Rick Atkinson, Pulitzer prize winner, examines
Ken Burns’ new documentary for the Post:
"Toward the end of Ken Burns’s seven-part, 15-hour extravaganza about World War II, the camera lingers for a full 40 seconds on the image of a dead U.S. Marine on Iwo Jima. Face up, arms splayed, teeth bared, he is as grotesque as a man forever young can be.
“Forty seconds is a long time to look at a corpse, and that is precisely the point in “The War,” which airs tonight and for the next six nights on PBS stations. The dead share top billing with the living, and often upstage them. By the end of the first episode, we have viewed hundreds of bodies; by the time the credits roll after
Episode 7, we have seen many thousands.”
By the way, I met Atkinson at the Army Heritage and Education Center, where he conducted much of his research for An Army at Dawn and for his second book in his Liberation Trilogy, The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944, which will be published soon.
I fail to find any relevance in your post to a train related topic. Although I can appreciate Ken Burns’ documentary based on his past offerings, it has nothing to do with trains and therefore I don’t think it should be posted here.
Yay!! Rick Atkinson’s 2nd book is going to be released… I loved “An Army At Dawn” Very powerful, and well written book. I have been wondering when the 2nd book was going to come out.
I totally forgot that the “The War” was supposed to air tonight.
Hey, Solz…this thread is about as on topic as the Movie thread… [:D][:-^]
I watched the first installment last night on PBS and found it to be fascinating. I am the oldest of three children of a WWII Navy veteran and a big history buff as well. I found the show to be well done and I will watch as many of the other installments as possible.
Well, it is really great that the poster placed the ‘OT’ letters in front of the post, but that doesn’t then mean it is okay to post the topic. Threads like this have a good chance of going downhill quickly. A thread about movies does not (unless someone is REALLY into movies).
All the same, I will continue to read this with great amusement.
Off topic, political and disrespectful to the soldiers now and then. This isn’t the Politico web site. If my observation is wrong then I apologize. I come here to gain information about the railroad industry and trains, not ideologies.
Yes, I believe you are wrong but no need to apologize either. As a son of a WWII Navy veteran I believe there may never be another generation of “heroes” such as those aptly described as “The Greatest Generation” (and that includes my generation of Boomers).
I am not so sure I agree with that. You see, WWII was recognized as a legitimate war. We didn’t have the sheep bleating in the pasture that WWII was a war for oil, power, or because of some bad decision. Since Vietnam, America has changed from viewing war as a necessary evil to some sort of thing that only monsters engage in. Those who fought in WWII were lauded as heroes fighting Hitler. Today, those soldiers who are doing a very tough job in theaters overseas are not viewed in the same light. I know that there are men over there engaging in tough combat just as in Normandy, but since the war started under what some consider to be suspicious circumstances the soldiers doing the fighting are somehow not running in the same vein as their WWII counterparts.
I think it would be hilarious to insert today’s war critics into the WWII mold. What would we say if in the midst of war Columbia University decided to invite Hitler over for a little heart to heart? What if the leader of the senate accused FDR of lying about the danger of Hitler and the rest of the axis powers? What if, during the invasion of Normandy and D-day, we became distraught at the number of casulaties and decided to withdraw our troops? What if we stopped fighting the Japanese because we were afraid of
Jim, you may be right… That generation faced the darkest times that the world had known in modern history to that point, between the Great Depression, and the threat of, and the eventual war with Germany and Japan, your father’s generation faced perils that haven’t been seen since. They are truly one of the greatest generations of people this country has ever seen. Unfortunately, there story has never been told in any detail before now. Well, let me correct that, it has, but not to the depth that it is being told now. Authors like Neill Barr, Rick Atkinson, Steven Bungay, Anthony Tully, Douglas Porch, and Clay Blair, have, over the last 15 years or so, really brought the story of the Second World War to the forefront, with well written, detailed accounts of what “really happened” so to speak.
As a WWII historian (and quite serious about it, it’s more than a hobby to me, it’s a passion) I grew up reading the somewhat sanitized, and slightly propagandized accounts of the Normandy, Midway, Coral Sea, Tunisia, Guadalcanal, and the other major and “minor” battles of the war. In the last 15 years or so, some really great books have been written that brought the battles home, and explained them in greater detail than I had ever read before. Much of this, I know, is due to more and more documentation b