The Pacific (The Official HBO/Sky TV Tie-In)
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle .
Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Plus, get an extra £5 Gift Certificate when you trade in books worth £10 or more before June 30, 2012. Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. |
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
Review
'A brutal account ... for those who want more of the nightmare of those foxholes after ten hours of The Pacific, this book is for you.' --The Times
'It's a fascinating, meticulous book full of facts that make you sit up.' --Sunday Herald
'A compelling book which affords Pacific veterans the testament they deserve.' --Sunday Business Post --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
'It's a fascinating, meticulous book full of facts that make you sit up.' --Sunday Herald
'A compelling book which affords Pacific veterans the testament they deserve.' --Sunday Business Post --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
Product Description
Sidney C. Philips, an easygoing Alabama teenager, enlisted along with a buddy. 'Manila John' Basilone was the son of immigrants who found happiness in the rough-and-ready life of a marine. Eugene B. Sledge watched his best friend and his brother go off to war-and finally rebelled against his parents to follow them. 'Shifty' Shofner was the scion of a prominentfamily with a long record of military service. Ensign Vernon 'Mike' Micheel left the family farm to complete flight school. Between America's retreat from China in late 1941 and the moment that MacArthur's plane landed in Japan in August 1945, these five men fought many of the key battles of the war in the Pacific. Here, Hugh Ambrose focuses on their real-life experiences and those of their fellow servicemen, enhancing and expanding upon the story told in the HBO miniseries. Covering nearly four years of combat with unprecedented access to military records, letters, journals, memoirs, photographs, and interviews, this volume offers a unique historical perspective on the war against Japan, from the debacle in Bataan to the miracle of Midway, the relentless vortex of Guadalcanal, the black terraces of Iwo Jima, and the killing fields of Okinawa-and ultimately the triumphant yet uneasy return home. These are the true stories of the men who put their lives on the line for their country, who were dispatched to the other side of the world to fight an enemy who preferred suicide to surrender; men who suffered hardship and humiliation in POW camps; men who witnessed casualties among soldiers and civilians alike; and men whose medals came at a shocking price-a price paid in full by all.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
25 of 25 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Like a lot of my fellow reviewers I am a big fan of Stephen Ambrose, who brought history to life with his slightly off-beat, entertaining yet moving style of writing. I guess also like many of you, I bought those books based on the excellent Band of Brothers mini-series.
So I had high hopes not only of the new mini-series 'Pacific' (it is HBO, after all!) and the book by Hugh Ambrose.
There's something slightly self-indulgent about the mini-series, and there's something VERY self-indulgent about the book. Let me explain what is so very wrong with it...
It's the style of writing. It's difficult to explain, but I've narrowed it down to the following problems:
- The 'bullet-point compendium' problem: it's like Mr Ambrose was doing masses and masses of research, and listed thousands of bullet points of things to include. Then it's as though he just compiled all the bullet points into the main text, with no real attempt to weave it all together. Many sentences are ridiculously short, and there's often a whole string of them just kind of thrown together. It gets very irritating and tedious, almost like a barrage of 'sound-bites'. That leads to the second point...
- The picture postcard style: think of when you send a postcard to your family - you throw a lot of facts down in a small space to cover as much ground as possible. Mr Ambrose does this repeatedly. So we get not only the 'bullet point' style, but a mystifying and confusing overload of detail - detail that's often not really relevant to the topic at hand. I found myself repeatedly thinking "What? - Why on earth is that in there?" What do I mean by this? Well an example might be if someone were describing a really important event in some detail, listing the characters, the situation etc. and it's littered with phrases like "He was a bit hungry so he had a bar of chocolate." Followed quickly by "The washing machine had finished the spin cycle. That's the Model 7000A washing machine, which had been delivered the day before." It's like this all the way through. It drove me potty!
- The lack of emotional narrative. Stephen Ambrose put you in the thick of the action. Hugh Ambrose describes it like he's a robot recalling facts.
BUT, in the interests of objectivity, there are sections of excellent readability. It's like two different people wrote the book. Or (sadly, possibly) that production deadlines forced it to be completed without joining parts of the narrative up properly.
I accept some people may enjoy the style - I guess it's partly about how your brain processes stuff. But it didn't suit my style and I was massively disappointed. I read a lot of historical stuff and I have not read anything quite like this for a long time. Or maybe I've just been too spoiled by Mr Ambrose Snr?
So I had high hopes not only of the new mini-series 'Pacific' (it is HBO, after all!) and the book by Hugh Ambrose.
There's something slightly self-indulgent about the mini-series, and there's something VERY self-indulgent about the book. Let me explain what is so very wrong with it...
It's the style of writing. It's difficult to explain, but I've narrowed it down to the following problems:
- The 'bullet-point compendium' problem: it's like Mr Ambrose was doing masses and masses of research, and listed thousands of bullet points of things to include. Then it's as though he just compiled all the bullet points into the main text, with no real attempt to weave it all together. Many sentences are ridiculously short, and there's often a whole string of them just kind of thrown together. It gets very irritating and tedious, almost like a barrage of 'sound-bites'. That leads to the second point...
- The picture postcard style: think of when you send a postcard to your family - you throw a lot of facts down in a small space to cover as much ground as possible. Mr Ambrose does this repeatedly. So we get not only the 'bullet point' style, but a mystifying and confusing overload of detail - detail that's often not really relevant to the topic at hand. I found myself repeatedly thinking "What? - Why on earth is that in there?" What do I mean by this? Well an example might be if someone were describing a really important event in some detail, listing the characters, the situation etc. and it's littered with phrases like "He was a bit hungry so he had a bar of chocolate." Followed quickly by "The washing machine had finished the spin cycle. That's the Model 7000A washing machine, which had been delivered the day before." It's like this all the way through. It drove me potty!
- The lack of emotional narrative. Stephen Ambrose put you in the thick of the action. Hugh Ambrose describes it like he's a robot recalling facts.
BUT, in the interests of objectivity, there are sections of excellent readability. It's like two different people wrote the book. Or (sadly, possibly) that production deadlines forced it to be completed without joining parts of the narrative up properly.
I accept some people may enjoy the style - I guess it's partly about how your brain processes stuff. But it didn't suit my style and I was massively disappointed. I read a lot of historical stuff and I have not read anything quite like this for a long time. Or maybe I've just been too spoiled by Mr Ambrose Snr?
40 of 44 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I have been a fan of Stephen Ambrose for many years and enjoyed especially his books "Band of Brothers", "Pegasus Bridge" and "D-Day June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of World War II". What I loved was Stephen Ambrose's eye for detail and how his books were always well produced. So I was looking forward to reading a book by his son Hugh Ambrose, who worked with his father before Stephen Ambrose sadly died.
"The Pacific" by Huge Ambrose is a collection of experiences by soldiers and airmen involved in the Pacific campaign against Imperial Japan during World War II. I have appreciated reading about these brave men: marines, airmen and even POWs. This book is a complement of the HBO/Sky series by the same name and is not simply relating the same material. You will find some characters in the book which are not featured in the TV series and some characters from the TV series are hardly covered by the book.
The Imperial Japanese Navy attack upon Pearl Harbour was supposed to produce a short war where the United States would leave Imperial Japan to rule their empire unopposed, but it caused the American nation, the "sleeping giant" to rise up in hatred and fury against the "sneaky attack" that Japan had inflicted upon Pearl Harbour.
Be warned, some of the material is horrific and disturbing, but that was the nature of this conflict where brutal Japanese soldiers, airmen and sailors took no notice of the rules of warfare and simply did what they wanted. They used bayonets on defenceless prisoners and thought nothing of massacring women and children. If POWs attempted to escape they were savagely beaten and then executed. Beatings by Japanese soldiers were very common and they regarded Chinese people especially as subhuman, treating them accordingly.
American soldiers soon learnt not to trust "Jap surrender" because that usually involved the Japanese soldier setting off a grenade which would take the lives of many unwary American soldiers. As a consequence hardly any experienced marines took risks. Such facts emphasize the brutal nature of the fighting and illustrate how bitter the conflict was. All this is reflected in the pages of this book.
There are sadly a considerable number of aspects about this book I found very disappointing. This is a poorly made book. There is no contents page, no index, few maps and no listing of maps, chapters are very long and there are no subheadings. The text is very small and I personally used a magnifying glass to read with comfort, which is something other older readers will have difficulty with also. Due to the lack of enough ink applied when printing the text on some pages is very faint and even more difficult to read.
At the start I stated how much I enjoyed reading the works of Stephen Ambrose. But sadly this book by Huge Ambrose has not been anywhere near the lofty standards set by his father. Poor production values, have seriously undermined the fine experiences contained in this book. It all feels as though this book has been put together in a hurry, so that it's release coincides with the HBO/Sky series and lacks the methodical care that one normally expects from a quality history book.
"The Pacific" by Huge Ambrose is a collection of experiences by soldiers and airmen involved in the Pacific campaign against Imperial Japan during World War II. I have appreciated reading about these brave men: marines, airmen and even POWs. This book is a complement of the HBO/Sky series by the same name and is not simply relating the same material. You will find some characters in the book which are not featured in the TV series and some characters from the TV series are hardly covered by the book.
The Imperial Japanese Navy attack upon Pearl Harbour was supposed to produce a short war where the United States would leave Imperial Japan to rule their empire unopposed, but it caused the American nation, the "sleeping giant" to rise up in hatred and fury against the "sneaky attack" that Japan had inflicted upon Pearl Harbour.
Be warned, some of the material is horrific and disturbing, but that was the nature of this conflict where brutal Japanese soldiers, airmen and sailors took no notice of the rules of warfare and simply did what they wanted. They used bayonets on defenceless prisoners and thought nothing of massacring women and children. If POWs attempted to escape they were savagely beaten and then executed. Beatings by Japanese soldiers were very common and they regarded Chinese people especially as subhuman, treating them accordingly.
American soldiers soon learnt not to trust "Jap surrender" because that usually involved the Japanese soldier setting off a grenade which would take the lives of many unwary American soldiers. As a consequence hardly any experienced marines took risks. Such facts emphasize the brutal nature of the fighting and illustrate how bitter the conflict was. All this is reflected in the pages of this book.
There are sadly a considerable number of aspects about this book I found very disappointing. This is a poorly made book. There is no contents page, no index, few maps and no listing of maps, chapters are very long and there are no subheadings. The text is very small and I personally used a magnifying glass to read with comfort, which is something other older readers will have difficulty with also. Due to the lack of enough ink applied when printing the text on some pages is very faint and even more difficult to read.
At the start I stated how much I enjoyed reading the works of Stephen Ambrose. But sadly this book by Huge Ambrose has not been anywhere near the lofty standards set by his father. Poor production values, have seriously undermined the fine experiences contained in this book. It all feels as though this book has been put together in a hurry, so that it's release coincides with the HBO/Sky series and lacks the methodical care that one normally expects from a quality history book.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
It's been said that war is 90% boredom and 10% terror. This book captures this pretty well. By halfway you will most likely find yourself skipping from section to section looking for something to happen. Needs some serious editing to get rid of the chaff.
Sadly the 10% that should be interesting isn't. The Battle of Midway, one of the pivotal points of the war is largely told through the eyes of one pilot and reads like just another day at the office. No doubt this says much for the pilot's bravery and professionalism however it would have benefited from a wider perspective and a few more pages, at the expense of some of the many others e.g those that list the travels of the contributors from training base to training base.
Sadly the 10% that should be interesting isn't. The Battle of Midway, one of the pivotal points of the war is largely told through the eyes of one pilot and reads like just another day at the office. No doubt this says much for the pilot's bravery and professionalism however it would have benefited from a wider perspective and a few more pages, at the expense of some of the many others e.g those that list the travels of the contributors from training base to training base.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Not as good as the Ambrose name demands
I bought this book largely based on the fact that Hugh Ambrose is the son of Stephen E. Ambrose, who wrote the exceptional books "Band Of Brothers", "Pegasus Bridge", "Citizen... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Paul
Reasonable over view
Interesting factual story of the US Pacific campaign that supports the TV series of the same name.
The book is very similar in style to Band of Brothers and concentrates... Read more
The book is very similar in style to Band of Brothers and concentrates... Read more
Published 1 month ago by rozzyb2002
The Pacific
A great read, even though it is fact and a long time ago, you could still be part of it. I would recommend it to todays youth who seem to see fighting as a great thing to do. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Mrs. N. Mooriun
Well documented and reasonably well written
While Hugh Ambrose's writing skills fall somewhat short of his late father Steve's, I still found this book an interesting read. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Stefano Sarao
No wonder you can buy this book for a penny!
Hugh Ambrose may be an able historian but, in my opinion, he is certainly not a good writer. There has been a total lack of supervision of the author by the publisher and they... Read more
Published 8 months ago by Ailsa Reynolds
NOT WHAT I WAS EXPECTING
After reading/watching/Listening to the audio of Band of Brothers, thought I was going to be in for another treat. Read more
Published 8 months ago by COMBATCLERK
Long but good
I've been a fan of Band of Brothers for a couple of years now, so my decision to pick up "The Pacific", was a pretty easy one.. Read more
Published 12 months ago by Ben Booth
Not Stephen Ambrose
At the time of writing this review, the amazon review rating was 3 and a half stars: Where there is a healthy number of reviews on a product I have more often than not found the... Read more
Published 13 months ago by Mr. I. Ogilvie
Ok
Bought this book for my fiance. He appreciated it but I dont think he has read it yet, and he has had it a while.
Published 15 months ago by Franki88
Excellent complement to the HBO series
If you've seen the HBO series this is a brilliant addition, it goes deeper into the characters stories and introduces new characters in two different Pacific theatres.
Published 15 months ago by sreid69uk
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
![[Start the discussion]](http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/02/x-locale/communities/discussion_boards/start-new-discussion-sec._V192198663_.gif){kind=small}
Listmania!
|
|
Look for similar items by category
- Books > Biography > Film, Television & Music > Music
- Books > Biography > Historical > United States > Military
- Books > Biography > War & Espionage > World War II
- Books > History > Military History > Wars, Battles & Campaigns
- Books > History > World History > World War II 1939-1945 > Biographies & Memoirs
- Books > Music, Stage & Screen > Music > Styles > Classical Music > Opera
- Books > Music, Stage & Screen > Television > History & Criticism
- Books > Society, Politics & Philosophy > Warfare & Defence > War & Defence Operations
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
