"The Victors: Eisenhower and His Boys: The Men of World War II"
By: Stephen E. Ambrose

Ambrose is a distinguished historian primarily known for his Eisenhower and Nixon biographies, as well as for studies of World War II. Both of these presentations feature his attempt to get at the hearts and minds of foot soldiers, as well as their leaders. There is some ghastly detail from combat scenes but also a great deal of information on strategy, tactics, and failures; Eisenhower, for example, built well upon early miscalculations that cost many lives. Hitler, Bradley, Patton, Montgomery, and many others stride across Ambrose's detailed canvas. Reader Cotter Smith has a youngish voice and reads with careful deliberation, neither dramatizing the text nor dulling it. For popular history collections.--Don Wismer, Cary Memorial Lib., Wayne, ME

The Victors tells the stories of the individual battles, raid, acts of courage from the first engagement of D-Day, when a detachment of British airborne troops stormed the German defense forces and paved the way for the Allied invasion. It also follows the American rifle company from the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment who fought, died, and conquered from Utah Beach through the Battle of the Bulge and on to Hitler's Eagle Nest is Germany. Ambrose describes the momentous decisions about how and where the war was fought, and the strategies and conduct of the generals who lead the invasion and the bloody drive to Berlin. The author draws from his five acclaimed books about the conflict to create this authoritative narrative account, to yield what has been called "the best single-volume history of the war that most of us will ever read."