The War: An Intimate History, 1941-1945
by Geoffrey C. Ward, Ken Burns
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Book Summary Information
Author: Geoffrey C. Ward, Ken BurnsEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2007-09-11
ISBN: 0307262839
Number of pages: 480
Publisher: Knopf
Book Reviews of The War: An Intimate History, 1941-1945
Book Review: Less can be more
Summary: 5 Stars
Ken Burns revolutionized the television documentary. First it was "The Civil War," then "Baseball" and "Jazz." Each of these topics had been adequately covered in the past, but never to the extent of what has come to be known as the "Burnsian style." For each project, he and his dedicated staff painstakingly assembled hundreds of still photos, which they made come alive through careful camera movement. He gathered letters and other documents and engaged dozens of familiar performers to act as "agents," reading from these materials to dramatically present the smaller stories that pieced together the larger fabric of his chosen topic.
Burns and his writing partner, Geoffrey C. Ward, have combined to once again take a familiar theme --- in this case THE WAR: An Intimate History, 1941-1945 --- and transform it into an emotional reading, as well as a viewing, experience.
In interviews about their project, the authors have noted that Americans of that "greatest generation" are dying at the rate of almost 1,000 a day. Anxious to tell their stories before it is too late, Burns, Ward and company once again performed Herculean research to acquire such knowledge.
The end result is another superb published representation of the 15-hour, seven-part series that airs on PBS from September 23rd thru October 2nd. One can almost hear the background music (the soundtrack to "The Civil War" was a bestseller after the PBS miniseries aired) and see the images move as the veterans, their families and other civilians tell their harrowing stories.
A core of "main characters" takes readers from the "day of infamy" --- December 7, 1941, when Japan's forces bombed Pearl Harbor --- to VJ Day some four years later. The shock and anger build slowly over the course of the program/book as America is pulled deeper and deeper into the fracas. These fighting men recall the intensity of battle, the overwhelming fear for their own lives and those of their comrades in far-off places like Bataan, Iwo Jima, the Battle of the Bulge and, of course, D-Day. But the horrors of war were also felt at home as families had to deal with the absence of their loved ones and the constant fear of receiving the telegram that bore the news of death, injury or, perhaps worse, someone missing in action.
Other books about WWII concentrate on individual battles, but in their effort to cover so much territory in such a compact space, the authors of THE WAR have to economize; it is of no major consequence, as the accompanying photos and other illustrations prove that less can be more. Ward and Burns pull no punches, as they edit their data to describe the perilous fighting that constantly plagued America's forces (the project is almost exclusively presented through an American point of view).
After reading so many accounts of "snafus," it seems a wonder that the Allied forces ultimately were able to defeat their enemies. THE WAR is at times almost too graphic in its presentation, but it serves as an excellent lesson in sacrifice, patriotism and a lost innocence that was irretrievable for millions of Americans and their progeny.
--- Reviewed by Ron Kaplan
Summary of The War: An Intimate History, 1941-1945
The vivid voices that speak from these pages are not those of historians or scholars. They are the voices of ordinary men and women who experienced?and helped to win?the most devastating war in history, in which between 50 and 60 million lives were lost.Focusing on the citizens of four towns? Luverne, Minnesota; Sacramento, California; Waterbury, Connecticut; Mobile, Alabama;?The War follows more than forty people from 1941 to 1945. Woven largely from their memories, the compelling, unflinching narrative unfolds month by bloody month, with the outcome always in doubt. All the iconic events are here, from Pearl Harbor to the liberation of the concentration camps?but we also move among prisoners of war and Japanese American internees, defense workers and schoolchildren, and families who struggled simply to stay together while their men were shipped off to Europe, the Pacific, and North Africa.
Enriched by maps and hundreds of photographs, including many never published before, this is an intimate, profoundly affecting chronicle of the war that shaped our world.
History buffs, Ken Burns fans, and anyone whose life has been touched by war will be awed by Burns's new book, The War: An Intimate History, 1941-1945, a stunning companion to his PBS series airing in September 2007. Focusing on the citizens of four towns, The War follows more than forty people from 1941 to 1945. Maps and hundreds of photographs enrich this compelling, unflinching narrative. Check out some of the photographs and read the first chapter below. --Daphne Durham
Exclusive Photographs from The War
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Read the First Chapter of The War
A Necessary WarI don't think there is such a thing as a good war. There are sometimes necessary wars. And I think one might say, "just" wars. I never questioned the necessity of that war. And I still do not question it. It was something that had to be done. --Samuel Hynes
Sunday morning, December 7, 1941, began as most days do in Honolulu: warm and sunny with blue skies punctuated here and there by high wisps of cloud. At a few minutes after eight o'clock, the Hyotara Inouye family was at home on Coyne Street, getting ready for church. The sugary whine of Hawaiian music drifted through the house. The oldest of the four Inouye children, seventeen-year-old Daniel, a senior at William McKinley High and a Red Cross volunteer, was listening to station KGMB as he dressed. There were other sounds, too, muffled far-off sounds to which no one paid much attention at first because they had grown so familiar over the past few months. The drone of airplanes and the rumble of distant explosions had been commonplace since spring of the previous year, when the U.S. Pacific Fleet had shifted from the California coast to Pearl Harbor, some seven miles northwest of the Inouye home. Air-raid drills were frequent occurrences; so was practice firing of the big coastal defense batteries near Waikiki Beach.
But this was different. Daniel was just buttoning his shirt, he remembered, when the voice of disk jockey Webley Edwards broke into the music. "All army, navy, and marine personnel to report to duty," it said. At almost the same moment, Daniel's father shouted for him to come outside. Something strange was going on. Daniel hurried out into the sunshine and stood with his father by the side of the house, peering toward Pearl Harbor. They were too far away to see the fleet itself, and hills further obscured their view, but the sky above the harbor was filled with puffs of smoke. During drills the blank antiaircraft bursts had always been white. These were jet-black. Then, as the Inouyes watched in disbelief, the crrrump of distant explosions grew louder and more frequent and so much oily black smoke began billowing up into the sky that the mountains all but vanished and the horizon itself seemed about to disappear.
Read more from Chapter 1...
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