Customer Reviews

Citizen Soldiers: The U S Army from the Normandy Beaches to the Bulge to the Surrender of Germany

5 star:		(168)
4 star:		(27)
3 star:		(17)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

After moaning my way through the equally large 'D-Day' by Mr. Ambrose, I thought I would give him one last shot, and to that end I secured myself a copy of 'Citizen Soldiers'.

Firstly, allow me to say that Stephen Ambrose is not an historian in the proper sense. There is a significant difference between relating easily-located historical facts, and unearthing them for oneself. Ambrose is one who condenses unwieldy masses of fact into a single digestible volume, which is what college students do with every essay, and which television news producers do nightly at six.

The difference between Ambrose and a college student or news producer is his entertaining writing style. His is truly "mass history", history for the masses, writing which passes easily through the eyes and into the brain, where it roams around for a while before being discarded. It's good enough stuff for a long flight or a soak in the bath, but nothing you'd sit down for any length of time and puzzle over, or elaborately annotate, or extract notes from. His books have always struck me as 'Military History For Dummies', which is an important enough thing, as it's good to make such important information easily accessible to the uneducated public.

What irritates me about Ambrose, though, is his irrational and unmitigated biais towards all things American. Drawing only on the books of Ambrose one would imagine that America was not only the only allied force to fight in World War II, but is in fact the only nation on earth. He regularly goes out of his way to dismiss or degrade the efforts of other allied forces, specifically those of Britain and its Commonwealth. And I really do mean it when I say "goes out of his way", for rarely are these frankly insulting remarks attached to any logical argument that has been laid down beforehand - they're just randomly dropped in there. He is well known as a Brit basher, and 'Citizen Soldiers' and 'D-Day' serve only to reinforce and then enhance this reputation.

Further to all that, I have a hard time in attaching any relevance to his frequent comments regarding the American Civil War, Little Big Horn, the Alamo, and any number of nationally-contained American conflicts. He just waffles on and on about those things, and the only reason for it seems to be to encourage readers to buy his other books on those subjects.

In all, it's hard to recommend Ambrose to anybody but an historical imbecile, or a virgin WW2 reader. His national prejudice is uncontrolled and it is equally shocking that no editor ever dared to rein him in regarding such matters. It's all very well and good and noble to be proud of your country, but not at the expense of others. In fact, it isn't out of line to apply a single unhappy word to Mr. Ambrose: racist. He is, pure and simple, an American supremacist. He is, to be perfectly plain, a racist and bigoted selective collator of information.

The next time you are confronted with a wall of Ambrose novels (I have difficulty in considering them as anything other) at the bookstore, you would do well to take a peek on either side, and see what grabs you.

As it stands, I shall be packing my Ambrose down to the book exchange later today, to swap them for something more refreshing and intelligent and less annoying. And as for yourself, take a dig around in Amazon's extensive WW2 history sections - there are countless numbers of smaller works of greater historical merit than all of Ambrose combined.

Before reading this book my understanding of Stephen Ambrose was that he could write about history in a way that anyone could enjoy and understand. I am a high school student, and one who does not particularly enjoy reading or history. However, I was able to pay full attention to most of this book. Ambrose did a good job of letting those who were on the front lines in Germany during the second world war tell the story as they saw it; afterall, as Ambrose stressed, he wasn't there and they were. The book starts with June 7, 1944, the day after D-day. Ambrose not only gives factual accounts of the events from D-day to VE Day, but he also captures the personal side of the war. Ambrose even compares and contrasts life of WW2 to life during the Civil War and the Great War.

Ambrose records the stories of hundreds of soldiers who tell of their accounts from paratrooping through the air, getting drunk off the champagne of Reims (champagne capital of the world), and living in foxholes. After reading this book there was a picture painted in my head of what life was really like living in a foxhole through bitter nights of subzero temperatures. I felt like I could relate to the men who were there. But most of all I developed a great sense of gratitude that I was born 42 years later than these guys because they went through hell and lived to tell about it. Overall Citizen Soldiers is a good read. It's not just for history buffs and it doesn't read like your normal history book. I would recomend this book to just about anyone who is just a little intrested in life of a WW2 soldier and i give it four out of five stars.

Loved it!! It's amazing what our fellow Americans went through at such a young age. This book rates 10 stars not 5!

Dr. Michael L. Johnson author of "What Do You Do When the Medications Don't Work?--A Non-Drug Treatment of Dizziness, Migraine Headaches, Fibromyalgia, and Other Chronic Conditions".

I have read some reviews on Mr. Ambrose's book Citizen Soldiers, claiming he is racist towards the British, and how it was just America that won the war and how the British were slow and stupid. Okay i'm only fifteen but i have read numerous books on the subject of WWII and i have read most of Ambrose's books concerning it and i have not found an ounce of racism or discrimination in his books. Chances are that the British were slow going through the thick of the fight maybe they were ill-equipped or outnumbered, but nonetheless if the US had not entered the war it would have gone on for years or Britain would have had to eventually surrender. I read one review explaining how the British werent mentioned on certain battles and so on and so forth, If this genius knew anything about Ambrose he specialized in the AMERICAN HISTORY OF THE WAR. This reviewer also cited that the Brits were against all these forces and how they were so great. If any one has read the Longest Day by Cornelius Ryan that the Gold, Juno, and Sword beaches (the Brit/Canadian) did not have as much resistance as Omaha beach (the US beach) and just because the Brits had these divisions against them does not mean they are battle-hardened or experienced you could have 1000 divisions of infants against you and still win. Now I'm not saying that the Brits sucked, they were a great ally, if they werent our ally the war would have gone on forever or half of the US would be speaking Japanese and the other German.

This is a wonderful book that gives one a sense of what it must have been like for the men who gave their all for freedom in the Second World War.

For those who have a problem with Mr. Ambrose's pro-American slant, I would suggest that you spend more time reading the title of the book and less time spewing venom. This book is a history of the US Army from Normandy onwards, not a history of the Allied war effort. The title should make that amply clear.

Taken in context this is a very worthwhile read, especially if you are new to the time period and were drawn to it by "Band Of Brothers" or "Saving Private Ryan". It will add to your knowledge of the people, places, and events.

I have read this book and I think that it is one of the best works of WWII that has been written, ever. I completely suggest that if you like World War Two history and are especialy interested in interesting details that you don't often
hear then you should buy Citizen Soldiers>

As with all Ambrose's books, Citizen Soldiers is accessible, informative, and fast. Steven Ambrose is obviously a cheerleader for the American fighting man, and what's wrong with that? He makes no secret of his pro-G.I. slant. So he's a pop historian--that doesn't make his books any less readable. Take a trudge--a long, drawn-out trudge--through The Guns of August or The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich for grindingly thorough detail. Ambrose's books are simply different from these in-depth tomes--his are fast summaries of WWII events laced liberally with human interest details...it's the men he writes about more than the machinations, and he reveres the American G.I.--his personal childhood hero, as he's said openly--without stint. Good for him. So ignore the Australian pinhead who wrote the Feb.15th one-star review immediately preceding this one; he obviously needs to extract his head from his *ss.

Stephen Ambrose pays tribute to the heroes of WWII in the best way possible, in their own words. Covering the war in Europe from June 7 1944 to May 7 1945, Ambrose gives you an overall history of key events backed up by personal reflections of both American and German veterans.

This book contains personal accounts of what it was actually like to live, fight, and mostly survive on the front lines of the battlefield. One amazing story after another describes what it was like to spend weeks in a foxhole under sub zero temeratures, to being cramped into a B-17 under enemy fire. I found myself being completely horrified from one page, to laughing at the next, but always shaking my head and thinking "WOW". There are also accounts of some lesser-published trageties of the war such as the senseless battle of the Hurtgen forrest, the sinking of the Leopoldville, and the way poorly trained replacement troops were shuttled to the front lines only to be killed in large numbers due to their lack of experience.

I turned pages of this book faster than I have with any other book.

I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in this subject and would like a better appreciation of the sacrifices of so many to preserve the freedom that we enjoy today.

Stephen Ambrose tries to explain the hell and joy that the WWII soldier went through following D-Day and touches your soul.

I know there is no way to even fathom the feelings felt by the soldiers, but this book does a good job in making you feel like you are watching from the side.

If you are interested in WWII soldiers at all, this is a must read.

We all (anybody reading reviews such as this) know something about the subject. But maybe not very realistically. I knew the casualty rates were maybe 5 or 10 percent but did not realize that they were 100+ % on the front line and closer to zero in the back. I did not realize that the front line extended only about a km and once you were there the American policy was to leave your company there; replacing the casualties as they got shredded by mortors, picked off by snipers, or blown up by mines. Your chances were slim once you hit the front line because in general it was till death (or loss of limb) do you depart. And I did not realize the great courage of many of those men. I am taken by the men who refused to leave their machine guns during the bulge. And I did not know that the war was won on the company and platoon level. I was left feeling that Eisenhower was decent, not great but not too bad a general. Sort of a U.S. Grant type. Patton was pretty good albeit wacky. Bradly was sub par. Montgomery was a disaster; many men died because of him. But mostly that they did not matter much, they just put the men on the continent with supplies and let the junior officers and their men win the war.
I like the end were he makes a point that the survivors of that war were the ones who built this country afterwards; he makes a point that conformity and teamwork are not so bad a thing when you think about it.