The Good Fight: How World War II Was Won

This book has so much information. It’s enough information that it won’t overwhelm younger listeners. It’s a great book to have to teach your children our history.

This is a fantastically done book. I was cautious about a "War" book for kids - worried that the historical tragedy and horrors of war would be either too graphic or transformed in macho-heroism. This book does neither.This book is very well balanced history book. It lays out the historical facts, interspersed with quality and relevent anecdotes and personal events. It shows the young reader the sacrifice and courage of the young men and women in the services.A first rate book by a first rate writer!

Chances are that most teenagers today have or had grandfathers who served in World War II and grandmothers who helped with the war effort at home. Yet those experiences seem like ancient history to many young people. This superb volume should help bring home the message of why the American war effort was so important, and the magnitude of the sacrifices that were made on their behalf. Hopefully, these materials will then encourage these young people to ask their grandparents about their World War II experiences, and help create more connections to and understanding of those worthy elders.This book is a brief pictoral history of the war from the American perspective. The book's format is to take about 30 themes and develop them briefly. The tools used are brief essays, moving quotes from participants, photographs, and battle maps. Most subjects are handled in two pages (including photographs), but some go on to become four pages (such as the Holocaust). My only complaint about the book is that some photographs are reproduced in one color that makes the detail hard to see. Black would have been less appealing, but the photographs would have been easier to examine. Those who know Professor Ambrose's work will recognize the quotes. Sergeant Mike Ranney of Easy Company in the 101st tells this story about speaking with his grandson. "'Grandpa, were you a hero in the war?' 'No,' I answered, 'but I served in a company of heroes.'"Quotes like that are worth the price of the book for conveying the World War II experience to this generation of Americans.The book is good for pointing out problems and injustice. You see black Americans training with World War I guns. You see Japanese-Americans being interned in concentration camps. The concentration camp at Belsen is displayed. The devastation at Nagasaki as well as the radiation burn scars on a boy are portrayed. Many of the famous World War II photographs are here, such as the flag-raising on Iwo Jima, V-J Day in Times Square (the sailor and the nurse), soldiers wading ashore on D-Day into the surf on Omaha Beach, and the Navy battleships aflame at Pearl Harbor. Professor Ambrose certainly knows this history better than I do, but I wondered about his description of the Japanese emperor's involvement in the decision to launch the attack on Pearl Harbor. The version here seemed closer to the original story favored by General MacArthur that the emperor was manipulated by the military leaders than what I have been reading other historians say, which is that the emperor was right in the middle of wanting to go to war. Some of my other favorite photographs in the book include Hitler at a Nuremberg party rally (showing the propaganda machine in all of its might), Guadalcanal after a tropical storm (with tents underwater), an Army corpsman tending a wounded soldier, St. Lo after the liberation, an American soldier rescuing a shell-shocked girl in Manila, and Stalin, Truman and Churchill at Potsdam.

I am really not that amazed that my nine-year-old nephew loved this book, after all Stephen Ambrose wrote it, the pictures are great and the topic is timely (what with that new WWII movie out). What I'm surprised with is how much I enjoyed reading it. Most of us know a smattering of WWII; Pearl Harbor, D-Day, Battle of the Bulge, but again and again I found myself saying "Wow, I didn't know that!" Ambrose has a knack for telling a great story through the eyes of individuals, and what story from the previous century could be greater? The more I think about this book, the more I am convinced it is a great way of introducing children to the courage and greatness of our G.I.s, as well as impressing upon them the destructiveness of war.

This is an extraordinary book! I was amazed at how Stephen Ambrose could write the story of World War II for a young audience. My daughter asked me a lot of questions--she was really interested in Rosie the Riveter! And my son wanted me to explain more. The photos and illustrations did a wonderful job adding to Ambrose's words. I have to say that I learned some things that I didn't know, too! Thank you, Mr. Ambrose for taking such a complicated subject and telling it in a way that kids can understand.

This is an important presentation of WWII from the invasion of Europe to the holocaust. The tone is appropriate for young students and the design is impressive for older students. If there is a single title to acquire on the war as a whole for middle grade, this is the book to get.