- Hardcover: 398 pages
- Publisher: Little, Brown and Company; First Edition edition (30 Sep 2003)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0316105848
- ISBN-13: 978-0316105842
- Product Dimensions: 16.2 x 3.5 x 24.5 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 623,804 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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First Sentence
THE E-MAIL WAS FROM IRIS CHANG, author of the groundbreaking bestseller The Rape of Nanking. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
THE E-MAIL WAS FROM IRIS CHANG, author of the groundbreaking bestseller The Rape of Nanking. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Flyboys,
By Chris Greenfield (Salisbury, England) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Flyboys: A True Story of Courage (Hardcover)
James Bradley's book is an outstanding piece of historical literature, written in highly readable prose, guiding the reader through the brutality of the Pacific air campaign. Alternatively focussing on the fate and experiences of individual pilots and then stepping back to discuss the wider, strategic impact of events, he opens our eyes to the clash of cultures between the Americans and Japanese. Whilst being unapologetic about the actions of either side, he rather seeks to understand what drove individual combatants on either side to commit the acts they did. That said, Bradley is trying to balance highly readable litereary prose, written in a pseudo-fictional manner, with an attempt at portraying the facts with historical accuracy, coupled with an historians analysis of events. As such, he makes the occasional sweeping statement,in an attempt at keeping the reader enthralled, resulting in an undermining of his credibility as a serious historian. Also, although he tries hard to be balanced in his views, the balance remains (unsurprisingly) pro-American in bias. However, overall, this book provides a fascinating insight into this air war, and is particularly enlightening regarding the actions of a certain Navy flyer named George Bush. For those who know little about the Pacific War, this book is an enthralling read that is hard to put down until the last page is turned.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
an extraordinary satory,
By classic 1965 (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Flyboys: A True Story of Courage (Hardcover)
I was pleasantly surprised by how excellent this book is.
Having read James Bradley's first book, Flags of Our Fathers, I was curious to read his follow-up. But Flags is such a compelling personal story - a journey to discover what happened to his father in World War Two - that I wasn't entirely confident he could achieve the same with a subject he was less directly connected to. I needn't have worried. Flyboys is not only well-researched and truly revelatory. It's also an unusually well-balanced and sensitive attempt to get to grips with the horrors of war. Most of us are aware of the particularly gruesome nature of the war in the Pacific. But Flyboys delves into a previously untold tale that descends into levels of atrocity and barbarism that are hard to comprehend. And this is where Bradley's writing talent really comes to the fore. He doesn't just dig up the facts and tell the story remarkably clearly. He goes much further, placing the brutality in some sort of context. It's the insight and background he places the events within that takes this book to a higher level, giving the reader a grasp and understanding of otherwise incomprehensible inhumanity. Some American reveiwers have criticised Flyboys as unpatriotic - mainly for taking the trouble to offer a Japanese perspective on the Pacific conflict. But Bradley's credentials are hard to refute. His father, after all, was one of the flag-raisers on Iwo Jima; yet he has also travelled and studied extensively in Japan, acquiring an uncommon grasp of Japanese language, culture and history. And it's this uniquely balanced sensibility that takes Flyboys well beyond the mere unearthing of a harrowing story that it might otherwise have been. If I have one criticism of Flyboys it's that the author offers so much context and detail that the book sometimes drifts away from its core subject into much wider considerations about World War Two, it's causes, consequences and moral dilemmas. But then again this is not really a fault - it's an integral part of what makes this one of the best books about war you will ever read.
5.0 out of 5 stars
unexpected,
By
This review is from: Flyboys: A True Story of Courage (Hardcover)
Having been born in the middle of the second world war, in a Japanese comcentration camp, I have always been interested in books about that period. This was full of interesting detail, especially about the culture that shaped the characters of the Japanese soldiers. It was also unexpectedly candid about the aggressive actions of Americans throughout the ages. A riveting read frombeginning to end.
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