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The Story of World War II
- Narrated by: Michael Kramer
- Length: 24 hrs and 52 mins
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Publisher's summary
Drawing on previously unpublished eyewitness accounts, prizewinning historian Donald L. Miller has written what critics are calling one of the most powerful accounts of warfare ever published. Here are the horror and heroism of World War II in the words of the men who fought it, the journalists who covered it, and the civilians who were caught in its fury. Miller gives us an up-close, deeply personal view of a war that was more savagely fought - and whose outcome was in greater doubt - than one might imagine. This is the war that Americans on the home front would have read about had they had access to the previously censored testimony of the soldiers on which Miller builds his gripping narrative.
Miller covers the entire war - on land, at sea, and in the air - and provides new coverage of the brutal island fighting in the Pacific, the bomber war over Europe, the liberation of the death camps, and the contributions of African Americans and other minorities. He concludes with a suspenseful, never-before-told story of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, based on interviews with the men who flew the mission that ended the war.
Donald L. Miller is the John Henry MacCracken Professor of History at Lafayette College. He is a creator and associate producer of the HBO documentary He Has Seen War and has been chief consultant for numerous award-winning PBS productions. He is author of the prizewinning City of the Century: The Epic of Chicago and the Making of America.
Critic reviews
Featured Article: The Man Behind Bond—Spotlight on the Fascinating Ian Fleming
From his passion for gadgets and gambling to the way he likes his martinis ("Shaken, not stirred"), everyone is familiar with the tastes and traits of James Bond, the world's most famous fictional spy. Less is commonly known about the fascinating life and adventures of 007's creator, who kicked off the Bond craze with his 12 novels: Ian Fleming. Read on to learn more about the author and uncover how much of the real Fleming lives on in the fictional Bond.
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interesting read
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It was the bloodiest battle in Marine Corps history, claiming a third of all marines killed in World War II. The relentless fighting on Iwo Jima lasted for 36 days, but most of us only know the iconic photo of five soldiers raising the American flag on Mount Surabachi. For Fred Haynes, a young captain in Combat Team 28, Surabachi was one marker in a ferocious blood-letting against an enemy of 22,000 warriors who were dug into caves and tunnels.
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Excellent Account of the Battle
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In four words - "the capital of everything" - Duke Ellington captured Manhattan during one of the most exciting and celebrated eras in our history: The Jazz Age. Radio, tabloid newspapers, and movies with sound appeared. The silver screen took over Times Square as Broadway became America's movie mecca. Tremendous new skyscrapers were built in Midtown in one of the greatest building booms in history.
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the background to the NYC we now live in
- By Marcie on 03-05-15
By: Donald L. Miller
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Band of Brothers
- E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne, from Normandy to Hitler's Eagle's Nest
- By: Stephen E. Ambrose
- Narrated by: Tim Jerome
- Length: 12 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Easy Company, 506th Airborne Division, U.S. Army, was as good a rifle company as any in the world. From their rigorous training in Georgia in 1942 to D-Day and victory, Ambrose tells the story of this remarkable company, which kept getting the tough assignments. Easy Company was responsible for everything from parachuting into France early D-Day morning to the capture of Hitler's Eagle's Nest at Berchtesgaden. Band of Brothers is the account of the men of this remarkable unit.
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High Expectations Met
- By Scott on 02-12-13
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The Second World War
- By: Antony Beevor
- Narrated by: Sean Barrett
- Length: 39 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Over the past two decades, Antony Beevor has established himself as one of the world's premier historians of World War II. His multi-award winning books have included Stalingrad and The Fall of Berlin 1945. Now, in his newest and most ambitious book, he turns his focus to one of the bloodiest and most tragic events of the twentieth century, The Second World War. Thrillingly written and brilliantly researched, Beevor's provocative account is destined to become the definitive work on World War II.
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It Fills in Gaps I Didn't Know Existed
- By DJM on 07-31-12
By: Antony Beevor
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World War 2 in the Pacific Collection: Across Wake Island, Bataan, Guadalcanal, Corregidor, and Iwo Jima
- Helmet for My Pillow: From Parris Island to the Pacific, The Saga of Pappy Gunn, On Valor's Side, The Coastwatchers, They Call it Pacific, Joe Foss Flying Marine, South from Corregidor, The Story of Wake Island, & Mission Beyond Darkness
- By: Robert Lackie, General George C. Kenney, T. Grady Gallant, and others
- Narrated by: Museum Audiobooks Cast
- Length: 66 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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This is a nine-book bundle on the Pacific War, the theatre of World War II that was fought in Asia, the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean and Oceania. The Pacific War saw the Allies pitted against Japan, aided by Thailand and its Axis allies, Germany and Italy. Fighting included some of the largest naval battles in history, and the war culminated in the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
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Good collection, great bargain well worth a credit
- By R. Denton on 08-13-21
By: Robert Lackie, and others
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The American Civil War
- By: Gary W. Gallagher, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Gary W. Gallagher
- Length: 24 hrs and 37 mins
- Original Recording
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Between 1861 and 1865, the clash of the greatest armies the Western hemisphere had ever seen turned small towns, little-known streams, and obscure meadows in the American countryside into names we will always remember. In those great battles, those streams ran red with blood-and the United States was truly born.
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Excellent Series
- By Rodney on 07-09-13
By: Gary W. Gallagher, and others
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The Pacific
- Hell Was an Ocean Away
- By: Hugh Ambrose
- Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain
- Length: 23 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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In this companion to the HBO miniseries - executive produced by Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg, and Gary Goetzman - Hugh Ambrose reveals the intertwined odysseys of four US Marines and a US Navy carrier pilot during World War II. Between America's retreat from China in late November 1941 and the moment General MacArthur's airplane touched down on the Japanese mainland in August of 1945, five men connected by happenstance fought the key battles of the war against Japan.
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Big let down
- By Howard on 03-28-10
By: Hugh Ambrose
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Inferno
- The World at War, 1939-1945
- By: Max Hastings
- Narrated by: Ralph Cosham
- Length: 31 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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From one of our finest military historians, a monumental work that shows us at once the truly global reach of World War II and its deeply personal consequences.
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Superb
- By David on 04-05-21
By: Max Hastings
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World War II
- A History from Beginning to End
- By: Hourly History
- Narrated by: Matthew J. Chandler-Smith
- Length: 1 hr and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Until 1939, World War I was known as “the war to end all wars”, but when Nazi Germany capped its mounting aggression against its neighbors by invading Poland, Europe was plunged into a second global conflict. It threatened the entire continent as well as the far-flung colonial possessions claimed by the French, the British, and the Dutch. German triumphs saw nation after nation fall, until only Great Britain remained defiant against Hitler’s dreams of conquest.
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Sounds like a computer reading the book
- By DC in TX on 06-06-20
By: Hourly History
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Bullets and Barbed Wire
- A Gripping Exploration of WWII in the Pacific Theater - from Guadalcanal to Cape Gloucester
- By: Daniel Wrinn
- Narrated by: Gary Williams
- Length: 7 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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From the shores of Cape Gloucester to the quiet atolls and islands of the Solomon Sea, the Second World War left a profound mark on this sheltered corner of the globe, which would be felt for decades to come. Caught in the center of a vicious struggle between two superpowers, these islands would form an unconventional battleground for the US Marines and the Japanese Navy.
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Excellent coverage, not to in-depth but not overly shallow.
- By S. H. Moore on 03-17-21
By: Daniel Wrinn
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A Wing and a Prayer
- The “Bloody 100th” Bomb Group of the US Eighth Air Force in Action over Europe in World War II
- By: Harry H. Crosby
- Narrated by: Chris Monteiro
- Length: 10 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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They began operations out of England in the spring of '43. They flew their Flying Fortresses almost daily against strategic targets in Europe in the name of freedom. Their astonishing courage and appalling losses earned them the name that resounds in the annals of aerial warfare and made the "Bloody Hundredth" a legend. Harry H. Crosby—soon to be portrayed by Anthony Boyle in the miniseries Masters of the Air developed by Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg—arrived with the very first crews, and left with the very last.
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love love love the history
- By Kindle Customer on 01-20-24
By: Harry H. Crosby
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The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich
- A History of Nazi Germany
- By: William L. Shirer
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 57 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Since its publication in 1960, William L. Shirer’s monumental study of Hitler’s German empire has been widely acclaimed as the definitive record of the 20th century’s blackest hours. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich offers an unparalleled and thrillingly told examination of how Adolf Hitler nearly succeeded in conquering the world. With millions of copies in print around the globe, it has attained the status of a vital and enduring classic.
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Held my interest for 57 hours and 13 minutes
- By Jonnie on 11-08-10
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World War II for Dummies
- By: Keith D. Dickson
- Narrated by: Jonathan Yen
- Length: 16 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Whether you're looking for a way to enhance your appreciation of the events that took place or just want to refresh your memory without digging through countless volumes of World War II history, this book is right for you. Accurate and accessible, World War II for Dummies will help you explore a war that defined and shaped the world we live in today. You'll discover all the players who participated in the war and the politics that drove them. Battle by battle, you'll find out how the Axis powers initially took control of the war and how the Allies fought back to win the day.
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Everything you need to know
- By Amatzia D. on 07-06-22
By: Keith D. Dickson
What listeners say about The Story of World War II
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- The Louligan
- 07-15-14
INCREDIBLE! WELL-RESEARCHED, COMPLETE & UNBIASED!
I thought I had "WW II'd" myself into a coma, listening to or reading more than 50 books and watching a kazillion documentaries and online videos about World War II in the past year. I was just about to pass on this 25 hour account when I became outraged by one of the written reviews. While giving the book an overall favorable review, without the 5-star rating of the other written reviews, this listener claimed that her only criticism was that the book overdid the contributions of African-Americans to the war. REALLY? This is one of the very few books NOT written by a black author that even MENTIONS the many minority members of the military who fought in ALL of our wars, including the Civil War. Blacks were originally seen by the US as "not fit for combat duty" and were given positions as cooks, supply clerks, deck hands, etc. Eleanor Franklin changed all of that.
Was this reviewer aware of the MAJOR support that the 761st Tank Battalion - the first all-black tank battalion - gave to General Patton, helping him win the war? Black soldiers were relegated to what the military termed as "iron coffins" due the cumbersome movement of the tanks and the ever-present carbon monoxide leaking INSIDE the vehicles (often killing black soldiers silently, to be found by their comrades sitting up, eyes open, mid-sentence). Yet, Patton openly claimed "that a colored soldier cannot think fast enough to fight in armor." (In the 1970 film "Patton", the 761st unit was depicted as WHITE soldiers coming to the general's aid!) While saving the lives of hundreds white "comrades", who openly called the members of the 761st "niggers" and "monkeys", the unit suffered 156 casualties; 24 men killed and 88 wounded, in the month of November 1944 ALONE! The unit also lost 14 tanks and another 20 damaged in combat. In December 1944, the battalion was rushed to the aid of the 101st Airborne Division at Bastogne. After the Battle of the Bulge, the unit opened the way for the U.S. 4th Armored Division into Germany during an action that breached the Siegfried Line. In the final days of the war in Europe, the 761st was one of the first American units to reach the Steyr in Austria, at the Enns River, where they met with Ukrainians of the Soviet Army. THAT IS JUST ONE UNIT IN ONE BRANCH OF THE MILITARY!
Black Americans fought and died with distinction in the Army, Navy, Marines and Air Force. But the real tragedy is that, after serving their country in order to stop the industrial murder of the European Jews at the hands of the Nazis and helping to end the war so that thousands of American, British, Australian and Chinese military and civilians could be liberated from the unparalleled cruelty in Japanese prisoner of war camps, black Americans returned to the United States to sit in the back of buses, drink from "Colored Only" water fountains, be assaulted, lynched and murdered, to be denied the same veterans benefits given to their white counterparts such as employment, housing, education, medical care, etc. Sgt. Isaac Woodard Jr. was BLINDED by South Carlina police officers while in uniform, just hours after being honorably discharged from the US Army!
These men's accomplishments were ignored by the military and America, their records of bravery suspiciously "lost". These AMERICANS were not honored for decades. After being rejected countless times, the members of the 761st Tank Battalion were finally recognized in 1978, eventually receiving 1 Medal of Honor, 296 Purple Hearts, 11 Silver Stars, and 69 Bronze Stars. In 1994, the THREE surviving members of the Navy ship USS Mason were awarded a letter of commendation for "meritorious service". The famous Tuskegee Airmen were awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor in 2007 - given mostly to their widows or posthumously. The black Marines weren't recognized until 2012.
That said, this book - TWENTY-FOUR HOURS AND 58 MINUTES LONG - served the black Americans who fought and died in World War II both fairly and without undue bias. They were an integral component of the war effort and for anyone to disparage an author giving credit where it is long overdue smacks of the continued institutional racism that the U.S. is still guilty of.
I know that my review will receive more "Not Helpful" ratings than "Helpful" but I really don't care! I'm willing, once again, to stick my neck out to say what needs to be said. This is a great book about a major historical event. Black Americans were a part of that war and deserve to be included just like Hitler, Hirohito, and Patton. ALL three of those "men" were the worse racists ever but no one has a thing to say about the hundreds of accounts written about them!
If you want to learn more about our contributions in war, check out "Brothers In Arms", a fantastic book about the 761st written by NBA great Kareem Abdul Jabbar. You will be surprised to learn that baseball legend, Jackie Robinson, was a member of the 761st! Truth be told, there can NEVER be too much revealed about the bravery and heroism of the black members of American military ranks!
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243 people found this helpful
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- Patrick
- 01-21-15
Excellent Overview of a Catastrophic Event
I randomly found out about this book from the recommended history category books on Audible. I've always been a history buff and have read countless articles and books about World War II.
There are several stories and facts that kept even the typical WW2 enthusiast wanting more. These days, it's hard to find non-recycled material in books like these.
You'll find that much of the history is told in the words of soldiers or journalists embedded with the American troops or sailors. It definitely focuses on the American side of the war, but I recommend it to anyone who would like to know more about World War II without getting into the boring details. If you're interested in more WW2; give "Pacific Crucible" a shot, I think you'll like it just as well.
Overall: This book was perfect for the layman's WW2 interest. It was rarely boring and kept my attention throughout most of the reading. The narration was good as well. I'd give it a 4.5 for sure.
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117 people found this helpful
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- Kingsley
- 02-11-18
The story of America in WW2
This is not the story of WW2. Its the story of the USA in WW2.
For a book that claims that it 'covers the entire war -- on land, at sea, and in the air' it pretty much ignores the first few years of the war. Anything before Pearl Harbor is effectively a footnote and is breezed past with no detail. After Pearl Harbor it focuses exclusively on the USA. Little mention is made of the events of the Eastern front or other non US events.
For what it does it does really well. It's just it is extremely false advertising in it's description and scope.
Narration by Kramer is great though.
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78 people found this helpful
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- geffrey
- 05-02-13
Best written, best narrator
Hands down among the best of 20+ related books on this topic I've read or listened to in the past decade. A generous, over-arching history of WWll, factoid-filled and fleshed out with choice, heartfelt recollections of the men and women who were there, in broad spectrum of their capacities. Wrapped up with the perfect ender.
Excellent, excellent, excellent. And at 25hrs a prize and a half.
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64 people found this helpful
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Amazing Inspiring Thought Provoking
What other book might you compare The Story of World War II to and why?
Donald Miller 'the Story of World War II' stands out as exceptional just like 'Masters of the Air - America’s Bomber Boys Who Fought the Air War Against Nazi Germany '
Which scene was your favorite?
The ending with its amazing insights to the 'casualty of war' is truly epic! It should be reading material for all young people
Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?
I'm not a emotional guy but on many occasions I couldn't help but feel awe and amazment of the people and the times. In so many ways I wish today's society had some of the values and characters of that time. I am glad however that we don't have all of them though!
Any additional comments?
The soldiers reflections many years after the war are truly moving and must never be forgotten, never treated lightly. We could do well for the future if we stop and look back to the past and be inspired and scared of the highest and lowest of humanity brought out during such a troubled time!
While this may not be a book you will listen to from start to finish, you may find yourself like me wanting to take a break from it every now and again. Nevertheless, it is one you will always find yourself coming back to learn from, not just of the historical details but because of the wonderful perspective the author brings to the story through the accounts of the people involved!
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45 people found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 04-21-18
A One Sided Story
The author calls this a story of WWII, yet he barely touches major plot points. He spends more time talking about a single Pacific Island battle than he does talking about the entire Eastern European front. This would have you believe that the battle of Kursk never happened and the taking of peleliu was as important as the battle of Stalingrad.
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28 people found this helpful
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- Russell Bernard
- 02-27-15
Hands down the best World War ll book I have read
Where does The Story of World War II rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?
Close to the top is not the top. The personal accounts in this book make the war live in a way that is missing from most history books.
What other book might you compare The Story of World War II to and why?
This is my second book by Donald Miller and I will order his book on New York tomorrow.
This is the book to read to immerse your self in the battles and the history of the war.
What does Michael Kramer bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?
The narration is a s good as it gets.
Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?
The ending is very touching as tells of how solders came to grips with there emotions from the war. It was interesting how solders would not talk about the war because they did not feel others understood unless they had been there.
Any additional comments?
Listen to this book if you have any interest in World War ll forget the others this is the book to start with
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25 people found this helpful
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- John L.
- 04-19-14
Tremendous Detail
It is naïve to think we understand what it was like to fight in World War II. However, the author does a wonderful job of blending a global view of the conflict along with explicit details of the horrors of war and what it was like to be on the front lines and beyond. I learned a great deal from this book that I had not previously known about the war. I would definitely recommend it. The performance of the narrator was flawless.
My only criticism is that, at times I felt as if the book should be renamed "How African Americans Won the War". While it is noteworthy to point out the contributions and misconceptions of African Americans in WWII, the author seems to overdo it in my opinion while glossing over the contributions of other ethnic groups such as Japanese Americans.
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18 people found this helpful
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- Tyler
- 10-14-15
Painting Pictures through experience
What I loved about listening to this book was that I really felt like I was listening to the people tell their stories. They made everything seem even worse than I imagined it myself, which is why I choose to learn about war.
We must all learn from the lessons of generations past and remember that war is terrible, this book really drives that home.
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16 people found this helpful
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- Kindle Customer
- 09-21-15
Excellent Review of historical data
This was an excellent book! I was surprised to hear a story about one of my childhood friends father. I always wondered why he seemed so quiet and reserved when I knew him in the late 50's and 60's. Now I know. I highly recommend this book.
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9 people found this helpful