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Title: The Boys' Crusade : The American Infantry in Northwestern Europe, 1944-1945 by Paul Fussell ISBN: 0-679-64088-6 Publisher: Modern Library Pub. Date: 09 September, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.39 (18 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: READ BOY'S CRUSADE WITH THE FOLLOWING CAUTION:
Comment: D.B.Prell WWII Combat 2nd. Lt.
READ BOY'S CRUSADE WITH THE FOLLOWING CAUTION:
Up until Paul Fussell wrote "The Boy's Crusade" his work has always been scholarly and well researched. Unfortunately in this, his most recent effort, he has let down his audience. In his effort to "tear away the veil of mythology that so often obscures and sanitizes war's brutal essence" he sometimes presents his opinion as if it were fact, when the actual facts do not support what he has written. Examples include his presentation of COBRA as a " disaster" and a "fiasco." Although the initial air strikes did cause many U.S. servicemen their lives, in the final analysis COBRA save thousands of GI's lives, and cost thousands of German troops their lives. In the view of most military historians COBRA was a major turning point in the war. Then in describing the Battle of the Bulge, Fussell relied on the much-discredited early work of Charles Whiting, instead of using Whiting's later book, in which he corrected most of his earlier misstatements. I wrote Fussell about using Whiting and he replied as follows: Jan 26, '04 Dear D.B.P., I shouldn't have used Whiting at all, I now see. You are good to write, & I send Best wishes, Paul Fussell. But Fussell's disparaging remarks about the men of the 106th Division are still in print, giving a spurious impression of the men who actually have been given credit for making a substantial contribution to delaying Manteuffel's goal of capturing St. Vith (which in turn sealed the fate of the German attack)." Only a reprint of the book will serve to correct what Fussell has written. Taken as a whole, the book does accomplish the author's objective, that of presenting war as it truly is, "with all its intimate horror, death, and sorrow; and as a warning for the future." A shame he was in such a rush to publish that he didn't take the time for a 'second opinion.'
Rating: 5
Summary: The Way it Was
Comment: I was around when all of this took place. Fortunately for me I had enlisted in the Air Corps Cadet program in 1943. Waiting to be called up to active duty, in the Fall of 1944, many of my college classmates were drafted to be sent over to Hurtgen Forrest and the Bulge with alot less than 4 months of training. More like 6 weeks.
Fussell tells it as it happened. Those campaigns were meat grinders. This is a moving document, beautifully told by a man who was there. Some of the negative reviews do not reflect the reality of living experience. I remember those days, and felt the power of this book. It causes me to relive the Fall and Winter of 1944.
And, it is not too far a stretch to wonder about our young men in Iraq who are in danger, every day.
Rating: 5
Summary: Non-fiction in the spirit of Vonnegut, Heller, and Jones
Comment: This is a fascinating, frightening book. A good war, a just war, a moral war: Fussell's compact chapters show how these concepts simply don't exist for the American youths who had to walk through France and Germany carrying rifles. I don't think of Fussell's work as a counterpoint to Spielberg's and Ambrose's versions of history; I think of it as shining a light into the corners of history that make us uncomfortable and even nauseous.
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Title: Wartime: Understanding and Behavior in the Second World War by Paul Fussell ISBN: 0195065778 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: September, 1990 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: The Crash of Ruin: American Combat Soldiers in Europe during World War II by Peter Schrijvers ISBN: 0814798071 Publisher: New York University Press Pub. Date: April, 2001 List Price(USD): $20.00 |
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Title: Ok, Joe by Louis Guilloux, Alice Kaplan ISBN: 0226310574 Publisher: University of Chicago Press (Trd) Pub. Date: September, 2003 List Price(USD): $22.50 |
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Title: The Great War and Modern Memory by Paul Fussell ISBN: 0195133323 Publisher: Oxford Press Pub. Date: February, 2000 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: Doing Battle by Paul Fussell ISBN: 0316290610 Publisher: Back Bay Books Pub. Date: 07 January, 1998 List Price(USD): $17.99 |
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