July 30, 2007
This lavishly illustrated companion to the September PBS documentary series reduces the American side of WWII to the local and personal. Documentarian Burns (The Civil War
) and historian Ward (The Civil War: An Illustrated History
) foreground the iconic experiences of ordinary people, including a young girl interned in a Japanese camp in the Philippines, marines in the thick of combat in the Pacific and a fighter pilot who exchanges letters with his sweetheart. Their stories are full of anxiety and exhilaration, terror and pathos. (Sample vignette: a GI casually tosses pebbles into the skull of a Japanese machine-gunner, still upright and wide-eyed after the top of his head has been shot off). The authors' portrait of the home front glows with nostalgia—war bonds, scrap-metal drives, USO dances—but they also note racial tensions at a Mobile, Ala., shipyard and the bitterness of Japanese-American soldiers whose families were interned. In the background, Roosevelt and Churchill confer, Patton struts and growls, and arrows march across maps as the authors deftly sketch major campaigns and battles and offer tart criticism of inept generals. This visually appealing coffee-table book gives little idea of how and why America won, but a strong sense of what it felt like on the way to victory. Photos.
Starred review from October 29, 2007
A striking and philosophical look at the everyday citizens who helped shape the course of WWII, The War
is masterfully narrated by author Burns and an assortment of Hollywood talent, including Tom Hanks and Josh Lucas. This collection spans the American side of the war from 1941 to 1945, relating intimate tales in chronological order. The author’s narration is solid and unwavering throughout, while brief but emotional interludes by the other readers lend a distinct theatrical quality to the material. The acting is brilliant and the material is psychologically gripping. Using personal letters from family members to soldiers overseas, critical events in the war are brought to life with stunning clarity. Headlong into character, Lucas’s raspy, Southern tone makes him an unexpected standout, with his raw performances bringing a brutal realism to the story. Listeners will be engrossed for hours while history buffs will experience the war in a new, more personal light. Simultaneous release with the Knopf hardcover (Reviews, July 30).