of unimaginable crisis. With the fate of democracy and the lives of thousands on his shoulders, Eisenhower connected with his "boys" as few great leaders have. It is this connection, as well as the sense of duty on the part of individual soldiers in the field, that captures Ambrose's attention, and elevates the book from good history to great moral tale. The author is a master of letting his subjects tell the story, of standing back and allowing the large lessons to unfold. The result is history with lasting impact. For teens, The Victors has additional advantages: brevity, quickness, and a cast of characters not much older than themselves. For those who have not yet discovered Ambrose, or how engaging good history writing can be, this book offers an excellent introduction.Robert Saunderson, Berkeley Public Library, CA Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
Ambrose is a distinguished historian primarily known for his Eisenhower and Nixon biographies, as well as for studies of World War II. Both of these presentations feature his attempt to get at the hearts and minds of foot soldiers, as well as their leaders. There is some ghastly detail from combat scenes but also a great deal of information on strategy, tactics, and failures; Eisenhower, for example, built well upon early miscalculations that cost many lives. Hitler, Bradley, Patton, Montgomery, and many others stride across Ambrose's detailed canvas. Reader Cotter Smith has a youngish voice and reads with careful deliberation, neither dramatizing the text nor dulling it. For popular history collections.ADon Wismer, Cary Memorial Lib., Wayne, ME Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.


The New York Times Book Review, Nathaniel Tripp
Ambrose is a superb historian. He has the details and he has the voice.


From AudioFile
If Cotter Smith understands anything about reading for an audience, he understands the concept of subtlety. He imbues Ambrose's narrative about men in war with a voice that knows full well the value of restraint. It would have been easy for Smith to produce as mere melodrama. But he holds back, and the result is a powerful tale told in their own words by the men of this century's last great war. Compiled from BAND OF BROTHERS and CITIZEN SOLDIERS, THE VICTORS likely won't seem fresh to anyone familiar with the originals. But those who are coming to Ambrose for the first time will have a dramatic experience of WWII. Smith is as capable of putting the listener in an icy Belgian foxhole as he is of relating the nervousness suffered by Dwight Eisenhower in the days, hours and minutes leading up to the Normandy invasion. Smith proves conclusively that real stories of courage and honor don't need false bravado to communicate their poignant messages of camaraderie in the face of horror, horror in the service of necessity, necessity in the pursuit of liberty. D.A.W. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine


From Booklist
Ambrose has already chronicled the GI's experience in Europe in D-Day (1994) and Citizen Soldiers , and this book is a fancy adaptation of his previous work. Still, The Victors has plenty of popularity potential on account of the homage paid to the infantrymen and to the general who led them. Ambrose opens with Ike's appointment as supreme commander of Operation Overlord, then, via the recollections of survivors, lands on Omaha Beach and scales Pointe du Hoc. His emphasis is always on the privates, noncoms, and lieutenants. From firefights in hedgderows, Ambrose turns to the famous tension between Montgomery and Ike. Often recounted, the disagreement originated in strategy, with Monty demanding a dash to Berlin, whereas Ike preferred a broad-front advance. Following this peek into decisions at HQ, Ambrose returns to the ground and the soldiers' grim stories of the failure of the Arnhem attack (a consequence of Monty's idea) and the attrition in the Hurtgen Forest and the Battle of the Bulge (the consequence of Ike's idea). Gilbert Taylor


From Kirkus Reviews
Revisiting ground covered previously in his superb Citizen Soldiers (1997) and other works about the climactic European campaigns of 194445, distinguished historian Ambrose (Undaunted Courage, 1996, etc.) tells the story of the conquest of Nazism by an array of American, English, and Canadian kids led by the plain-spoken Dwight Eisenhower. As in his earlier works, Ambrose focuses on the stories of individualsthe men who planned and led the invasion, the junior officers and non-commissioned officers, and the ordinary citizen soldiers of the Allied armies. He traces the training of ordinary boys from Chicago, Kansas, and Georgia, and the rise of their commander, Dwight Eisenhower, through a variety of staff posts. ``Ike,'' as he was known to absolutely everybody soon after his arrival in England in 1942, quickly became a favorite with the British press and with the often prickly English military establishment: He relied often on his considerable diplomatic skills to compel the British and American commanders to work together. However, the author faults the inefficiency of Ike's war of attrition and his failure to ensure that his army was adequately trained and equipped for battle. Most of the narrative is devoted to the travails of the individual soldier in combat. With photographic immediacy, Ambrose shows the pitilessly savage nature of the war as he takes the reader through hellish beach landings, sanguinary battles to liberate Normandy, pursuit through France, the terrifying aspects of trench, street, and night battle, setbacks to the Allied advance, and the ferocious but ultimately unsuccessful German counter-punch through the Ardennes. Meticulously researched and characteristically well told. A compelling and heartfelt tribute to the GI. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.


Review
Nathaniel Tripp The New York Times Book Review Ambrose is a superb historian.

William R. Wineke Wisconsin State Journal The Victors is an absolutely wonderful book...a compelling narrative of a time when the average American youth exhibited heroism and grace to save the world.

FROM OUR EDITORS

The Barnes & Noble Review
September 1998

America's preeminent military historian, Stephen E. Ambrose brings us two gripping books on World War II combat — told from the perspective of the noble men and women who fought the battles. Citizen Soldiers, a New York Times bestseller, follows the individual characters of this brutal war from the high command down to the ordinary soldier. The Victors traces the war from D-Day to the end, 11 months later, and includes stories of bloody battles, raids, and acts of courage and suffering.

In Citizen Soldiers, Ambrose — who was a consultant for Spielberg's "Saving Private Ryan" — takes us to the World War II battlefields of western Europe to track a year in the life of U.S. GIs as they fought their way off the beaches of Normandy and across the Rhine into Germany. The author's uncanny ability to tell a compelling story without compromising the facts or his critical eye comes through as strongly as ever.

Citizen Soldiers weaves several stories together: There is the large, strategic plan to defeat Germany, the story of the leaders who planned the advancement and battles, the tales of the units who spent months in the coldest winter in 40 years, and the personal tales of individual soldiers whose commitment and bravery, according to Ambrose, were the deciding factor in the war. Although the canvas is broad, the focus is on the GIs in the trenches and the stunning hardships they endured. To make his narrative more personal, Ambrose draws on extensive interviews with veterans from both sides of thebattleswho saw the Allied troops push the Germans back to Germany and ultimately force them to surrender. As always, Ambrose's history is not bland hagiography but a critical and thoughtful narrative.

The Victors, a one-volume history of World War II from D-Day to Berlin, draws from Ambrose's bestselling accounts Eisenhower, Pegasus Bridge (the first engagement of D-Day), Band of Brothers (about E Company, from Normandy to Germany), D-Day, and Citizen Soldiers. As always, Ambrose's attention is on the ordinary men who fought, endured, and won.

The Victors begins with the preparation and training of the Allied armies and moves on to describe Eisenhower's decision to cross the English Channel to capture the Normandy beaches on D-Day and the men who pulled it off. It covers the bitter winter of 1944 and the horrible battles on the drive to conquer Germany. At the center of this epic drama are the citizen soldiers, the boys who became men as they fought and proved eventually unbeatable. The Victors displays Ambrose's scholarship and authority, his readability, and his powerful love and admiration for these young men, all of the qualities that make his books so popular.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

From America's preeminent military historian, Stephen E. Ambrose, comes a brilliant telling of World War II in Europe, from D-Day, June 6, 1944, to the end, eleven months later, on May 7, 1945. The author himself drew this authoritative narrative account from his five acclaimed books about that conflict, to yield what has been called "the best single-volume history of the war that most of us will ever read."

SYNOPSIS

Here are World War II's battles, raids, and acts of courage -- the momentous decisions about how and where the war was fought -- the strategies and conduct of the officers who led the drive across Europe to Berlin, and the best army in the world, pushing the Germans out of France, chasing them across Germany, and destroying the Nazi regime.

FROM THE CRITICS

Dallas Morning News

A readable and necessary remembrance of a generation that met and overcame this century's greatest test.

Nathaniel Tripp - The New York Times Book Review

Ambrose is a superb historian. . . .Illuminating and insightful.

Detroit News

Fine reading.

School Library Journal

YA-A reworking of material from several of Ambrose's earlier books that not only stands on its own, but in some ways also surpasses its predecessors. What might have been a mere sampler is actually a cohesive chronicle of American combat soldiers in the European theater of World War II, and of their Supreme Commander, Dwight D. Eisenhower. The author has conducted hundreds of interviews and reviewed countless original documents, and with a talent equal to his industry, he has put together a fascinating story, complete with unmistakable heroes, a clear moral theme, and a judicious use of captivating anecdotes. He depicts wartime Eisenhower as a figure of legend: the embodiment of leadership at a time of unimaginable crisis. With the fate of democracy and the lives of thousands on his shoulders, Eisenhower connected with his "boys" as few great leaders have. It is this connection, as well as the sense of duty on the part of individual soldiers in the field, that captures Ambrose's attention, and elevates the book from good history to great moral tale. The author is a master of letting his subjects tell the story, of standing back and allowing the large lessons to unfold. The result is history with lasting impact. For teens, The Victors has additional advantages: brevity, quickness, and a cast of characters not much older than themselves. For those who have not yet discovered Ambrose, or how engaging good history writing can be, this book offers an excellent introduction.-Robert Saunderson, Berkeley Public Library, CA Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

John Gregory Dunne

. . . Ambrose['s] skill at weaving his interviews into a good read is impressive. . . .[however, one] must rely on the memoir rather than on the 'read' for the hard edges of war. . . .what The Victors most recalls is a movie. . . .The result is that there is little room to examine the corrosive effects of spontaneoius wanton cruelty, little room for the nuances of personality or the parsing of fear.
-- The New YorkerRead all 12 "From The Critics" >

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