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Summary: Detailed, vibrant and heroic!
Review: While filled with action, heroism and an epic scope, like all of Ambrose's work, BAND OF BROTHERS suffers from a curious fault- it is written by a historian who holds so much reverential love for his subject that he doesn't really know how to edit. This is really a small matter for admist all the minutia (which does often bog the central narrative down in footnotes), Ambrose does the men of Company E proud and captures their stories in many heartbreaking first person narratives spanning from basic training to VE day. This singular aspect will stand as the late Ambrose's greatest contribution as pop historian- he etched in stone the oral history of the 20th century's greatest generation. While broader in scope that THE MEN OF COMPANY K (an even greater WW II history that is now sadly OOP), BAND OF BROTHERS does often lose the immediacy and intimacy required of an oral history that former title so expertly captured. But I am only splitting hairs, BAND OF BROTHERS is a must read deserves a spot on any history buff's shelf. A contemporary classic history.
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Summary: Band of Brothers
Review: The book Band of Brothers by Stephen E. Ambrose is a chilling tale that takes place on the bloody battlefeilds of WWII. This bbook follows E. company through the early stages of training at Curahee, to there drop into Normandy on the early morning of D-day, to an assult on a 4 fixed German positions that were firing on Utah beach,through Holland, the battle of the bulge, to the liberation of a German concentration camp called Duachu, and finally to Hitlers suposivaly impenitrable Eagles nest at Berchester garden. Out of Easy's 147 men they suffered 150 percent casulties. The book mainly focuses on the bond that forms between the men of E. company and doesn't focus on the actual war itself. But dont worry the book still tells alot about the war. All the men of E. company voulnteered to be there. It wasnt just the extra 50 dollars a month they recieved it was the thought that they were the best the US army hade to offer. They didnt want to be stuck next to some draftee who didnt know what he was doing when to pull the triggger.
On another note the story follows Second Lieutenant Winters as he leads E. company and later becomes a Major. The men in E. company all gained Winters trust and would follow Winters through thick and thin. Winters was a born leader. Hes the kind of guy that you would want leading you intop battle.
If you learn more about what E. company experienced you can watch the movie. The movie has a running time of about 10 hours and it includes special documemteres on some of the orignal members. I hoped you found this review helpful and consider reading this book.Thank you.
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Summary: A flawed, but readable history.
Review: Stephen Ambrose's BAND OF BROTHERS achieved some notoriety as being the first of several of the author's books discovered to contain plagiarized material. Those readers who can look past this black mark will find a good, but not outstanding, examination of a single company's experiences during the Second World War. Easy Company, a group of well-trained and capable soldiers in the 101st Airborne, is the focus of BAND OF BROTHERS. Ambrose picks up with the men during their training, and follows them through three years (one in combat). Ambrose details their many successes and their occasional failures. The cast of men is quite large, and some readers will probably get lost among the all the names. Unfortunately, Ambrose doesn't do much to differentiate the greater number of the men, instead choosing to focus on a handful of figures, like Richard Winters, E Company's most celebrated officer. BAND OF BROTHERS suffers from this strange combination of too much detail coupled with not enough. Those readers experienced with writing like Ambrose's won't have much trouble navigating the dense passages that deal with military organization - the abbreviations and shorthand designations fly fast and furious at times - but they may leave part-time military history readers scratching their heads. Ambrose slows down to discuss the thoughts and feelings of various members of Easy, but he doesn't do this often enough to please the casual reader, while probably too frequently to please the hardcore. The book is by no means a failure. Ambrose and his staff have chosen a thrilling subject, and tell the story well. Easy Company entered the war on D-Day, and spent a grueling year battling across Europe in some of the most brutal and daring operations the European theater of operations had to offer. Even when the prose fails to inspire, the sheer scale of the opposition E Company had to face makes an impression on the reader. The writing on BAND OF BROTHERS is an issue, however. It's clear that Ambrose did not write the book without help, though he's the only author credited. The authorial style shifts dramatically at some points, sometimes from paragraph to paragraph, leading one to suspect a greater involvement by various interns and research staffers than is admitted to in the acknowledgements. Given that the plagiarism incident that beleaguered Ambrose late in his career involved the supposed contribution of staffers, this is a bit troubling. BAND OF BROTHERS was translated for television by the producing team of Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks. This ten-episode series brings Ambrose's writing to bloody, overwhelming life, and provides an immediacy the book lacks. With this in mind, it might be best for readers to approach BAND OF BROTHERS as a companion volume to the television production it inspired, rather than the other way around. The added level of detail in the book will fill out aspects left necessarily vague by the Spielberg/Hanks series, and the vivid images of the program will bring Ambrose's words alive.
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Summary: Baby Boomer Understanding
Review: Being a Baby Boomer this book help me to understand the people that have helped shape my world view. These "Band of Brothers" in our lives have been our Grandfathers, Fathers and Uncles that have served our country while instilling in us a value of Honor, Duty, Integrity amd Country.
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Summary: Awesome book
Review: I would recomend reading the book before seeing the miniseries. Even though both are very very good. The book tells the stories of Easy Company in world war II.They begin in the united states for training then are gone to britain and eventually to the dday jump in 1944. this book shows the coming together of ordinary men. by the end of the war they know everything about each other. i would like to thank ambrose and all of the e company soldiers that helped put this book and eventually this miniseries on dvd which i have for making them. just think this is just one company's doing in world war II. imagine all the other hundreds of companies there are.Curahee
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Summary: A Review of "Band of Brothers"
Review: In his book "Band of Brothers" Stephen Ambrose tells the story of C Company, 506 PIR, 101st Airborne. He starts with how the company came to gather and moves on to their battle in Normandy, Belgium, Germany and Austria. Ambrose does a very good job writing this book. He uses quotes from interviews of the members of the Company in the book. This book shows how; throw determination, well, loyalty, self-discipline and personal courage, normal people from across the country can come to gather and defeat evil and keep this country free. I would recomind this book to anyone and to read any of Stephen Ambrose's books.
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Summary: Great book, even for a history assignment
Review: My history teacher made this book a required reading for our class and I thought this would be a slow, informative, history-lesson type book. But since this book is based on the true-life accounts of real soldiers who went through WWII, the accounts are so vivid and descriptive that you can't help but be drawn into the story and feel for the characters. I was happy for the soldiers who got their "million-dollar-wounds" and escaped the rest of the war and saddened by those who never saw the end of the war. This really is a great book, I wish all of my required readings for school were as great as this one.
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Summary: Surprisingly Poignant
Review: I didn't expect such an emotional reaction to Stephen E. Ambrose's Band of Brothers. Having recently read his historical account of the D-Day invasion at Normandy with its mostly just-the-facts style, I was prepared for more of the same. What I got was that ... and a whole lot more. Band of Brothers chronicles the travels and travails of Easy Company of the 101st Airborne Division, which dropped behind enemy lines in France on D-Day, June 6, 1944, and marched on through battle after battle--including the Battle of the Bulge--right to Berlin. Surprisingly, even after all they had been through they were reassigned to the Pacific to continue their heroic efforts against the Japanese, and were prevented from doing so only because Japan surrendered before they got there. Like Ambrose's D-Day book, Band of Brothers provides step-by-step detail of the movement of men and materiel, the key weaponry, and the significant events that shaped each major battle involving Easy Company. But where D-Day focuses exclusively on the Normandy invasion and is colored by anecdotes and quotes from a cross-section of the men participating, this book focuses on one group of men and their experiences. The reader develops a more personal connection to the characters and the harsh realities of their ordeal. The book's title is significant because Ambrose endeavors to explain the rare relationship that develops between men in combat, particularly those in elite outfits that see so much action. In proving this he touches on the mysterious allure of war, which is more than the quest for glory or political righteousness. Despite the manifest horrors, those with no combat experience are left feeling almost envious of the close kinship bond these men enjoyed. They often hated the Army, their officers, the training, the conditions, the combat, the death, and only occasionally glimpsed the value of their sacrifice. But they would--and did--march through hell for one another. The emotional power of the book is in the quotes from the participants themselves. These are men of the Greatest Generation. They speak simply, with little pretense, and with no apparent attempt at exaggeration. None is needed; the truth is plenty shocking. I was reminded several times of the tear-jerking final scene in the movie, Saving Private Ryan, when an elderly Ryan finally musters the courage to visit the Normandy memorial and pay homage at the gravesite of his war savior (Tom Hank's character, who was killed saving Ryan in the war, and who'd asked with his dying breath that Ryan live his life in worthy fashion). This book evokes a number of similar feelings, but with the real words of real people recounting real events. A magnificent achievement. --Christopher Bonn Jonnes, author of BIG ICE and WAKE UP DEAD
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Summary: Just an Incredible Story
Review: I read this book because I was interested in the 101st Airborne and it was recommended by several of my fellow cadets. I wasn't sure how much I would read since I was bogged down with school work at the time. I ended up reading it at every chance (which isn't much around here) and finished it in two weeks. It was an incredible story of leadership, courage and brotherhood. I've read many books in my life, but this was certainly the best. From a learning perspective, future officers and NCOs can learn a lot from the leadership of Easy Co., their cohesion and the way they fought. For entertainment, this is just and awesome book and really a quick read. THe writing flows and does justice the men. I would recommend this book to military leaders, people interested in WWII and warfare in general and anyone who liked the movie series.
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Summary: A War Story for All Ages
Review: This is a great book. If you like to read about war, then read this book. It is about Easy Company and the part they played in WWII. They were a group of paratroopers who all volunteered because they got paid more. The members of Easy Company Got paid $50 more than the normal troops got paid. Every check they got they got $100 instead of $50.
I saw the series on HBO and really liked it so, I thought I would read the book because I thought it would be very good. After I read it, I thought it was one of the greatest books I have ever read. The entire book is an account of Easy Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne from the drop in Normandy to Hitler's Eagle nest in Austria. Overall it is a very well written book. Ambrose is a great author.
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