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Summary: Eye opening, heart wrenching and awe-inspiring
Review: I'm 26 years old and this book really gave me an appreciation for what my grandparents generation faced. This book should be REQUIRED READING in all high schools. Maybe if everyone could read about how such ordinary men did their duty to preserve our freedoms, so many people wouldn't take our freedoms for granted. The soldiers who fought for us in that war deserve our utmost respect and gratitude. God bless them and God Bless America!
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Summary: Outstanding; Different from All Others
Review: Ambrose gives something unique in this book. Even if you have read extensively on the Western Front in Europe, you haven't seen it from this perspective. It will surpise you, shock you, and otherwise hit your emotions because it is on such a personal level. If you have gotten far enough to read the reviews, you should buy the book.
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Summary: They are truly the "greatest generation"
Review: I'm 34 years old and have read a great number of books in my life--probably an average of one a week for the past twenty years. "Citizen Soldiers" is one of the ten best books that I have ever read. I cannot imagine that there exists a better overall account of the GI experience in Europe. My respect for the GI, which was great to begin with (my father was one), is even greater after reading "Citizen Soldiers." Reading the chapter on the 1944 Christmas brought tears to my eyes as I imagined the loneliness and misery of the front line soldier in his foxhole. The last two lines in the book realy struck me. Ambrose says that the GI fought because he knew the difference between right and wrong and refused to let wrong win out. I wish that I was part of the GI generation. Right and wrong don't get much consideration these days.
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Summary: Worthy of All the Praise It Has Garnered
Review: Ambrose is a master of well-documented historical non-fiction. His portrait of foot soldiers in WWII Europe is loaded with details about combat that only those who have been there can know. These details describing the terror, misery, and unexpected aspects of war gleaned from hundreds of interviews of ordinary soldiers give the book a depth and breadth not found in any other WWII account I've ever read. Ambrose artfully entwines these many short firsthand stories around the larger historical narrative of the allied liberation of Western Europe from D-Day to VE-Day. I'm sure this book, because of its faithful portrayal of reality, will appeal to those who were there as well as those who were not. For me it brought to life the adventure as well as the overwhelming fear and hardships that my own father must have lived through as a soldier in Patton's army in North Africa and post D-Day Europe. I imagine the stories he never told would have been much like the hundreds of stories in this outstanding book. I cannot recommend it highly enough, especially when comparing it to Tom Brokaw's "The Greatest Generation." Brokaw's book is interesting and enjoyable but shallow compared to Ambrose's far more thorough account. Both books are good reading, but if I could only choose one of them, "Citizen Soldiers" wins hands down. It will give you an deep and abiding appreciation of what the WWII generation did for our nation and the world at great cost to themselves.
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Summary: Simply The Best
Review: Ambrose factually describes the way the war was for our soldiers "over there". In my opinion simply THE BEST BOOK ON THE WWII INFANTRY. Need I say more?
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Summary: This is the way history should be told...
Review: A fascinating book about Europe W.W.II as told by the men on the front lines, not a media hugging officer or a dry historian. Ambrose captures the sense of history from both sides of the fence, sticks to the facts as we know them and keeps his comments to a minimum. The best part is a large portion of the book is actual quotes and personal stories taken from the men and women who were actually there. The book starts off a bit slow, but picks up momentum as one gets going, and than it's hard to put it down.
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Summary: What a refreshening study of the real American fighting man.
Review: Unlike many historical pieces which try to build the American soldier as some sort of superman, Ambrose show us that the American fighting man was basically unprepared and mostly fighting in a frightening situation in Europe. However, Ambrose goes on to show how the American soldier had that unique quality of adaptability. This book as well as his 'Band of Brothers' are must reads for WWII affacianados. There's no sugar coating here; Ambrose tells it like it was, the good, the bad, and the attrocities.
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Summary: The WWII equivalent of Shelby Foote's Civil War Trilogy
Review: Having read both Shelby Foote's masterpiece 3 volume set on The Civil War, I was very pleased to find that Ambrose's book felt very much like Mr. Foote's. A detailed, yet accessible book on WWII in Europe, such as this is, has been needed for a very long time. This book should be required reading in High School history, instead of the dry, boring textbooks which do not even scratch the surface of WWII events.
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Summary: This is one of the best 5 books I've ever read
Review: I have studied German War History for years and find this book to be deadly accurate, informative, and riveting. Each chapter was better than the previous. I was enthralled and thank my wife's dad for buying it for me.
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Summary: Powerful and vivid!
Review: Ambrose paints a vivid picture of life in Europe for the American troops, letting the reader imagine and almost feel the overwheling difficulties that so many men and women faced. In the paperback epilogue, Ambrose states that this book is not meant to be a military history. His book acomplishes its task - to let the reader see, and more importantly, feel what life for our citizen soldiers was like. This book is a "must read!"
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