Revises the idea that America won World War II through superior numbers and material predominance, arguing that temporizing by the government led to inferior weaponry and an outmanned infantry and only the bravery of soldiers and their families produced victory.
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 3.5 / 5.0
Masterful recounting of a time and a place:
True WW II buffs (NOT mediocre history students!) will welcome this masterful recounting of the war and all its implications esp. on the home front. O'Neill's vivid descriptions of everyday life during the war rival the narratives of the finest of popular historians--Bruce Catton, Frederick Lewis Allen, David McCullough.
An insightful, colorful, skillfully written book which students, if they knew anything about history or the writing of history, would appreciate more respectfully!
can you say- textbook?:
After reading this book for my WW2 history class, also taught by Oneill, I am left wondering how such a brilliant lecturer can write such a bad book. The book is a poor read and reminded me of the common fact based stuff i read in high school. Information is plentiful, but to cover the entire war in such a disorganized way doesn't do it justice. In his class we also read "Touched with Fire" and "Nazi Germany and World War 2", which covered the Pacific war and Germany. Time better spent would be reading... more info
Dont waste your time reading there are better books:
This book A Democracy at War is a very uninteresting book facing WWII. The author is very disorganized in the way he presents his material. It is very unpleasing the way he starts to make a point then lingers off on something very unimportant. Though it does contain historical facts about the war, you are just better off reading a thesaurus because it has the same facts without dealing with the war but without the pointless dribble and is more historically relevant to the war. Not unless you are forced to... more info
A democracy at war:
I have to read this book for my World War II history class thats taught by the author himself. By all accounts, the author - Professor O'Neill is a splendid lecturer whose emotionative, compelling narratives can often leave the listener wanting for more once the class had ended. A master story teller who can weave together the boring, mundane historical facts associated with every history class to bring to the audience a sense of the nature of the times being studied, of the people involved, and most... more info
