Liberation Trilogy Complete
A quick note for those interested in US military history – and specifically the history of the US Army during World War II.
Some of you may have heard of Rick Atkinson. He’s been working on a 3-volume history of the US Army during World War II for several years. He called the 3-volume series the “Liberation Trilogy.”
The first volume, “An Army at Dawn”, covered the North Africa campaign. It was published in 2002. It received the Pulitzer.Prize for History in 2003.
The second volume, “The Day of Battle”, was published in 2007. It focused on Sicily and Italy. It did not receive a Pulitzer, but was nonetheless excellent.
The third volume, “The Guns at Last Light”, was released this week. It covers the liberation of France and the end of Nazi Germany.
Atkinson’s Wikipedia bio can be found here. It’s quite impressive.
Can he write? In a word – yes. But you’d expect that from someone who’s been awarded a Pulitzer for History; has had a hand in two others as a journalist; has received the Gerald R. Ford Award for Distinguished Reporting on National Defense; who’s held the Omar N. Bradley Chair for Distinguished Leadership at the National Defense University; and who’s been awarded the Pritzker Military Library Literature Award for Lifetime Achievement in Military Writing.
But don’t take my word for it; judge for yourself. A sample of his latest work (the Prologue) can be found here. Excerpts from the other two volumes may be found here (Volume 1) and here (Volume 2).
I have no economic interest in Atkinson’s works. But for anyone interested in the history of the US Army – like many readers of TAH – the first two volumes are absolutely wonderful books. I have no doubt that the third will be their equal.
I’ll let you know how good the third volume is after my copy comes in and I’ve finished it. I ordered it today. It’s the first time in quite a while I’ve bought a book the week it was released.
Category: Big Army, Historical
Rick Atkinson’s excellent interview from last week on Morning Joe:
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/3036789/#51864127
Only read the first trilogy so far…MG Terry Allen was one of the great fighting Generals…should have gotten a corps command (got sacked by O. Bradley). Yeah, what a great book on the unvarnished readiness or unreadiness of the Army in 42-43. GEN George Marshall is IMO the most important senior officer of WW2 (promoted from 1 star directly to 4 stars as CSA). What he did was a miracle to expand the Army & Air Forces from 200K men and officers to over 8 Million in less than 3 yrs. Just as importantly, GEN Marshall identified the most promising officers for high command (Eisenhower, Patton, Bradley, Clark, Arnold etc…). He was without a doubt the most important member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Called the “True Organizer of Victory” by some fella name Churchhill.
Also, Atkinson’s “The Crusade” covering the 1991 Gulf War was a very fun and informative read…highly underrated. One of the best most balanced profiles of GEN Schwarzkopf…warts and all.
I got my copy on the 14th and have been enjoying it immensely. I would say the Liberation trilogy is a great place to begin studying the war in the European theater. Max Hastings Retribution is excellent but being a single volume lacks the depth and breadth of Atkinson’s work.
“Retribution” was about the Pacific theater. The equally excellent “Armageddon” was about the end of the war in Europe. Both are worth reading, maybe even more so than Atkinson’s books.
D’oh, I have read both of Hasting’s books and brain farted on the titles, for some reason I was thinking Armageddon was the Pacific theater book. I personally found Armageddon to drag pretty badly in the middle. I would definitely recommend both of them, that is one nice thing about works about WWII is one s very well served in terms of choice for books worth reading.
Hondo,
I just finished reading “Frozen in Time; an epic story of survival and a modern quest for lost heros of world war II” By Mitchell Zuckoff. He tells an amazing story of a B17 crew trapped on the Greenland Ice cap and the later search for the men who tried to rescue them.
As one reviewer said it was amazing that the AAC new exactly where they were but it took 148 days, from November 1943 to April 1944 to get them off the Ice. In the process four rescuers were killed. He tells a gripping story covering the rescue and the modern search to recover the lost rescuers. I could not put it down.
Hondo,
Got it today…on pg 70 now. Should be an indicator. They should go ahead and start ingraving his name on the Pulitzer for this year. Same sort of style of the other two (like he’d change now) with a decent amount of perspective from both sides of the battle.
Just started volume II, “The Day of Battle”. Great writer. Looking forward to picking up Volume III.
Thank you for the heads up, I will look for all three of these works now.
VOV: the first two are selling on Amazon (used, I think) in the $10-$11 plus shipping range (probably large paperbacks, but could be eBook editions). The latest one will set you back between $25 and $30, since it’s only available in hardcover and as an eBook at present.