Rating: 
Summary: This book could be a great movie.
Review: Before "Band of Brothers", I hadn't read any Stephen Ambrose works. Now, I intend to read all of them. He tells the story of a paratroop company in a no nonsense, ground level style that makes the book hard to put down. This book is bound to be a classic and a movie made from it would rank with "Saving Private Ryan". These men endured incredibly difficult training and a hellish baptism under fire. It's fortunate for this country that men of this caliber were there when needed. If you read only one book in 2001, make it this one!
Rating:
Summary: Highly enjoyable, a pleasure
Review: To start, let me say that Mr. Ambrose has a writing ability that quite a few popular fiction writers would do well to study. His books show history as being populated by regular, yet interesting characters. He takes the time to reveal to his readers the unique personalities making up the story, much like an old hand filling in the new guy at work. For this reason, I feel that anything written by him could be immensely interesting. Now imagine him writing about something that is quite interesting: WWII. As usual he has produced a work that cost me plenty of sleep from staying up until the early morning hours, unable to put it down.For the story itself, it is incredible. What those men went through is amazing. I found it very enjoyable to read about a group of guys made into supermen by the author. The brotherhood formed amongst them made me wish that I could have have experienced it. Perhaps this is what held my interest the most. Now if only he'd turn his talent loose on WWI...
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Minor Details for a Small Unit In Action
Review: I must admit this, I was sceptical about the value of this book as it was quite costly compared to Mr Ambrose's other books. And so I read it up at the local bookstore, and viola I nearly finished the book that afternoon. However the gripping stories and tales of a tiny little unit so closely illustrates many other units' life that I bought it and spend the next few days reading it again. The stories are fairly personal and each soldier had his different view towards the war, but like the namesake everyone (nearly) fights for his buddy, the country and the world. In fact, I'm reading it right now......if only more tales are in
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Summary: War at ground level
Review: Excellent depiction of the comraderie of line infantrymen throughout over a year of intense combat. They were an elite unit,and lost their buddies over the course of the last year of the war, starting on the jump into Normandy on D-Day and going through the siege of Bastogne and the final battles of WWII in Europe. As an infantryman in Vietnam, it was very interesting for me to see how little the lot of the ground-pounder had changed when comparing the experiences of these guys and my own and those of my fellow infantrymen. Ambrose is a great chronicler. Hard work on the ground, even when not getting shot at; even worse when the bullets start flying. See also "Citizen Soldiers".
Rating: 
Summary: Never served, glorifies war...
Review: In "Band of Brothers" Stephen Ambrose tells the story of the men of E Company, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment from their formation and training through their post war lives. The book is unequally divided into descriptions of the men's experiences pre-war, during the war and post war. Ambrose tells a good story and relates some lessons on leadership, humanity and war. Unfortunately, the lessons are clouded by the authors personal biases, hyperbole and lack of understanding about soldiers. Much of the book is spent examining the Commanders of E Company, contrasting their leadership styles. The four commanders could be described as the Tyrant, the Stud, the Incompetent and the Drunk/Stud #2. Ambrose spends most of his time on the first two, CPT Sobel and CPT Winters. Sobel was E Companies first commander and though universally hated by his men, to include then Lieutenant Winters, he is grudgingly credited with much of the discipline and early success the company had. Winters is painted as the white knight savior of the company prior to their commitment on D-Day and an example of what a leader should be. The company's success under Winters more than reinforces that. At the same time, Ambrose glosses over some of Winters shortcomings and the reader is left with a feeling that he is almost too good to be real. With the benefit of hindsight, Ambrose magnifies all that is bad about Sobel and all that is good about Winters. One of the consistent themes of the book is that the experience of the men of E Company before and during the war molded them into who they became after the war. Ambrose makes a point of the fact that almost all of the men who survived are in contact with each other today, Sobel being a glaring exception (prior to his death). The title of the book is used frequently to describe what them men became as a result of the war. Yet he offers no compelling reason to believe that the bonding experience is any different than other, non-war activities. He presents as fact that the war formed the bond. He also indicates that the war made them better men than they would have been otherwise, implying that had there been no war to mold them, their lives would have taken darker, less brotherly paths. He presents no evidence of this and ignores similar bonding experiences of sports teams, fraternities or others. It is the sharing of a goal, sharing of danger, sharing of self that creates the bond, not war. Ambrose's views of war mirror his thoughts on the bonding experience. Though he quotes Gray (Warriors) and Keegan (Face of Battle) extensively, he seems to have missed their lessons entirely. Where Gray describes the horror of the war, Ambrose chooses to follow S.L.A. Marshal in attempting to glorify war. It is easy to conclude from "Band of Brothers" that as long as you survive a war, or at least die in defense of your 'brother,' you come out a better man. Like Brokaw, he lauds this so-called "Greatest Generation," giving credit to their war time service for their peacetime actions. This concept ignores the senseless destruction of life and land that is war. It ignores the horrible effects on survivors and those left behind. It is a simple, romantic view of someone who has never served one day in the military. "Band of Brothers" is a nice story with some compelling lessons. But those lessons are like the good men of E Company. They are good despite of their war experiences, not because of them and Band of Brothers has lessons despite Ambrose, not because of him...
Rating:
Summary: The Best War Epic Ever!
Review: Having recently read Band of Brothers by Stephen Ambrose I was stunned by the research and character development Mr. Ambrose always is so deft at. Having also read Citizen Soldiers by Mr. Ambrose I feel that this author certainly has the right to be the premier historian/storyteller of the Second World War. It was especially amazing to read of the real life events that surely must have inspired, Saving Private Ryan. From the initial paratroop training to Normandy to Bastogne to Germany, we live and breathe with Easy Comapany of the 101st Airborne as they slog and shoot their way across Europe. If you only read one World War II book, read this one. You will enjoy it and find it hard to put down.
Rating:
Summary: omissions from a great book
Review: I read this book last summer, and it was tremendous. Ambrose is a good writer and a fair historian. He does not paint the Germans as Satan incarnate, like some "historians." But the book suffers from several omissions, notably the accounts of original members of the Company, Eddie Bernat and Eddie Joint, both of Erie, Pa. I recall that the book features Joe Lesniewski, also of Erie, although Lesniewski was not an original member of the company. I work with two women who are relatives of Bernat and Joint, respectively, and they indicate that Bernat and Joint did not attend the reunion where Ambrose interviewed most of the vets. It would be nice to see Ambrose get in touch with them for the sake of historical understanding. Bernat, for example, made the jump into Holland with a boxing glove to hold his injured knee in place, and was close friends with Ed Winters, who is featured prominently in the book.
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Summary: HQDA "Recommended" Reading
Review: Military history "buffs" will want to read this book, as well as, career military personnel!
Rating:
Summary: Terrific, Intense Look At A Company Of American Soldiers
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", "The Victors", "Citizen Soldiers", and the present book, "Band Of Brothers", 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 concentrates on the exploits of a company of soldiers from their indoctrination into combat with the assault on the beaches in Normandy, following them as they fight their way, along with two million other Allied soldiers, into the heartland of Germany itself. In a book memorable for its unusual focus (for Ambrose) on a small group of men we come to know and admire for their all too human traits and character foibles, the spellbinding story of men in combat is made more vivid, vital, and personal than is possible in any other way. By concentrating on the ordinary men of E-Company as they move through a panorama of death and destruction, their personal stories, private adventures, and shared horrors in the midst of carnage, chaos, and confusion become a fascinating and compelling tale. 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: citizen soldiers part II
Review: While Band of Brothers is well-written, I made the mistake of reading it immediately after finishing Ambrose's book Citizen Soldiers. While the latter was excellent and cannot be praised highly enough, I had a sense of deja vu while reading Band of Brothers. Quite of few of the stories were duplicated. Unfortunately, Band of Brothers comes across as a sequel. That said, Band of Brothers is an enjoyable book and Ambrose is a good writer. However, I believe that Citizen Soldiers is a significantly better book. My only real complaint about the book is the constant praising of one of the soldiers (Winters). While the soldiers were uniformly brave and extremely competent, the praise does go a bit over the top. Continuous repetition tends to be counter-productive.
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