Customer Reviews (1)

From Wisconsin to Vicksburg!
It is difficult to rate a book by 5 Stars or less when it is someone's diary.The book covers Newton's journey from enlistment in 1861 to final discharge in 1865.It is a rather quick read of his letters sent home although it covers the monthly grind of soldiering in the 14th Wisconsin.Newton skips many descriptions of horrific content in his letters home that was common back then and manages to keep them clean.His hardships endured through out the many years of soldiering are toned down in his writing.Perhaps, like other soldiers, he didn't want family to worry at home.His attitude towards black soldiers brings about expression that by today's standards would be considered racist.His letters do bring to light the emotion and desire to return home and also helps illustrate the psychological profiles of soldiers close to him.You can never go wrong studying letters from the Civil War as they always help bring new life to the realities of the conflict.This book certainly can bring new insight and thought to anyone looking understand more about soldiering during the Civil War. ... Read more

Product Description
With the same epic narrative force that made his Undaunted Courage a New York Times bestseller with more than 417,000 copies in print, historian Stephen E. Ambrose has revised and updated The American Heritage New History of World War II for today's students, history buffs, veterans, and fascinated readers. Seamlessly incorporatinga significant amount of new text and captions into the original text by Pulitzer Prizewinning journalist C. L. Sulzberger, Ambrose has produced a comprehensive and riveting account of the six-year global conflict that transformed world politics and shaped the course of modern history.Here are the personalities and strategies of Churchill, Roosevelt, Hitler, and Stalin brought vividly to life; the military tactics of Eisenhower, Rommel, and Patton; battles from El Alamein to D-Day to Guadalcanal; completely new chapters on the atrocities of the Holocaust and the secret war of espionage and weaponry, much of it from top-secret sources made available since the end of the Cold War.Hundreds of haunting images from renowned war photographers on the line of battle as well as new color maps illustrate Ambrose's masterful text; together they brilliantly evoke in this definitive single volume the courage, commitment, military genius, and true horror of war. This new edition will endure as a major contribution to World War II scholarship from one of the most highly regarded and widely read historians of our time.Amazon.com Review
The first edition of this book sold more than one millioncopies in 35 years and helped shape the way Americans remembered arecent war.Now thoroughly revised by the acclaimed historian StephenE. Ambrose to help introduce a new generation of readers to the SecondWorld War, this book tells the story of Blitzkreig, Pearl Harbor,D-Day, and Hiroshima better than any other. In words and pictures, itrelates an epic struggle between the dueling forces of communism,fascism, and democracy. There is simply no better introduction to thattitanic conflict available, and an estimated 70 percent of its text isnew material by Ambrose. All ages can enjoy it, but the heavy graphicelement makes this volume especially appealing to mature kids with aninterest in history. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (14)

A good book
Although the book has been written from an American perspective, the written content and the photographs are well balanced. A reader may think that too much importance is given to United States. Yes and No. Yes, because the entry of United States changed the whole proportion of World War II.No, because a fair amount of coverage has been given to fighthing at other hemispheres (although from a birds eye view of an American).

Winners write and rewrite history. This book has been written by United States. If you do not mind that, then it is a really fascinating book.

The book is well balanced with writting and photographs potraying World War II. I felt it more like a movie.

The book is a good one. I bought a old one in almost new condition for $10 and I never repented the money spent.

Substantial Coffee Table Version For Your Use!
This attractive and fairly substantive book is another welcome addition to the pantheon of books covering the Second World War, serving to introduce the neophyte to the massive worldwide conflict through the employment of a credible narrative with the clever and helpful photographs, maps and charts placed alongside the text to aid learning and understanding. While not the kind of masterful text as some other books on the subject, such as Gerhard Weinberg's superb "A World At Arms", or the even more recent "A War To Be Won" by Murray and Millett, this revised version of the American Heritage book is a good teaching resource for use at either the high school or introductory undergraduate college level course.

It is expensive, and for that reason is likely less often utilized as a standard text that would otherwise be the case. Yet, given the average cost of a single hardbound text in school bookstores these days, its hefty price tag is not unreasonable given all the collected merits the book delivers. Featuring a new introduction by the late Stephen Ambrose, dean of the popular WWII authors until his recent demise, the book quite handily incorporates a lot of additional material into the text and uses dozens of new photographs as well as a bevy of updated maps, charts, and other devices all geared toward greater understanding of one of the most complex and far-fetched historical phenomena in modern history.

As with the original version, the revised text features over 700 dramatic and visually haunting photographs, artist's renderings, cartoons, and state of the art computer-aided maps. Thus the student can gain a much-improved understanding of how battles progressed, the strategic importance of certain situations, and the ways in which opposing forces deployed and then redeployed to gain advantage over the course of a particular engagement. Given the fact that WWII has had such a monumental impact on the world and for subsequent history, this book provides a stunning opportunity to engage students, capture their imaginations, and compel learning by offering a plethora of meaningful media through which to do so. I highly recommend this book for use in the classroom, and for anyone wanting an entertaining, educational, and eminently useful book covering the waterfront that was World War Two. Enjoy!

An excellently illustrated volume
Zulzberger's book makes excellent use of photographs to enmesh the reader in the era of WWII. In addition, ample annotation and explanations are given. Highly recommended.

This is "new" history?
This is a work of absurd fluff. This is WW2 from a solipsistic, silly All-American perspective that really is a fantasy. 600 pages of WW2 "history" with 45! count'em-45 pages on the Eastern Front where the bulk of WW2 was actually fought. Its the same old boring photos we've all seen mixed with a an even more jingoistic editorial slant than the old American Heritage WW2 History. A more appropriate title would have been Stephen Ambrose's WW2 Fantasy; no pesky Russkies in this story.

A engrossing Historical text that flows like a good novel!
Although a bit too "patriotic", this was a good read from start to finish.Recommend for those who know little about the biggest conflict in history.

More depth was needed for pre-war Pacific Theatre.More charts, maps and technical descriptions would have been good as well. ... Read more

Product Description
In the final months of World War II, with the Allied forces streaming into Germany on two fronts, a major decision had to be made: where to draw a stop line to prevent an accidental clash between the Russian and the Anglo-American armies. Behind this decision lay another. Whose forces would be the first to reach Berlin? General Dwight David Eisenhower, supreme commander of the British and American armies, chose to halt at the Elbe River and leave Berlin to the Red Army. Could he have beaten the Russians to Berlin? If so, why didn't he? If he had, would the Berlin question have arisen? Would Germany have been divided as it was? Would the Cold War have assumed a direction more favorable to the West? In a narrative of steady fascination, Stephen E. Ambrose describes both the political and the military aspects of the situation, sketches the key players, explains the alternatives, and considers the results. The result is a sharply focused light on an important question of the postwar world. This paperback edition features a new introduction by the author. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Why Did Eisenhower Stop?
I think there is a great deal that is not known about Eisenhower's halt at the Elbe, and gift of what became East Germany to the Russians.Surely he had some inkling of what was to come. The consequences are widely known and tragic.

That is not all that defies explanation. Herr Udo Pfleghar search long in the National Archives for an answer to this question, and I highly recommend his book (in German) of 1998. Moreover, it took high reprimand from Truman to move Eisenhower to do anything about the tragic conditions of displaced persons and concentration camp survivors after the war (see Hilliard's "Surviving the Americans").

I admire Ambrose for trying to figure out an answer to this question, however insufficient, and I don't think interviews with higher-ups in other regimes would have helped answer the questions....the answers are still classified, probably never to see the light of day despite massive recent declassifications, due to the "Catch-22s" of the Freedom of Information Act and questions of national security.A hundred years hence, there will be few who really know. Of course, that's just one man's opinion.

Ambrose is overrated.READTHE LAST BATTLE
After reading Citizen Soldiers, D-Day, and Band of Brothers, I came to one conclusion.Ambrose is great at interviewing veterans and taking those interviews and making pretty good books out of them.However, he shouldnot attempt to analyze the strategy of several generals in World War 2. Ambrose is ignorant to the fact that even though our allies in the eastwere communists, they still bled alot more than the Western Allies did andsuffered far more from the wrath of the Third Reich.Ambrose is a fool forcriticizing Cornelius Ryan's The Last Battle.Ryan was able to interviewhundreds from BOTH sides of the war.While Ambrose just interviewsAmericans, Ryan interviewed Americans, British, Russians, and Germans. Also don't forget that Ryan was able to interview all the key players ofthe Battle of Berlin; Ike, Bradley, Chuikov, Rokossovskii, Heinrici, andtoo many more for me to list here.If you want a great account of theBattle of Berlin and the decision of the West not to attack the capital,read Ryan's The Last Battle.Take it from a guy who was with our troopsand interviewed ALL of the major players in the battle.

Why Ike decided not to capture Berlin in 1945.
This is a short book about why Ike did not use the opportunity to capture Berlin in 1945.This is an earlier book before Ambrose became widely known, and to be honest more scholorly and less reader friendly.It is ashort read.

Ike did not sanction the capture of Berlin for a number ofreasons.First, Berlin was in the Soviet sphere in Germany, and secondbecause his troops were not in as good a position as the Russians of takingthe Nazi capital.The cost in human lives would also be great, especiallyif the city would have to be handed back to the Russians.For thesereasons, Ike decided that Berlin was not worth the risk, and sent hisforces toward Leipzig. Ike made a sound military decision.

MORE LIKE A THESIS PAPER THAN A BOOK
I am a hugh fan of Stephen Ambrose. However, this very small book was a great disappointment.First of all its only about 100 pages plus appendices.It is more like reading a college history report.StephenAmbrose is my favorite history author but, he seems to have a blind spotwhen it comes to Eisenhower.In Ambroses eyes he can do no wrong. If youwant a much more detailed viewpoint of the battle for Berlin read The LastBattle by Cornelius Ryan. ... Read more

Product Description
Part One Of Two Parts

In his second installment of the life of Eisenhower, Ambrose paints a man, both decent and complex, whose presidency is increasingly regarded as one of this century's most successful.

Wide-ranging and inclusive, the book covers Eisenhower's rejection of advice to use nuclear weapons, his thinking on defense policy and the Cold War, his actions on civil rights and his views on Communism. We also see Eisenhower in action with Nixon, Truman, Churchill, Khrushchev, de Gaulle and other world leaders. ... Read more

Product Description

Milton S. Eisenhower was one of the most honored and influential statesmen this country has produced. His career spanned government and higher education, and he was a shaping force in both.

This biography by Stephen E. Ambrose and Richard H. Immerman traces the 34th President's younger brother's path from small-town Kansas into the Washington bureaucracy and on through the presidencies of Kansas State, Penn State, and Johns Hopkins. Because Eisenhower himself wrote about his government service in two books, Ambrose and Immerman have concentrated instead on his career as an educator. The portrait they paint is based upon extensive research and interviewing, but it is richly colored with anecdotes, opinions, and personal narrative.

The portrait of Milton Eisenhower that emerges in this book is of a personable, diplomatic, highly effective administrator -- innovative, intuitive, abundantly energetic, tenacious, and combative when necessary. The final section of the book depicts a spirited octogenarian whose contributions to American life continued even after more than a decade of official "retirement."

Product Description
Sound, tested methods for enhancing parents' teaching skills. ... Read more

Product Description
Part Two Of Two Parts

In his second installment of the life of Eisenhower, Ambrose paints a man, both decent and complex, whose presidency is increasingly regarded as one of this century's most successful.

Wide-ranging and inclusive, the book covers Eisenhower's rejection of advice to use nuclear weapons, his thinking on defense policy and the Cold War, his actions on civil rights and his views on Communism. We also see Eisenhower in action with Nixon, Truman, Churchill, Khrushchev, de Gaulle and other world leaders. ... Read more

Product Description
The battles and seige that decided the Civil War. ... Read more