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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 940.5421
EAN: 9780743224543
Edition: 2nd Touchstone ed
ISBN: 074322454X
Label: Simon & Schuster
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 336
Publication Date: September 06, 2001
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Studio: Simon & Schuster
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Editorial Review:
Amazon.com Review:
The men of E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne, volunteered for this elite fighting force because they wanted to be the best in the army--and avoid fighting alongside unmotivated, out-of-shape draftees. The price they paid for that desire was long, arduous, and sometimes sadistic training, followed by some of the most horrific battles of World War II. Actor Cotter Smith--a veteran of numerous TV movies and Broadway plays--spins Stephen Ambrose's tale with almost laconic ease. Anecdote by anecdote, he lets the power of the story build. By the time the company has gotten through D-day and seized Hitler's Eagle's Nest in Bavaria, we feel we know as much about the men and their missions as we do about our own brothers. (Running time: 5 hours, 4 cassettes) --Lou Schuler
Product Description:
As good a rifle company as any in the world, Easy Company, 506th Airborne Division, U.S. Army, kept getting the tough assignments -- responsible for everything from parachuting into France early D-Day morning to the capture of Hitler's Eagle's Nest at Berchtesgaden. In Band of Brothers, Ambrose tells of the men in this brave unit who fought, went hungry, froze, and died, a company that took 150 percent casualties and considered the Purple Heart a badge of office. Drawing on hours of interviews with survivors as well as the soldiers' journals and letters, Stephen Ambrose recounts the stories, often in the men's own words, of these American heroes.
Average Rating: 
Rating:  -
Stephen E. Ambrose wrote Band of Brothers to show what it was like going through the European Campaign during World War II as an American Soldier. He takes you through E (Easy) company's journey around Europe making you feel their highest highs and lowest lows with a want for all the excitement to continue, but thankfully for E company it didn't.
Ambrose's fist hand account, from hours of interview with veterans of E company and visiting the actual battle sites, shows the heartbreaking part of war. When the men had to seek shelter in their foxholes while they saw their friends be hit by German artillery, how some soldiers couldn't take the constant pressure from the risk they are taking, and how a bad leader in the company could ruin the entire company. All the while, you feel how strong of a bond was created between these men, so strong that they would do anything for another to get out of the war. On the flip side, E company does succeed in some of its ventures and the happiness from them just pours out of the pages. Every reader gets to experience the war through the shoes of someone who was there and how the survivors continued to live after the war through Ambrose's creative style and clever weaving of story and interview.
By the last part of the book, I think that Stephen E. Ambrose has accomplished what the men of E company wanted to express: They had a job and they did it, but they all just wanted the war to end along with the bloodshed.
Rating: -
If you want a book about the "Hero Generation" that tells the story of their sacrifices, selflessness and courage, this is it. Band of Brothers tells the story of a company of the 101st Airborne from initial training through the end of the war. The young men were truly patriotic and became true athletes in training. They were elite soldiers and their training was brutal.
Once in battle, the interviews with the men show how human they are/were and yet how determined. Their bravery and the amount of action they were involved in were just phenomenal. The story of how they took out a German artillery battery at night sticks with me. One guy got shot and was dying, yet apologized for having been shot as if he didn't perform well enough. That was how they were.
I actually felt let down at the war's conclusion. To think that such men, having survived and shared such suffering and "glory" (that only they knew about except for Ambrose documenting it near the end of the survivors' lives) would be frozen in time as they were made me feel despair. Upon arrival at home in the U.S., they would be separated and have to go about the relatively mundane business of life. It's not as if they wouldn't want to sleep in clean sheets, eat well and not get shot at. But there's a void, an unexplainable let down when such soldiers return home.
Rating:  -
This may be the first time I enjoyed the movie (the HBO miniseries) more than the book. "Band of Brothers" is a very straightforward record drawn from personal accounts from the paratroopers of E Company and other sources. Stephen Ambrose lacks the style and wit of Edmund Morris, the last author I read. However, many will prefer the simplicity of Ambrose's "just the facts" approach. I especially appreciated the personal detail he extracted in face to face interviews. He shares these very candidly. No punches pulled here. The reader is treated to the feeling that he is more than acquainted with the soldiers of E Company. The book includes interesting background and personal detail not included in the miniseries. A watching audience would view them as tedious. However, the book lacks the visceral impact of the visuals in the miniseries. My advice? Watch the miniseries AND read the book. They complement each other very well. Rating: 4 of 5
Rating: -
I bought "band of Brothers" to my WWII fanatic son and he read it at his summer camp. Now he has watched the TV series (several times over) an there's not a single day since that I can remember that we do not have a quote, description or consideration about the book. I'll eventually read it, but right now I'm enjoying his enthusiasm for it.
Rating: -
This is one of the very best books to come out of WW II. Condition was like new and arrived as promised.
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