Comrades

Brothers, Fathers, Sons, Pals

De: Stephen E. Ambrose

Narrado por: Stephen E. Ambrose

Acclaimed historian Stephen Ambrose begins his examination with a glance inward - he starts this book with his brothers, his first and forever friends, and the shared experiences that join them for a lifetime, overcoming distance and misunderstandings.

He next tells of Dwight D. Eisenhower, who had a golden gift for friendship and who shared a perfect trust with his younger brother, Milton, in spite of their apparently unequal stations. With great emotion, Ambrose describes the relationships of the young soldiers of Easy Company who fought and died together from Normandy to Germany, and he recalls with admiration three unlikely friends who fought in different armies in that war. He recounts the friendships of Lewis and Clark and of Crazy Horse and He Dog. Ambrose remembers and celebrates the friends he has made and kept throughout his life.

Comrades concludes with the author's recollection of his own friendship with his father. "He was my first and always most important friend," Ambrose writes. "I didn't learn that until the end, when he taught me the most important thing, that the love of father-son-father-son is a continuum, just as love and friendship are expansive."

©1999 Stephen E. Ambrose (P)2004 Simon & Schuster

It's great to hear it in Ambrose's own voice

I love this book. I bought it for my dad. When I found it in audio, I had to buy it again.

Not compelling

Unrelated, somewhat meandering accounts of Ambrose's own friendships. Apparently, male friendship is highly dependent on heavy drinking and toughness. Nothing really new in the idea of defining friendship. I believe Solomon defined it centuries ago: "A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity." (Proverbs 17:17); "A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother." (Proverbs 18:24); "He who loves purity of heart, and whose speech is gracious, will have the king as his friend." (Proverbs 22:11)