Rating: 
Summary: This book offers a little of everything...
Review: I was in awe while reading about the responsibilities of the NCO's and Junior Officers in D-Day and for that matter in the rest of the war. The book concentrates more on the typical GI of WWII rather then the higher commissioned officers, however there are some good stories of Patton, Bradley, Eisenhower, and Monty. Reading this book has made me take on other Ambrose novels such as D-Day, and Citizen Soldiers. There was never a lull in the book, always taught me something I didn't know before. Like all Ambrose novels, this is a must read, especially if you want a generalization of the war in Europe.
Rating: 
Summary: Have you read
Review: Band of Brothers? D-Day June 6, 1944? Eisenhower? If you have don't bother with this book. Toss in a little "Saving Private Ryan" (his real name was Fritz Niland). Not much here that is original. On the other hand, you can read this, which is very good, by the way, & skip a lot of Stephen Ambrose books on World War II. That's why it only gets two Stars. Orginal Ambrose books get four or five. Lots of books on WW II to read so there's no good reason to read the same stuff twice.
Rating:
Summary: A good overview of all of Ambrose's books
Review: In my opinion, Stephen Ambrose is one of the best writers of WWII history - however, this book seems to be simply a compilation of all his other books, with very little new material. Almost as if his only source material were his previous books... Since all of his books are excellently written and definate page turners, I recomend this book as well, even if you have read other books by Ambrose, at the very least this is a good refresher on WWII and his other books.
Rating:
Summary: A good account of WW2
Review: This is the first time ive read an Ambrose book and i must say i was impressed. He really gives a complete picture of the war, from the orders made by Eisenhower all the way down to the privates.Ive read a few WW2 books and this was the most gripping account. Very detailed you can relate with the soldiers. There are some really great pictures as well. My faveourite is of a soldier under a bridge in holland in 1944. And then theres a picture of the same man under the same bridge 47 years later. A really good read
Rating:
Summary: If you've read the other Ambrose WWII books skip this one
Review: I am not that familiar with Ambrose's WW II books (I have read Undaunted Courage)but this book came recommended from a big fan of his and I decicded to check it out. What I found was a fairly straight forward oral history of the D-Day invasion and eventual victory in Europe. It is made clear that this book is a synthesis of many of the author's previous works and I found myself thinking what purpose did this book actually serve if the ground has already been covered in prior books. I came to the conclusion that this was a WWII primer and if you found interest here you might want to go back and check out Ambrose's more detailed accounts of this time period. Aside from the Eisenhower apologies, this was an easy read but lacked depth. Ambrose makes his admiration and respect for these men clear and that makes perfect sense. But this particular book just seems unnecessary.
Rating:
Summary: Good intro, not for the well read however!
Review: Ambrose squeaked this one out in my opinion. It is essentially a cut and paste compilation of "Citizen Soldiers" and "Eisenhower" and "Band of Brothers". If this is your first Ambrose book, you will find it enjoyable. If this is the ONLY book you read about WWII, it is a fair choice, however, if you have read any of Ambroses other work, then I wouldn't bother. Ambrose clearly has fallen under Ike's cult of personality, and although Ike was a great politician and a compassionate man, he was not a master strategist and many of his decisions cost unnecessary lives in my opinion. This book trys to capture the sweep of the US involvement in W.W.II. European Theater in one text of similar length to Ambrose's other works. It may be that books thicker than this don't sell well and that is why Ambrose only included the limited material that he did because this book leaves you wanting. It is rich in details about details, but misses other large happenings. In my opinion, it is better to read "D-Day", "Citizen Soldiers", "Band of Brothers" and "A Bridge too Far" and to skip this book altogether.
Rating: 
Summary: Wonderful Overview of Americans Helping Liberate Europe!
Review: No one has been more prolific or entertaining in his efforts to bring the gritty, unit-level personal experiences of the Allied drive from Normandy into Germany to the public's attention than Stephen Ambrose. In his series of books including "D-Day: June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of World War Two", "Citizen Soldiers", "Band Of Brothers", and the present book, "The Victors", he has masterfully employed a little-known treasure trove of personal interviews with thousands of Allied soldiers to marshal an absolutely absorbing, captivating, and insightful treatise on the nature of combat as experienced by the men and women in the forefront of action as it transpired all along the front. In this volume he uses vignettes and stories told in the other books mentioned above to weave an overall summary of the American soldier's experience in the eleven-month struggle to liberate Europe. He includes stories of individual battles, personal privations, acts of individual sacrifice and surprising courage, and in doing so with these true accounts of men in battle weaves a tale depicting the unbelievable human cost of the war. This book, as with the others, brings the life of a soldier into bold relief, and relates the spellbinding story of men in combat in a way made more vivid, vital, and personal than is possible in any other way. By filling the pages with men we comes to know better than in his other books, we watch with amazement as they moved into free fire zones where anything that moves dies, and in the process Ambrose paints an indelible portrait of the unbelievable madness of war. This is a story that should be told again and again, so we never forget what it took to take back Europe from the beasts who first stole it so savagely, of the men who died on the beaches, who fell for freedom in the surrounding countryside, all to prepare for those like this company of ordinary men who relentlessly pushed deeper and deeper into the interior of France, finally pushing the battered and beaten Germans all the way back to Berlin. This was the single greatest adventure of the 20th century, an epic struggle in which millions of Brits, Canadians, Australians, Frenchmen, and Americans took back by force of arms the liberty and freedom that had been wrested away from the mainland so cruelly four years before. This, then, is the story of how that crusade to liberate Europe unfolded through the personal experiences of a small group of American soldiers. Mr. Ambrose has become a virtual cottage industry in the World War Two section of your local bookstore, while he has also published works such as his recent best seller on explorers Lewis and Clark. Meanwhile, he has become phenomenally successful because many of his books have captured the public's imagination by being so readable, entertaining, and informative. While popular success doesn't always equate to critical worthiness, in his case it consistently seems to. This is a wonderfully worthwhile, eminently researched, exhaustively documented, and superbly narrated book on the most historic struggle in the long and painful struggle to finally liberate Europe. Enjoy!
Rating: 
Summary: It Had Been a While
Review: Having not read a history book since the time that I had to, this was a great way to get reintroduced. I had heard good things about Stephen Ambrose, and I was not disappointed. This was a book that taught me a great deal about war, and the price that was paid by so many. I enjoyed seeing things from the perspective of the soldier, through the pen of Ambrose. I also appreciated the way that Ike was portrayed as one who was a good leader, but also made mistakes that were costly. This has served to whet my appetite for further history genre reading - maybe!!
Rating:
Summary: Still a great piece of work!
Review: I agree that this book was composed of some of his other great pieces, but it is definately still a great book. Ambrose follows operation OVERLORD with wonderful description. He not only gives us the facts(once again)but he continues with his great style of writing by taking us into the lives of many young soldiers who were there. Once again, I had the feeling that I knew these people. There were quite a few of them that Ambrose paints a picture of so well that I feel like they were my buddies in high school. Being honest though the author does show some biased sides and every piece of information offered may not be EXACTLY how things were done but I know of not one author that was not there that can paint us a perfectly accurate picture of what happened. Even the men and women that will tell stories that were there seem to sometimes exaggerate or forget things. Overall, Ambrose does a great job with this one though it was mainly bits and pieces from his other books. If you are new to Stephen Ambrose, then this is a good overview book before diving deeper into his realm of writing. Remember in school when they had those 100 level classes that were bits and pieces of the higher level classes? That's what this book is. It's a great intro to his better works. I spent six buck for it and it was definately worth it!!!
Rating:
Summary: The one to read if you're reading only one
Review: My 4 star rating of Victors is highly provisional, as this is one of those books for which a numerical rating system is inadequate. If you have not read any of Stephen Ambrose's World War II books, this volume will be an excellent read and will deserve 4 stars for reasons set out below. If you have read any one of Ambrose's other World War II books, you will recognize a lot of the material. If you have read two or more of Ambrose's World War II books, you will feel quite ripped off. As a historian of World war II, Stephen Ambrose has two great accomplishments. First, there was his superb biography of Eisenhower, based in large part on extensive interviews with Ike. Second, there is the vast number of interviews he has conducted with ordinary GIs. Those interviews were the basis of Citizen Soldiers, D Day, and Band of Brothers. Victors consists almost entirely of material recycled from Ambrose's earlier works. Having read all of those books (I am a big fan), nothing in Victors stuck out as new. Instead, this is at least the fourth time I've heard the story of Easy Company. Having bought the book in an airport bookstore (sorry Mr. Bezos), I spent the plane ride getting madder and madder as I realized how redundant this book is. The publisher really needs a less misleading cover. So if you've read two or more of Ambrose's World War II books, don't waste your time or money. If you only want to read one Ambrose book, I would recommend Victors. Unlike his Eisenhower biography, Victors gives you a real sense of what life was like for GIs. Unlike Citizen Soldiers, you get a better sense of what Eisenhower was like. Best of both worlds. Some quibbles: First, if we think of the Allied Armies in Europe as a large bureaucracy (as Ambrose does in spots), Victors gives you a distorted picture. You get a lot of information about Eisenhower and lot of information about GIs and junior officers. But we learn almost nothing about the middle of the bureaucracy--the generals and colonels. Imagine somebody who wrote a book about General Motors that talked about the CEO and the factory workers, but never said a peep about the middle management. Would that make sense? Second, the Eisenhower--Montgomery conflict gets less attention than it deserves. In part this may be because Ambrose spends so little time on Bradley and Patton, who also fought with Montgomery. But given that the alliance almost fell apart because of the American commanders' conflicts with Montgomery, it is a major omission. Third, the important contributions of the Russian Army to victory in Europe are ignored. You could make a plausible case that any book called "The Victors" ought to be subtitled Zhukov and his Boys. It would not denigrate the great accomplishments of Eisenhower and the soldiers who served under him to recognize that the Red Army both took and inflicted more casualties than the U.S. army. indeed, Eisenhower himself reportedly said that D Day could not have occured if the Russians hadn't tied down 5 million german troops.
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