history

This book has brought even closer than before to the realization that men of the South, especically the 26th North Carolina, sacrificed so much for what they believed in. This book follows this unit from beginning to end, sharing all that they did during the War, but hilighting Gettysburg and the tremendous toll it took on this great unit. I was especially enthralled by the personal side that the author shared, delving into personal history of various members of the unit, especially its Boy Colonel. A great read for those who want to know more about the men and units who made up Lee's great Army.

I've been following Mr. Gragg's work since he wrote Confederate Goliath, The Battle for Fort Fisher. I remember talking to him at a Civil War show almost 8 years ago and he said he was writing a historical novel about the 26th North Carolina at Gettysburg. I have 3 ancestors who served with the Caldwell County companies of the 26th NC, and all I can say about this book is that I was so pleased with it the first time I read it, that I read it again. The portion of the book dealing with the 1st days battle against the tough Iron Brigade, and the 26th's young Colonel Henry King Burgwyn being shot down are almost surreal. Do yourself a favor, buy this book.

I'm pretty new to reading about the Civil War, but so far it seems that Regimental History books are my favorite. While other books try to do too much and cover many battles, generals and focus on troop movements, etc., Regimental History books focus on people and individuals.

Covered with Glory was particularly enlightening, as it sheds some light how Confederates felt about the war.

It is a very focused and straight forward read. Don't expect this to be a comprehensive book on the Civil War, but to experience a "little piece" of it, this is a great book.

I read this book with an insider's knowledge based upon the 18 years it took my family and I to recover my father's remains, which laid frozen in a Havana morgue, hidden by Washington and the Kennedy Administration. My father, Thomas "Pete" Ray was one of the American CIA B-26 pilots who gave his life attempting to save the "Bay of Pigs" invasion. My thanks go to Grayston Lynch for telling the true and compelling story of how Jack and Robert Kennedy betrayed so many in the planning and execution of the invasion, then falsely placed the blame for failure on the CIA and the brave men who actually went into harm's way. Washington even went so far as to terrorize the families of the four lost CIA pilots into silence. This book should be required reading for any politician or senior military officer before they are allowed to commit men or women to combat or covert operations.

As a Cuban, I always knew that the U.S. governments theories on the failed invasion were a total and complete cover-up. After reading this book, it shows how correct I was. This book takes you through the story of the doomed 2506 Brigade from the training in Nicaragua to the desprate search for survivors. The book is written by one of the two American CIA agents sent with the Brigade to maintain communications between the Brigade and Washington. The book is devided into three main parts. The first part describes Castros Revolution, the planning for the attack, and the training of the Brigade. The second part describes the actual attacks on the two landing sites, Blue Beach and Red Beach.The final part of the book compares the government explinations for the faliure against what really happend, showing how the Kennedy administration betrayed not only the doomed men of the Brigade, but the American people, for had the Brigad succeded, there would have been no Cuban Missle Crisis, no civil wars in Nicaragua, Guatemala, and Colombia, and the Soviet threat would have been eliminated much earlier. I would recomend this book to anyone willing to learn how their government is betraying them.

This book is definitely an eye opener. I remember as a child my father telling me of the cover-ups and distortions created by the Kennedy administration. The real truth about what happened at the Bay of Pigs is finally out. JFK's mistake caused untold missery to millions of people. Not just Cubans, but also Nicaraguans, Guatemalans, Colombians, and now Venezuelans. Cubans, and Americans as a whole, should be extemely grateful to Mr. Grayston Lynch for writing this book. I know I am. Thank you, thank you Mr. Lynch.

While undoubtedly a must read for ground troops, you don't have to wear combat boots to enjoy The Defence of Duffer's Drift. If you enjoy problem solving, visualizing varied scenarios, and anticipating the next move, this book may be for you. It's well written in fluid, almost interactive, and easily understood language; you don't have to be a General or a military buff to immediately be enveloped by the dilemma at hand. You can finish the book in one sitting or ponder each chapter as if it were a game of chess. This is a rare type of book that can, and perhaps should, be enjoyed by almost everyone.

Incredible book. It's a terrific primer for junior officers and a light but powerful reminder of the basics for those of us who think we have a little more experience. Set in the Boer Wars, the lessons are still very timely and relevant today. Several times, I made this book recommended reading for my lieutenants. Read this and then come back and re-read it.

A timeless classic of Military instruction set forth in simple and fast reading manner. It is truly amazing how many principles never change. If you are an instructor make your students read it, if you are an NCO memorize it, if you have a new junior officer assigned to you tie him down with 100 mph tape and read it to him. Any individual who does not learn anything from this text should be reassigned to a position where they cannot influence or harm soldiers in the field.

This brand new book will be looked upon some time in the future as one of the all-time great aviation book classics. Unlike some of Schiffer's prior publishing efforts -- which tend to be heavy on pictures and lightweight on analysis -- they really hit on a winner this time. The book is a comprehensive (with a capital "C") and authoritative history of the B-36 bomber with everything you could ask from in a military history: beautiful B&W and color pictures printed on heavyweight gloss stock, development and production history, political background (the "revolt of the admirals"), operational history, crew reports, squadron deployments, the history of SAC, detailed offensive and defensive armament, derivatives,accidents,withdrawal from service, and bone-yard survivors, all in great detail. Nothing is left out. All this is accomplished by having contributing authors cover different subjects with Jacobsen providing the integration effort. I found it all to be superb, and the very last word on the B-36. A truly great book and worth every penny of its hefty $70-plus price tag. Don't miss it!

This brand new book will be looked upon, some time in the future, as one of the all-time great aviation book classics. Unlike many of Schiffer's prior publishing efforts -- which tend to be heavy on pictures and light on analysis -- they really hit on a winner this time. The book is a comprehensive and authoritative history of the B-36 bomber with everything you could ask for from a military history: beautiful B&W and color pictures printed on heavyweight gloss stock, development and production history, political background (the "revolt of the admirals"), operational history, crew reports, squadron deployments, the history of SAC, detailed offensive and defensive armament, derivatives, accidents, withdrawal from service and boneyard survivors, all in great detail. Nothing is left out. All this is accomplished by having contributing authors cover different subjects with Jacobsen providing the integration effort. I found it all to be superb, and the very last word on the B-36. A truly great book and worth every penny of the hefty $70 price. Don't miss it!

Since I was a child, I have been fascinated by Convair's B-36 Peacemaker, one of the premier aircraft of the Cold War. A Six-Engined monster, it was the first intercontinental bomber, being the only plane that could fly from allied bases to targets in Russia and back without refueling. While some books have been written about the plane, it can be said that Jacobsen has written the definitive account.

Early chapters detail the development of the plane, while later chapters discuss the aircraft's service life, including the controversies that it caused. There are also chapters devoted to spin-offs of the plane (The XC-99 transport, The YB-60 bomber), experimental versions, defensive armaments and to surviving aircraft or parts. There is even a chapter about the B-36's film career.

Dozens of former crewmen provided interviews on their experiences with the B-36, covering many parts of the plane and its use. There are also hundreds of photographs and illustrations throughout the book, many of them taken by the people who served on the plane.

This is only a basic coverage of what this book provides. You must read it for yourself. Just be sure you can afford the hefty price tag.

The author is a little dry in his review of early wire history. Recent archeological evidence would have made the first part of the narrative absolutely conclusive (and shorter) had it been available. As it is, the same conclusions are drawn but through a more convoluted and circumspect path. This aside, the general breadth and detail provided, especially in the later sections dealing with the development of electrical conductors, is very impressive. The fascinating text gives hitherto unrevealed insight into the way early electrical conductors became their modern counterparts. The extensive analysis is equalled only be the detailed references and footnotes. These are very useful and far better positioned at the foot of each page. The book captures not only the engineering and industrial changes that took place but gives the economic and social contexts too (All in a very assimilable way). I would recommend all aspects of this book, the authorship, the production values and the hugely difficult but indispensible editing which gave each page its own footnotes and references.

I believe many will agree that this book deserves its longevity. Having obtained a copy on the strength of the Amazon reviews (below) I have (for the first time) no argument with the reviewers. Those who have praised the scholarship, structure and insight of Blake-Coleman's work were right to do so. Verso, the criticisms where they occur are justified. Particularly in the light of the fact that much of the research dates back some 20 years! Yet there is little extant that supersedes any of the book's contents, and that speaks volumes!

As a study in how economic and industrial history should be written 'Copper Wire - ' has few equals, as a research excercise and a marvellous story of industrial and technological change it is peerless.

Copper Wire and Electrical Conductors : The Shaping of a Technology

Author: B. C. Blake-Coleman
Format: Hardcover Textbook
Published: December 1991
ISBN: 3718652005

This is a definitive work which critically examines the principal events and circumstances which influenced the evolution of copper wire as a crucial component in modern electrical technology.

Now established as a milestone in the publishing of technological histories, Blake-Coleman's 'Copper Wire-' provides the template for all subsequent authors in the field. Highly readable, yet completely authoratative in the depth and breadth of its research, this book went even further in showing how careful editing can enhance the way information is conveyed to the reader. (All footnotes and citations for example are given on the page where they appear. This is of enormous value; given that typically citations are confined to the end of a book, requiring the reader to constantly flick through pages).

The structure and content of 'Copper Wire-' is of itself a lesson. To avoid the problem of intermingling the use and application of Copper wire with the technology of wire making itself, the opening chapters cover the history of wire making technology and then proceed to focus on copper wire per se. This arms the reader at the outset with an understanding of the slow development of wire making technology from ancient times up to the end of the 19th/early 20th century when automated techniques were virtually mature.

The traditional applications, trades and supply chains for copper wire are given a full treatment in the middle sections. Not only in terms of markets and uses but the organizations and companies that developed on the specific businesses of the day. This extends to the single tradesman supplying copper articles for the local market and drawing his own copper wire, to the dockyard industries providing the massive levels of copper and copper wire for both naval and private vessels. We see how slowly (but inevitably) the provision of materials for the traditional markets slowly make available a commodity that could be used in early electrical work.

Electrical science is then shown to be an overwhelming force for change in the copper wire industry - not least because (as we are suprised to find) the traditionally made copper wire does not have the qualities and attributes appropriate for electrical applications. Indeed, iron and brass wire are at first the primary choice as conductors in telegraphy and experimental applications.

How electrical science and the acceleration in telegraphic and telephonic communications came to change the manufacture and properties of conventional copper wire is a fascinating story, and is not only well told in this book but told with an emphasis that conveys vividly the trials and tribulations of those individuals who made our modern electrical systems what they are. Having read the later sections of 'Copper Wire-' one is left in no doubt that dismissing the current monopoly of copper wire in electrical technology as purely an evolutionary step ignores the fact - as this book clearly recounts - that there was nothing natural or evolutionary about it!

Not only is this book a prime example of good scholarship and pragmatism in approaching the problem of presentation, but the wealth and quality of research leaves one admiring the persistance of the author. Few would see the subject as compelling. There is after all no central character or single historical perspective and technological histories are hardly the best platform for getting to grips with the economic and social conditions which prevail. Yet the author does turn a potentially turgid subject into something truly engaging.

There are many criticisms to be made about this book (mainly editorial and typographical) but this remains the definitive technological history. Copper Wire- is recommended to anyone who is embarking on a similar task. Not only as a model for writing this kind of material but as an example of understanding what makes a complex and highly technical subject easy to understand and assimilate.

I read Dandelion Cottage when I was about 10 yrs old and absolutely loved it. I'm delighted to see that it is still in print and now will give my granddaughter a copy for her birthday.
Dandelion Cottage still stands today and was based on a story of some little girls who actually used the house as their play house. It's a delightful story that takes one back in time. These charming little girls will touch your heart.

I had tears in my eyes when my daughter found the book "Dandelion Cottage". I had been looking for this book, remembering how I loved to read it when I went to country school many years ago. I was 11 or 12 years old then and now it brings back so many memories!

The book, "Dandelion Cottage", was read to each of our family members by our fifth grade teacher (she taught all 5 of us kids at a wonderful grade school in the 1940's, 50's and early 60's). She set aside time during the week to read aloud some portion of this exciting, strong character book to us. I can remember so well the time spent sitting in that classroom and listening to her read to us. This is a book that all young people should have the opporunity to read and enjoy.

I work in the television broadcast industry and this is a must read if you want to learn about the origins of HDTV, the players who made HDTV a reality, and how the standards for HDTV were defined. The author is an authority on the subject and provides an excellent description of the systems, history, etc. that both technical and business professionals can understand. At my company this has become required reading. I highly recommend this book.

The book strikes from its first page by its fictional style while documenting complexly intrigrated facts about the development of HDTV. The book is simply absorbing; it creates a suspenceful atmosphere comparable to movies such as "The Firm." Truly a great book on the history of HDTV and far ahead on everything I have read one year later (1998) on the same subject matter.

In the early 1980s US broadcasters faced two major headaches spawned by greed and jingoism. Their comfortable, tidy, oligopolistic-and profitable-broadcast world was about to be shaken by the digital revolution, where foes and friends were often indistinguishable. New York Times reporter and Pulitzer Prize winner Joel Brinkley takes the reader on a roller coaster through boardrooms, bureaucracy, technocracy, and hubris (individual and national) in "Defining Vision." It is a ride worth taking for broadcast students, educators, historians, and international political economists.

Represented by the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), radio and television companies considered the broadcast band spectrum their personal property. This largesse suddenly came under assault from the land mobile industry that wanted more spectrum space for a variety of public interest broadcast services such as police, firefighters, ambulance, quick response units, and other emergency services. Broadcasters, too, saw a new threat from across the sea. The Japanese spent $300 million and hundreds of thousands of engineering man-hours developing high definition television (HDTV). NHK unveiled its Muse system in 1986 to US policymakers and consumers. The picture quality was superior to the current analog systems in the United Sates, and Japanese-made monitors were designed to fit the wider formatted movies without the annoying letterbox effect.

Brinkley chronicles the scrimmages involving development of HDTV in the US like a general writing his wartime memoirs-if that general had access to the thinking of his opposition, that is. First the grand alliance-RCA, Zenith, AT&T, Phillips, General Instruments and MIT-had to admit that a victory by any one of them in the costly race to develop HDTV would be a defeat for the others. They were able to convince a willing FCC Advisory Committee that cooperation was possible in building a single system. Committee chairman Richard Wiley's role in HDTV cannot be understated (and Brinkley doesn't). His single-minded pursuit of high definition television as the national (and, it turned out, international) standard most probably resulted in its acceptance.

US broadcasters had worried privately and publicly as well, that the future of television would be dictated by a consortium of Japanese electronics magnates and NHK, the world's second-largest broadcasting company. Across the Atlantic, the European Union was equally concerned, and promised up to a billion dollars to Europeans to come up for a system on its own or else adopt the Japanese HDTV, since the Americans seemed not to be players in the game as the century's ninth decade unfolded. But the European effort never got off paper. US broadcasters at first fretted about a new "yellow peril" that posed as great a threat to them as it did to the automobile industry a decade earlier. Ever opportunistic, however, broadcasters found the Japanese an unlikely ally in their fight to snatch the unused frequencies from land mobile companies. HDTV, as the Muse system showed, required additional bandwidth space. Obviously, they reasoned, Congress and the FCC could not allocate precious broadcast spectrum space to land mobile users when they, the "rightful frequency heirs," needed the frequencies for HDTV.

At the same time, MIT's Nicholas Negroponte, who Brinkley treats somewhat derisively, was telling anyone who would listen that "HDTV had to be digital," not analog, which would allow for signal compression that would fit into existing frequencies. One naysayer echoed a common broadcast engineering complaint at the time: "we will have digital HDTV when we have anti-gravitation machines." Broadcast engineers at the major manufacturers nodded in agreement: digital high definition television technologically could not be done. The NAB, in its attempt to protect its space band largesse, inadvertently kicked off a race to develop HDTV in the United States that took on the trappings of a crusade to "rescue" the future of television in the United States from the hands of foreign interests. Along the way, General Instruments research engineer Woo Paik invented digital television (because, as a non-broadcast engineer, he didn't know that "it was impossible").

HDTV uses a compressed digital broadcast signal that not only remained within a single frequency but allowed broadcasters additional capacity to sell secondary services such as pager services, email, Internet connections, digital music, and pay-per-view movies. With such an entrée to new revenue flows, the reader would be surprised to learn the depth of NAB's animus to HDTV. Simply put, broadcasters used the HDTV concept to wrest away additional public airwaves spectra and then, among themselves, grumbled that they were unwilling to invest in new high definition cameras, monitors, and other equipment that would allow them to broadcast signals in both progressive scan (favored by the computer programming and manufacturing sector) and interlaced (favored by broadcasters) modes. Another opponent of a high definition television standard was the fledgling computer manufacturing industry in the mid-1990s, which didn't want the additional expense of adding interlacing decoding to what essentially was a dedicated proscan system.

After seven years of ups and downs in a process that often threatened to sputter, splinter, and spin totally out of control, HDTV in a digital form arrived in the US shortly after Thanksgiving in 1997. Despite all predictions to the contrary, the HDTV "turkey" arrived fully stuffed with enough goodies to ease its transition into the marketplace. The result was acceptance of the Americanized international standard by the European Union and the final, if not sad, acknowledgment by NHK that its analog Muse system was outmoded before it even got much beyond a toehold in its native land.

In "Defining Vision," Brinkley has crafted a highly readable, almost techno-mystery story with well-defined characters: heroes, villains, and rascals alike. At times he seems to get into the heads of the key players, which he explains as a literary device borne from extensive interviews with the principals who told him what they were thinking at the time. The effect rounds the edges of what could have been a highly technical, heuristic, and sloggish recitation of engineering reports, public hearings, and dreary diary entries from the participants. To his credit, the author explains his process to readers in an epilogue, thus enhancing the book's credibility. Furthermore, in this paperback edition, the author has updated and expanded several sections over the hardcover version, including an appendix and FAQ that are instructional.

This was a pretty good book. It was very informative. It may be unsuitable for younger readers, but I found it inriching.

Review by Tom rederiksen - http://members.aol.com/spdtom/index.html - AZTEC STUDENT TEACHER RESOURCE CENTER: Diaz is an accomplished writer and I was impressed with his attention to detail as it related to the daily life and inter-personal relationships between the Conquistadors. This is a fairly long book but reads easily and anyone that enjoys a good adventure or mystery novel will find this an interesting book. As there are precious few first hand accounts from this time period, this first hand narrative is a must read for anyone getting started in the study of the Mexican conquest time period. This book was written rather late in life by the author. Supposedly, Diaz read a copy of a book by Lopez de Gomara, Chronicle of the Conquest of New Spain, and was so outraged by references to "Cortes this", and "Cortes that", that the old soldier penned this classic. Were it not for the work of Diaz, the world would not have a comprehensive record of the conquest. A must read.

The Conquest of New Spain, by Bernal Diaz is perhaps the best telling of the events that followed the untimely arrival of Hernan Cortez and his band of Conquistadors in Mexico. Diaz himself was one of those conquistadors, and although his takes on what happened are not without bias, they are nevertheless very informative. When you finish reading this book you will have a near perfect understanding of what happened to the Aztec Empire in Mexico.
This book gets the highest recommendation possible.

Essentially a physicist's interpretation of the Battle of Little Bighorn, author John S. Gray's "Custer's Last Campaign: Mitch Boyer and the Little Bighorn Reconstructed" is a fascinating account of one of the most storied battles ever to take place on American soil. And this was a battle, with more than 350 men, women and children killed in the span of two furious hours on the dusty slopes of 1876 southeast Montana.

This is not a book for beginners of Custer/Montana lore. It can be extremely tedious at times as Gray utilizes time-motion studies to piece together the puzzle of what happened during the Seventh Calvary's final minutes. Since every man of the U.S. Army was killed during this prong of the battle, there are no eyewitness military accounts. Yes, hundreds of Native Americans survived, but few spoke of this battle for fear of punishment and hatred of Anglo historians. Crazy Horse, one of the few Native American leaders during this confrontation, was assassinated a week after arriving on the reservation. So this very important man's account was never taken. Thus, we are left with a hodgepodge of hazy Native American reconstructions.

Visiting the battlefield today, which stretches over several miles, solemn white headstones mark the spot where bodies of the Seventh Calvary were found. The location of these stones are included in Gray's complex, mathematical equations. What he's intricately pieced together, with the help of eyewitness accounts, archaeological digs and his own analytical mind, is a realistic result of this unusual battle. His conclusions are perhaps outside of the realm of what people would consider today.

The myth surrounding Custer and Little Bighorn has been shaped by such matinee films as "They Died With Their Boots On," "Little Big Man" and television's "Son of the Morning Star." These films portray Custer as headstrong, vain, heroic and, in one case, a tad insane. But each version, thematically forged by the decade it was filmed, portrays Custer fighting gallantly to the last, standing alone in buckskins while angrily firing his pistol at the approaching Native American hordes. Custer, as if performing the concluding act of Shakespeare's "Hamlet," falls dead to the ground in bloody, poetic, slow motion. It makes for a great painting hanging above the neighborhood bar.

The reality, revealed by Gray's novel, is Custer did indeed have a battle plan rather than making a vain stab at glory. But his forces were simply overwhelmed, chaos ensued, and panicking men were run down like herds of buffalo. It's not very poetic, but has war truly ever been? To understand America's fascination with this battle, one must first read Evan S. Connell's "Son of the Morning Star," one of the greatest historical nonfiction novels ever written.

Gray discards such weighty wisdom like an old blanket, and scientifically gets to the root of what actually happened. A Last Stand does indeed take place on Custer Hill, where Custer's body was found. Survivors panic, some commit suicide, and Boyer and company frantically run west, fighting and killing in a froth-like animal panic. But west is towards the Native American village they were attacking in the first place. They are then desperately cornered in a ravine, a small gully which can be stared at to this very day.

When the U.S. Army rides into a primitive village, shooting defenseless women and children, the primitive man will fight back if for no other reason than to protect their families. Like poking a stick into an ant hill, Custer and his Seventh Calvary were overwhelmed, the sorry battle ending in a ditch. Men attempted to claw their way out, perhaps asking themselves how they ended up in such a remote location, dying the loneliest of deaths.

This battle haunts us for a number of reasons, mainly because of our inhumane treatment of the Native American people. So we obsessively analyze this epic Homerian battle, trying to find a moment of heroism, a brief glimpse to help salve our morally guilty wounds. But all we find in Gray's account is wide-eyed reality, and desperate men crying in a ditch. Gray's novel details these horrors in scientific fashion, and unknowingly provides a glimpse of the dangers of American warrior vanity.

The reader becomes mesmerized and impressed by the thorough and meticulous process of constantly checking witness testimony with known topography and horse/walking/etc. mph rates, then time/motion studies with all possible data examined to see what plausible explanations can be more pushed forward as likely scenarios.

At the center here is the infamous Indian scout, Mitch Boyer and the testimony of the young Curly, survivor with Custer.

Amazing how the evidence Gray presents turns Custer 180o around from what is historically bantered, an aggressive disobiendent hawkish leader. Gray's reconstruction reveals soldier who emphasized and implemented what orders were given to him, to pin the Indians from left flank escape, and all the time awaiting Benteen's company and ammo train, which never arrived in time.

Disappointed that no chronology chain here shown how the followup takes place to discover the battlefield. Possibly Gray's other books on this subject cover that.

Remarkably well written, able to keep this reader's attention easily even with all the careful calculation checks, etc.

Outstanding detail on the LBH battle. References cover virtually all the important facts associated with the campaign. Extraordinary study of movements by all those key participants associated with the battle and timing of such. An example is the study of Benteen's movements (3rd wing). Boston Custer leaves the pack train, passes Benteen watering his horses and joins his brother in death as Benteen remains over an hour behind. Great detail on Custer's final battle and possible plan. The first half of the book is dedicated to Mitch Boyer, the half Sioux and white scout who was adopted by the Crows. He elects to stay with Custer until the final end and the story of his life is told in admirable detail. Boyer was quite a brave an independent man who expertly knew the plains and Indians. Perhaps the best book on the LBH.

Donald Knox wrote an excellent oral history of the experiences of the survivors of the surrender of Bataan and Corregidor. He did this while many of these men (now in the 70s and 80s) were still able to remember vividly their experiences. They detail in their own moving words the starvation, ill-treatment, executions and torture suffered in 3-1/2 years of imprisonment (Indeed, the famous beach scene from "Saving Private Ryan" could have been replicated on the Bataan Death March, only it was Japanese soldiers doing the dirty work to helpless prisoners). One statistic is telling: less than 2% of Americans captured by the Germans perished in captivity. Over HALF of Americans captured by the Japanese failed to return. Knox details how normal American soldiers sometime descended into almost-animal behavior in order to survive. It has been my great privilege to meet and write with many of these quiet, grandfatherly heroes. Their only wish is to have their sacrifices remembered. Knox did an outstanding job of accomplishing this. How about a "younger" version for students? This is history that needs to be remembered, just like Hiroshima.

Author Donald Knox has taken personal narratives from over sixty survivors of the Bataan death march and combined them into this gripping story of the struggle to survive. On April 9, 1942, the penninsula of Bataan fell into Japanese hands. The surrendering Americans were then subjected to a ninety mile march without adequate food or water. Men were shot and bayonetted for sport by the Japanese. Once the Americans reached their prison camp, they were herded into a tiny area with only two water spigots. Hundreds of men died each day from dysentery, malaria, and starvation. Many healthy men were soon reduced to skeletons. Others simply refused to go on any further. Still others found that the only way they could survive was to find a friend to help them get through.

After two to three years of living in this nightmare, the American forces returned to liberate the Philippines. Fearing that the prisoners would be liberated by the returning Americans, the Japanese loaded the surviving POWs into "Hell Ships"; massively overcrowded freighters to be transferred to the Japanese home islands. Some of the men went mad, while others drowned when their ships were sunk by American submarines. Once in Japan, the men were forced to work long hours in Japanese factories and mines while still receiving little in the way of food or medical care. The conditions in the Japanese labor camps were as unimaginable as they were in the Philippines; little food and water and constant beatings by the Japanese guards.

I've read several oral history books about World War II, and this book is one of the best. Knox lets the survivors' stories create this book. I was in awe of the horrible conditions that these men were forced to survive under. It is a true testament to the human spirit that these men were able to overcome the merciless beatings and the extermely meager food and water rations they received to survive and return home. Anyone who questions why the Americans used the atomic bomb should read about the Bataan prisoners and what they were forced to endure. I highly recommend this fine piece of oral history. Read it and understand what some of the true heroes of World War II did for their country.

As a descendant of soldiers who were in the Philippine Scouts (they survived the March by escaping into the jungle), I found the first hand accounts of Americans who were there fascinating. It gave me a feeling of being there.
It's a story about survival and the indomitable spirit of man.
It's amazing what men will do to survive in stressful conditions and adversity. It separates the men from the boys, the strong from the weak.
I'm not accustomed to reading books in the first hand account style, but I found it more interesting to read the text as opposed to the typical factual style that a history book would have.
This a great read for you military history buffs out there! It's almost as good as sitting down with a vet and hearing him telling it to you.