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Band of Brothers (平装)
by Stephen E. Ambrose
| Category:
World War II, History |
| Market price: ¥ 198.00
MSL price:
¥ 168.00
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| Stock:
In Stock |
MSL rating:
 Good for Gifts |
| MSL Pointer Review:
A true story collected from the yarns of Easy Company survivors that tells the tale of brave citizen soldiers and their experiences as they battle the Nazi menace – The world will always owe a debt of gratitude to the men who "laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom"! |
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AllReviews |
1 Total 1 pages 10 items |
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Eugene (MSL quote), USA
<2007-05-06 00:00>
I have read alot of WWII history books, so therefore I am very familiar with Ambrose's work. While it may be hard to say which one is his best because he always did a fantastic job of telling "the story", maybe this is just one of the best stories he had the chance to tell. This book is a personal inspiration; I have given it to many friends to read and they are always in awe when they return it. While this book has obvious appeal to any WWII buff, it is such an amazing story that anyone can enjoy it. Then I saw the HBO series, and oh boy did the story ever "come to life". Read the book, watch the series, and just be prepared to deal with the overcoming urge to drive to the recruiting center!
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Michael (MSL quote), USA
<2007-05-06 00:00>
After watching the movie first, then reading the book, I wished I've read the book first. This book is one of the best I've read and I don't read a whole lot. What those men went through during the war, I can't compare to my experience's. I to was in two different wars, Vietnam and Gulf War. The hardships they endured along with the good times can only be discribe by those who were there. To Major Winters and his outfit my hat is off to you all. I just wish I could meet with those gentlmen and shake their hand and tell them thank you for sacificing so much in order that we can stand proud of our country and the freedom we have today.
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Leota (MSL quote), USA
<2007-05-06 00:00>
This book is a great read. A poignant account from a group of WWII airborne veterans, not high-ranking staff officers, that experienced the inhuman realities of war. But more than that, the underlying message, as the book was appropriately titled, was a group of young men with eclectic backgrounds and aspirations came to be brothers. I would be doing the book injustice if I tried to write an accurate synopsis of it, and by accuracy not only do I mean the historical facts but also the human emotional triumphs and travesties that is conveyed in this work. I'll let the author and accounts from the various members of Easy Company, speak for themselves. Get this book, it's definitely one to add to your library.
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Bill (MSL quote), USA
<2007-05-06 00:00>
Stephen Ambrose's "Band Of Brothers" is a powerful testimony to the singular effects of battle on a company of American paratroopers in the European Theater of Operations during World War II. As Ambrose tells it, the only thing deeper than the change they wrought on the outcome of the war was the change the war wrought on them.
After heavy training and embarkation to England, Easy Company of the 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne Division dropped in just beyond Utah Beach on D-Day, helping clear the Carentan Peninsula of German forces. Later, during Operation Market Garden, they helped secure the Dutch village of Son. A period of scheduled rest became their toughest combat experience yet when German forces launched a surprise attack across the Ardennes and the company pitched in to defend Bastogne. Finally, the company made it to Austria and encamped in Hitler's mountain redoubt at Berchtesgaden.
"Anything was better than the blood and carnage, the grime and filth, the impossible demands made on the body - anything, that is, except letting down their buddies," Ambrose writes.
Published in 1992, 50 years after the war, Ambrose's book was a giant step forward in national recognition for the men who fought for the United States during World War II. Ambrose writes with obvious admiration and conviction, yet he also tells some uncomfortable truths. Presenting real heroes to an age with few of its own can be awkward unless it comes with a certain amount of candor.
The "brothers" we read of here are not without their flaws. Ambrose describes such ugliness as looting from civilians and shooting German POWs with an unflinching eye. At the same time, you feel an awe for these men beyond words, their willingness to endure hardship and the likelihood of death.
After D-Day, Pvt. David Webster writes his mother about her wish he not be in the van of the attacking army: "If the country all had your attitude, nobody would fight, everybody would be in the Quartermaster. And what kind of a country would that be?"
Tough words for a worried parent, but they resound through the years to our softer if not war-free time.
Ambrose's strong identification with the subjects of his book make for a complicated read. He seems at pains to echo their views about their commanders, pro and con, their grousing about the frustrations between the combat, and especially their sense of specialness, to the point where he seems to suggest Easy Company was no mere elite cadre but the greatest unit who ever walked the earth, exerting more energy in a single engagement than football players would if they played three 60-minute games in a row.
"The 101st Airborne was the most famous and admired of all the 89 divisions the United States Army put into the Second World War," Ambrose writes, an arguable point to present so matter-of factly. [What about the Big Red One?] He goes on: "Ever since, men have worn that Screaming Eagle on their left shoulders with the greatest of pride."
Ambrose seems less a historian and more a cheerleader at moments like this. Ambrose's understandable pride in the exploits of his countrymen causes him to shed much of his professional decorum. In his Acknowledgments, Ambrose even notes he has been made an honorary member of Easy Company; it's clear he is writing many times with a greater sense of duty to his subjects than to his readers.
At least Ambrose gets something back for this; a trust from his subjects he puts to good use as they become our pathfinders for discovering war as the great adventure and bloody travesty it is.
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Anyechka (MSL quote) , USA
<2007-05-06 00:00>
Stephen Ambrose's "Band Of Brothers" is a powerful testimony to the singular effects of battle on a company of American paratroopers in the European Theater of Operations during World War II. As Ambrose tells it, the only thing deeper than the change they wrought on the outcome of the war was the change the war wrought on them.
After heavy training and embarkation to England, Easy Company of the 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne Division dropped in just beyond Utah Beach on D-Day, helping clear the Carentan Peninsula of German forces. Later, during Operation Market Garden, they helped secure the Dutch village of Son. A period of scheduled rest became their toughest combat experience yet when German forces launched a surprise attack across the Ardennes and the company pitched in to defend Bastogne. Finally, the company made it to Austria and encamped in Hitler's mountain redoubt at Berchtesgaden.
"Anything was better than the blood and carnage, the grime and filth, the impossible demands made on the body - anything, that is, except letting down their buddies," Ambrose writes.
Published in 1992, 50 years after the war, Ambrose's book was a giant step forward in national recognition for the men who fought for the United States during World War II. Ambrose writes with obvious admiration and conviction, yet he also tells some uncomfortable truths. Presenting real heroes to an age with few of its own can be awkward unless it comes with a certain amount of candor.
The "brothers" we read of here are not without their flaws. Ambrose describes such ugliness as looting from civilians and shooting German POWs with an unflinching eye. At the same time, you feel an awe for these men beyond words, their willingness to endure hardship and the likelihood of death.
After D-Day, Pvt. David Webster writes his mother about her wish he not be in the van of the attacking army: "If the country all had your attitude, nobody would fight, everybody would be in the Quartermaster. And what kind of a country would that be?"
Tough words for a worried parent, but they resound through the years to our softer if not war-free time.
Ambrose's strong identification with the subjects of his book make for a complicated read. He seems at pains to echo their views about their commanders, pro and con, their grousing about the frustrations between the combat, and especially their sense of specialness, to the point where he seems to suggest Easy Company was no mere elite cadre but the greatest unit who ever walked the earth, exerting more energy in a single engagement than football players would if they played three 60-minute games in a row.
"The 101st Airborne was the most famous and admired of all the 89 divisions the United States Army put into the Second World War," Ambrose writes, an arguable point to present so matter-of factly. [What about the Big Red One?] He goes on: "Ever since, men have worn that Screaming Eagle on their left shoulders with the greatest of pride."
Ambrose seems less a historian and more a cheerleader at moments like this. Ambrose's understandable pride in the exploits of his countrymen causes him to shed much of his professional decorum. In his Acknowledgments, Ambrose even notes he has been made an honorary member of Easy Company; it's clear he is writing many times with a greater sense of duty to his subjects than to his readers.
At least Ambrose gets something back for this; a trust from his subjects he puts to good use as they become our pathfinders for discovering war as the great adventure and bloody travesty it is.
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Thurlow (MSL quote), Alaska
<2007-05-06 00:00>
Historian Stephen Ambrose's 1992 account of Easy Company, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, has become a classic of the Second World War, inspiring an absolutely superb HBO mini-series and a small cottage industry of additional accounts by members of the unit. In a gripping narrative, Ambrose recounts the company's journey from its birth at Camp Taccoa in 1942 to the airborne jump into Normandy on 6 June 1944 through Holland, Bastogne, and into the heart of Nazi Germany. Ambrose's account is detailed and candid, capturing the thoughts and fears of members of the unit and the alternating horrors and boredom of combat.
What raises "Band of Brothers" above hundreds of other similar accounts is Ambrose's moving exploration of how tough training and good leadership built Easy Company into a nearly unbreakable fighting unit, excelling in every mission. Ordinary men, working together, became capable of extraordinary accomplishments under difficult, even impossible conditions, refusing to let each other down. Ambrose describes how individual soldiers meshed into the company and how unit chemistry evolved under a series of leaders. Ambrose is especially candid in describing why some men succeeded and other men failed the tests of leadership.
"Band of Brothers" is very highly recommended to the general reader looking for the story behind the phenomenon and to students of history looking for a superb small unit history and an exemplar of the airborne tradition from the Second World War.
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Nabholz (MSL quote), USA
<2007-05-06 00:00>
I've seen the miniseries, I've read the book. The book is much more interesting. First, the direct quotes and sources comparing it to other books written about comradeship, or being a soldier in general are indespensible as a way to not only know what you are reading is the way it was (not a director's interpretation), but to gain more knowledge that was not supplied in the book itself. Second, there is more in the book than the show. Last, and most important, when concieving a picture about what it was like with Easy, it is more fun and entertaining (in my opinion) to first think of it the way your mind takes you. I do reccomend watching the show surely, but read the book first, it is fun to see how your perceptions match up to that of the show and its producers plus, if you know what and how everything happens, the book is easily ruined and your picture of what it was like in your mind is nullified.
P.S. I'm a dude.
I know this is a lot. Overall, read the book. Before the show if possible. Watch the show as well. One of my favorite books of all time. Five stars.
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Jimmy (MSL quote), USA
<2007-05-06 00:00>
Before I read this book I had heard so many great things about it and was so excited to read another World War Two ACTION book.
What I didn't know was how graffic and real this book was going to be. I am only fifteen years old and this book totaly changed my thought of how war is so intense and bloody. I just could not get over how Easy Company was able to make it through fighting in Europe. This book taught me that war is such an ugly thing with people involved in it that never wanted to kill anyone.
Stephen Ambrose did extremely good research and organized it so well into a book that keeps the reader awake and aware of what is going on. The book gives every little detail of Easy Company's violent tour of duty in Europe.
This book is so great it is hard to describe and I guarantee you will be satisfied when you are finished reading it.
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A reader (MSL quote), USA
<2007-05-09 00:00>
This is the best book I have read on small unit actions in World War II. Ambrose has set the standard for others to follow. The soldiers in this book are real, I had the pleasure of meeting the 1SG while stationed at Fort Bragg, NC. With 18 years of service in the Army with experience in Armor, Infantry, Artillery and a History Degree this book is flawless. I had the honor of commanding a company in the 82nd Airborne Division and made this book a manditory read for my Lieutenants professional development. The brilliance of Ambrose as an author is his blending of accurate history and technical authenticity without sacrificing the bond between soldiers; the human side often missing in history books. If you love this book you must read Pegasus Bridge and Citizen Soldiers by the same author. Can't wait until his next book! |
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Zach McGregor (MSL quote), USA
<2007-05-09 00:00>
This book made the hairs on the back of my neck tingle. Nothing that I have had to endure comes close to what the boys of the 101st went through. There were parts in the book where I felt as if I was sitting in the foxhole right next to one of the paratroopers. It focused on just one company to write about and I thought that that was great. It really gave me a picture of how WWII was seen in Europe by GI's. This book is well researched with primary sources and well written using thoughtful quotations from those sources. This is excellent reading for young officers, cadets and those interested in military history for any reason. Great book! I would recommend it to any one who really wants to know what combat is all about. |
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1 Total 1 pages 10 items |
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