Rating: 
Summary: Homeric, epic, lyrical work
Review: My late wife refused to read a book unless it was well-written, with a sense of style. Atkinson's book meets her criteria: along with being interesting and informative, it is poetic.I do not understand the (few) negative reviews. This book admits the faults of Americans new to war, but willing to learn. If anything, the book makes me angry at the fascist French who then (and now!) complicate America's desire to rid the world of dictators.
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Summary: Little Known Story Reads Like A Novel
Review: This is literate, entertaining history. The untried, unbloodied American army staggers onto the shores of Africa in 1942 and through comic misadventure, astonishing incompetence and tragic misfortune in the end learns from its mistakes and becomes a fighting force able to defeat the enemy. Atkinson has obviously had access to the letters, diaries and papers of the principal actors in this drama, allowing him to convey the feelings and thoughts of men like Patton and Ike. However, unlike Stephen Amnbrose's "D-Day", where eye-witness accounts dominated and fragmented that book, Atkinson seems to realize that the narrative is the main thing and, as such, he uses personal accounts to add to but not disrupt the flow of the story. "An Army At Dawn" reads like a novel and Atkinson writes with a novelist's flair. This is a little-told or little-known story; much is known about the American army in Europe in WWII but my guess is that not as much has been written about the Ameican experince in Africa. There might be a reason why: it wasn't pretty at first. A nation might need a few decades to be able to absorb that the Conquerors weren't always supermen, that at times they were badly organized, that at times they shamefully ran, that at times they were soundly beaten and that at times they took heavy casualties. Yet, they eventually rose to the challenge and the army at dawn provided the experience and backbone for the invasion of Europe. Highly recommended.
Rating: 
Summary: very poorly written
Review: This is military history at its worst since this book is nothing more than a unrelated collection of short stories. The author never fully discusses American doctrine, stragedy, or the Darlan controversory.Nor is the German,French,and British perspectives of the American army written about in this overly romantic book about the North African campaign. Instead Atkinson only writes about personal histories that are probably copied from other popular histories. If you are a serious student of the Second World War this book will surely disappoint.The people that awarded this book the Pulitizer Prize should be ashamed of themselves!
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Summary: Casts some interesting perspectives, but....
Review: I am rating this book five stars because it is an excellent read. You will enjoy it if you like military history, especially WWII. However, like a few other reviewers, I had some reservations on the anti US military bias that possibly might be there, though it is subtle, and it may be I don't know enough about this campaign. Apart those considerations, there are many precious tidbits throughout this book. One is the humanization of Ike and Patton. Among a rather flawed military management, they were less flawed but certainly not how they (Patton really) have been mythologized by popular culture. The book clearly paints Ike as being militarily incompetent, though so supremely capable polticially that he kept the team together enough to win. Another interesting feature of this book is the cavalier attitude to loss of life among American troops. Today to lose 500 guys in a few hours would lead to an impeachment, while then 500 or 1000 here or there every few days was part of the process to win. The other intresting things is the difference in capability of the American and German Armies. Clearly we were outgunned and out-technologied in a big way, and it cost us a lot of lives. The US military learned a huge lesson in being unprepared. North Africa showed that if you didn't have the best weapons, training and technology, you might win, but at a terrible cost. This book shows how WWII influenced the military-industrial complex which lead to American arms superiority in the present. We blew out Iraq with the same losses that it took us to get off the landing boats in North Africa.
Rating:
Summary: A complete pleasure
Review: I had no particular interest in the war in north africa, but had read "Crusade" by Atkinson and enjoyed it, so thought I'd give this a shot. What a great read! Much better than "Crusade", by the way, mainly I think because of the greater amount of source material available to the author. The book succeeds on all fronts. At the top level, it does a fine job outlining the strategy employed by the generals, and has some excellent character sketches - I felt it gave nuanced and interesting portrayals of Eisenhower, Churchill, Giraud, Roosevelt,and especially Patton, with many other lower-level commanders also well described. But where this book really shines is in its "micro-history". You won't just read that the X brigade attacked town Y to outflank enemy brigade Z. You'll read about what the rations were like, how well the boots were made, how the people in X's home town were informed of the battle, how town Y's name was mispronounced, how the ladies at town Y's brothel hitched a ride on X's tanks (there's a fabulous image where the book descries them "waving like beauty pageant contestants" from a Sherman tank), and on and on. Atkinson does a great job here of putting in enough detail, and enough _interesting_ detail, that you really get a picture of the time and place, but not enough detail that you get swamped in minutaie. A great read - I read a lot of history, and this is probably the best read I've had in the last few years. I liked it so much, I'll probably even pay for the hardcover version of volume 2!
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Summary: Personal experience
Review: My father and I shared this excellent book. Dad was a participant throughout these campaigns and attests to the accuracy of Atkinson's exhaustive research. And I have a much greater appreciation of the difficulties experienced by allied troops during WWII. A compelling read!
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Summary: Excellent History - Enlightening
Review: For us amateur historians who've seen all the WWII movies and read the Ambrose books, the campaign in North Africa may be shrouded in ignorance. The U.S. war-fighting machine didn't suddenly appear, fully mature, on Normandy's beaches in 1944. The painful mistakes and learning experiences of 1942-43 must be explored and understood in order to make sense of what followed in 1944-45. Atkinson's research and clear writing style is excellent. My "standard" is Barbara Tuchman and Atkinson compares favorably. You'll enjoy this book!
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Summary: An Army at Dawn: The War in Africa, 1942-1943, Volume One
Review: The author wrote a very informative and interesting book about a very dark time in our country's history. He provided a good deal of information concerning the difficulties that the Allies faced and also spent a good deal of the book on the discussions with the French before the invasion. The book is well written and fast paced. The individuals portrayed in the book are very real and come to life in the pages. I'm very much looking forward to this author's second and third parts of his trilogy. If they are as well written as this part I believe he'll have a successful venture regarding history and the Second World War.
Rating: 
Summary: Reads Like a Long USA Today Article
Review: The idea behind this book is very interesting. How did the United States Army evolve from a green and untested force into a battle hardend and victorious army? This is a great premis for a book. It strikes me as though there are several ways to tell this compelling story. One approach is to concentrate at the command level and tell the story as seen by generals and politicians. Show the readers the war as it is seen from the top. Another approach would be to focus on the men who were at the sharp end of the stick. Tell us their story using their own words. Yet another approach to this story would be to concentrate on the technology and learning curve needed to transform an army. My problem with this book is that there is no real point of view. Atkinson weaves a story that meanders back and forth through a number of approaches to telling this story. He touches on many key subject but does not have the time to really develop them. It is very difficult to write a general history of a campaign, let alone a nation's army. It is the rare writer who has the depth knowledge and wisdom to write this type of history. A general history requires the type of wisdom that comes from many years dedicated to the study of a single topic. (Historians like Shelby Foote, Michael Howard, Dennis Showalter and Douglas Porch come to mind.) While reading the book, it became very clear to me that Arkinson is a gifted journalist but he is not an historian. His writing style reminded me of the numerous pithy articles that one reads in USA Today or any other mass circulation newspapers. Well written and enteraining but not that deep or especially insightful. Atkinson is a good writer but in the end he is not a great writer. He does not have the gravitas to make this book a classic. An Army at Dawn is a good popular history but will leave serious military history readers dissapointed.
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Summary: Want military history that's enjoyable to read? This IS IT!!
Review: Rick Atkinson's "Army At Dawn" is a fabulous book!!! 5 stars - two thumbs up - a big hurrah. The only real problem that arises upon reading this book is: when do Volumes II and III of the "Liberation Trilogy" come out? "Army At Dawn" is very pleasant reading. Enjoyable, enjoyable, enjoyable! Want facts? "Army At Dawn" has it. From the Allied perspective, this book would go nicely as a double read with Orr Kelly's "Meeting The Fox". Where "Meeting The Fox" is essentially limited to the US Army's role in Operation Torch and North African campaigns prior to the fall of Tunis, "Army At Dawn" deals more broadly with the Allied Expeditionary Force as a whole, its leaders, its interactions with the natives and French colonists/army/navy from the inception of Torch through the fall of the North African theatre as a whole. Kelly's book is great in its own right but I think "Army At Dawn" far surpasses "Meeting The Fox" on shear volume of information. Both are extremely well written and easy to read. "Army At Dawn" covers nearly all the topics covered in "Meeting The Fox" but battles are not described in the same detail - to allow a broad stroke to be taken relative to the entire theatre of operations. So together these two books deal quite thoroughly with the North African theatre from an Allied point of view. "Army At Dawn" also contains insights from the Axis perspective, although the story is generally told from the Victor rather than Vanquished perspective. If a reader want to see how the other side saw the African theatre they should couple "Army" and "Meeting" with "The Rommel Papers" - a well written and lucid account of the Afrika Corps as told by The Dessert Fox himself. If you want to read a gripping tale of the initial turn of the war to the Western Allies side, and you want personalities, battles, emotion and all the things that surrounded the North African campaigns, "Army At Dawn" is the book for you. I've been lucky enough to stay clear of too many "dogs" in my WWII reading (so most of my reviews are fairly positive) but only a few books really stand out at 5 star gems - "Army At Dawn" is one such book.
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