Review

Textbooks, Readers, and References

Hoyt, a World War II veteran and well-known historian, originally published this work with McGraw-Hill in 1988. The book met with little success upon its original release, but the release of the film Saving Private Ryan has recently revived an interest in oral histories. After the success of other oral histories such as Stephen Ambrose's Citizen Soldiers and Tom Brokaw's Greatest Generation, Hoyt was approached by a publisher and decided to re-release this book. The book chronologically presents the experiences of hundreds of American combat soldiers who served in Europe during World War II. Though Hoyt does present many and varied stories, he continues to return to the stories of about a dozen officers and enlisted men. These individuals make up the backbone upon which the rest of the book has been structured. Hoyt mixes traditional narrative history with oral history in order to keep this well-written book moving along at a quick pace. The stories themselves range from the mundane (soldiers' dislike of C-Rations) to the surreal (an American sergeant who was reprimanded for being impolite to a German general officer that he had captured), and from the amusing (British soldiers brewing up tea before going into battle) to the horrifying (the massacre of American prisoners by the Waffen-SS at Malmedy during the Battle of the Bulge).	1
From the point of view of teaching, this book would be especially useful in a U.S. history survey course. Since the book focuses its attention on Americans, the stories of these ordinary soldiers will be of great assistance in helping students understand the bravery, fears, triumphs, and tragedies of a generation of men who are unfortunately beginning to disappear. This book is recommended for undergraduates, but not for high school or graduate students. High school students might find some of the stories too graphic, while graduate students will be understandably wary of oral history. While I wholeheartedly recommend this book, it does have some minor problems. Firstly, the book contains only about a half-dozen maps. In dealing with military history, it is almost impossible to properly understand the story without being able to refer to maps. Secondly, while fourteen pages of pictures are to be found in the middle of the book, most of the photos chosen are of no real importance to the story. The first few pictures are of the central characters of the book, but the other pictures seem to have been chosen almost at random and do nothing to aid the book. Lastly, and most significantly, the author does not provide a postscript concerning his core characters. It is horribly frustrating to become attached to these men and then not know what became of them after the war. Nevertheless, this book is recommended for undergraduates, university libraries, and the general public.	2
Alexander M. Bielakowski Kansas State University

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