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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 940.5421
EAN: 9780743224543
ISBN: 074322454X
Label: Simon & Schuster
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 336
Publication Date: September 06, 2001
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Sales Rank: 3047
Studio: Simon & Schuster
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Editorial Review:
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.
Amazon.com:
As grippingly as any novelist, preeminent World War II historian Stephen Ambrose tells the horrifying, hallucinatory saga of Easy Company, whose 147 members he calls the nonpareil combat paratroopers on earth circa 1941-45. Ambrose takes us along on Easy Company's trip from grueling basic training to Utah Beach on D-day, where a dozen of them turned German cannons into dynamited ruins resembling 'half-peeled bananas,' on to the Battle of the Bulge, the liberation of part of the Dachau concentration camp, and a large party at Hitler's 'Eagle's Nest,' where they drank the madman's (surprisingly inferior) champagne. Of Ambrose's main sources, three soldiers became rich civilians; at least eight became teachers; one became Albert Speer's jailer; one prosecuted Bobby Kennedy's assassin; another became a mountain recluse; the despised, sadistic C.O. who first trained Easy Company (and to whose strictness many soldiers attributed their survival of the war) wound up a suicidal loner whose own sons skipped his funeral.
The Easy Company survivors describe the hell and confusion of any war: the senseless death of the nicest kid in the company when a souvenir Luger goes off in his pocket; the execution of a G.I. by his C.O. for disobeying an order not to get drunk. Despite the gratuitous horrors it relates, Band of Brothers illustrates what one of Ambrose's sources calls 'the secret attractions of war ... the delight in comradeship, the delight in destruction ... war as spectacle.' --Tim Appelo
Amazon.com Audibook 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
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Tony Bate's Review Right On!
Anthony Bates couldn't have said it better. It's shocking that so many readers out there just gobble up Ambrose's "feel good history" as unquestionable fact, when in reality what Ambrose writes little more than entertainment for ignorant readers. Everything Bate's mentions is true...the fact that other less fabled, yet equally brave and crucial formations that served in Bastogne get ignored by Ambrose is shameful. Also, his knowledge of the German Army in all of his writings is down right pathetic and revolves more around old 'folk lore' than any type of dedicated research. Ambrose does know how write an compelling story, I'll give him that...although there is a lot of better academic history out there, and it is not very hard to find.
Rating:  - Real American Heroes
Band of Brothers is the kind of stories I used to hear from my father and uncles of their experiences in World War Two. Stephen Ambrose has a particular talent for making the reader feel all the emotions these very brave men went through. I read the book before I saw the HBO mini-series, and I bought the autdo book for when I am traveling. I never want to forget, and I hope the country never forgets what these citizen soldiers did to change the world we live in.
Rating: - It's been said already, but I'll say it again
This book defines what it means to be an American Soldier. It's a story of victory, defeat, good times and hellish times. It's not just a war story; it's a story of the human spirit. I recommend those of you who typically distance yourselves away from war stories to make an exception. This story is at times exciting, at times heart warming and at times tear jerking. I love it and I can't wait to read Major Winter's memoirs when the book arrives.
Rating: - Very poor quality
NB: My apologies, but there are several points where the review is interrupted by the following, [Edit:...], this is to satisfy the comment of F.Smith at the end of the review.
Firstly, I find it staggering that 319 people have given this book a 5 star rating. Granted, if you didn't have much of a background in reading military history then you could be forgiven for thinking that this book is an accurate portrayal of the 506th and the war in North-West Europe in general. However, for those readers who have read more than one book, Ambrose's book will show itself as poorly-reaserched and relying heavily on oral history which is fraught with dangers and pitfalls (most of which feature heavily in [edit] "the mini-series" 'Band of Brothers').
Having also read Ambrose's 'Pegasus Bridge'[edit] "also relying heavily on oral history rather than" in-depth research. This book is essentially the collected memories of a small selection of WWII veterans from E Company, 506th Parachute Infantry of the 101st Airborne Division, attempting to tell the tale of combat operations in the 1944 - 45 period.
The star of the show is Richard (Dick) Winters. One soon sees that Ambrose holds Winters in the highest esteem, some of which is justified given Winters combat record and the success rate that Easy Coy had under his command. However, the way in which Ambrose denigrates anyone who might take the shine of Winter's star is quite appalling. There are a number of interviews and ... Read More
Rating: - Bravery and Determination was Unsurpassed
One of those books; I can't seem to put down. I'm thankful I have watched the movie, Band of Brothers, for I could "picture" everything that was happening though all these pages. This Regiment was truly remarkably determined and proud to be a participant in this long relentless war. How do you understand anything, unless you were there and have gone through all the circumstances? There are so many things we don't realize or understand and this book almost took you there to see what they had to experience. To be so proud and honored is an understatement for men like these and for all of our Military.
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