» Flags of Our Fathers (Movie Tie-in Edition)

Flags of Our Fathers (Movie Tie-in Edition) Reviews

Customer Rating:
Summary: Not SO bad.....
Comment: I really liked this book...not because of the writing style or the research, but because it made me think about the men that fight for our country. I never put much thought into that photo even though I have seen it numerous times before. I didn't realize the stir that it caused and how it was viewed.

I did find it interesting and informative, but I am a person that finds history boring. However, since reading this book I have developed a taste and I am now buying a reading books about both World Wars. I am not sure if it's a good thing or bad thing. It's either this book was inspiring, or there were a lot of holes that I needed filled. I think it's both.

The writing was not the best. It was hard at some points and I had to re-read sections. I noticed a bias in favor of the Marines. It wasn't very objective when it came to different branced and their contribution to the war in the Pacific. The author did rub me the wrong way a few times. At the beginning when they are on the island, when he seems to slam Rene at every opportunity, and just the idea that is Father didn't want any of this and yet he still wrote this book.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Hmm...?
Comment: In short summation, a very well written book, however I am left wondering if the author is a sympathizer with the Japanese or a patriotic entrepreneur? A sharp Bushido blade to swallow either way. Remember, James make him proud.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: the horror, the cost, the dignity
Comment: James Bradley has written a loving chronicle of a battle of almost unimaginable horror that took place on the unlikely volcanic island that has embedded its name in military and our national history as 'Iwo Jima'. His father was caught up in the events that unfolded on that diminutive, blood-soaked island, but also in the well-intention civilian environment back home, where the War Bond campaign seemed noble enough to justify almost any means.

Anyone tempted to bury Iwo Jima in the impersonal language of large, inhuman forces that is characteristic of a historiography which scoffs at the idea that Great Men change history ought to read this book at least as carefully as Bradley has crafted it. Men and women, many whose names now require special effort if they are to be remembered, laid down an incalculable sacrifice to secure this island stepping stone in the Second War's Pacific Campaign. There was nothing romantic about the task they were asked to accomplished. In fact, it was Wartime Romance that disfigured the lives of several of Bradley's protagonists.

Yet somehow, these warriors performed the actions that large men required of them. Most of them would simply prefer to forget what they saw there on Iwo Jima.

They should be afforded that luxury. The rest of us should not.

Something salutatory happens when a nation remembers the sacrifices that made it what it has come to be, particularly when it does so without assigning heroic nobility to men and women who more accurately describe their work as simple duty. A reader, properly in awe of duty's extreme measures, can still stand in awe of it.

This is their due and the responsibility of those of us who wish to be responsible remembrers.

James Bradley helps us on that way as few writers can.

He has written an awesome, astonishing, ennobling book.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: A must read, but it's an emotional ride...........
Comment: Perhaps the best book I've ever read. This book captures the action, the drama, the immense human sacrifices paid by the soldiers, their courage, the brutality of war, the history of the era and the war, the biographical background of the young soldiers and their families both before, during and after the war. Superb isn't strong enough to describe how well written this book is as it tells an amazing story about our young men you go off to war to save their country and the world from ruthless military dictatorships. The stories are gut wrenching and tear jerking. You will travel into the belly of the beast that is war and be nourished by the courage and committment to the mission's success and emotionally devastated by the carnage and loss of life and limb that followed these poor souls 24/7. The men and women who fought in WW2 truly were American's greatest generation. Read this book.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Comment: I gave this as a birthday gift to my husband and I finished reading it before he did. I thought it was well researched and written. Very sad, but helped me understand what they went through. I would highly recommend it to anyone interested in the famous picture and statue.

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