The Victors

Eisenhower and His Boys: The Men of World War II

By: Stephen E. Ambrose

Narrated by: Cotter Smith

Length: 4 hrs and 21 mins

Publisher's summary

From America's preeminent military historian, Stephen E. Ambrose, comes a brilliant telling of the war in Europe, from D-Day, June 6, 1944, to the end; 11 months later, on May 7, 1945. To create this astonishing narrative, Ambrose draws from his 5 acclaimed works about that conflict, particularly from the definitive and comprehensive D-Day and Citizen Soldiers. As always, it is the ordinary boys and men who command Ambrose's attention and awe. The Victors tells their collective story of how citizens became soldiers in the best army in the world. Ambrose draws on thousands of interviews and oral histories, from the high command - Eisenhower, Bradley, Patton - on down through officers and enlisted men, to recreate the last year of the Second World War when the Allied soldiers pushed the Germans out of France, chased them across Germany, and destroyed the Nazi regime.

©1998 Stephen E. Ambrose, All Rights Reserved (P)1998 Simon & Schuster Audio, All Rights Reserved, AUDIOWORKS is an Imprint of Simon & Schuster Audio Division, Simon & Schuster Inc.

A repeat of Citizen Soldiers

Good book, but large sections are near-carbon copies of Citizen Soldiers by Ambrose. Very few sections with new content.

Interesting Listening

Ambrose is a master of this kind of work. The narration is clear and does not get in the way of the great writing. I had hoped for more of an insight into Eisenhower whereas the work is really much more about the whole European Theatre of Operations. There is a fair amount of material which is really a cut & paste from Band Of Brothers and/or D Day by the same author but this material is appropriate and does not suffer from repetition. A good listen for anybody who has even the slightest interest in this period of history.

Evan's Review

This book is good but if you want to good but read Citizen Soldiers is better

Excellent book about WW2 in Europe

Great book about WW2 European theater, with emphasis on Eisenhower's leadership, American GIs. Not long, but full of great stories & history. Thank you Stephen Ambrose for telling the story.

recites details, but lacks insight

perhaps it's just the abridged version- it's too surface level to provide much context or insight.

The Stephen Ambrose highlight reel

Not a whole lot new here if you read Stephen Ambrose books. Stephen Ambrose seems to use passages from other books he's written constantly. I have read 5 of his books and all have whole paragrphs ripped from one or another of his other books.

I sort of feel cheated actually.

Abridged too far

It is, alas, too much like a highlight reel (as another reviewer noted) and if I'd noticed it was abridged, I'd never have bought it. My mistake.

Mislead and Disappointed

What disappointed you about The Victors?

From the book description I was lead to believe the Steven Ambrose was going to address the personalities of Eisenhower and the Generals that reported to him. I was very interested to read how the massive personalities and egos of WWII interacted. To read insight into the disagreements and politics of high military command. This text delivered on none of that.

Instead, It is primarily a rehash of Ambrose's other work. There was little in this book that was new. Basically a rereading of parts of "Band of Brothers."

Would you ever listen to anything by Stephen E. Ambrose again?

Yes. Ambrose is an excellent writer and has a great passion for the history of WWII.
The "Band of Brothers" was excellent. And another title that I cannot recall currently, I wound informative and a good read. This particular text did not deliver on what the book jacket implied would be covered. To little new stories, a lot of the same old, same old.