Reviews for An Army at Dawn
Review - An Army at Dawn
If you enjoyed Ambrose's D-Day, you'll like this book. It covers the war in Africa from the time the Americans joined in until the surrender of all German and Italian forces. It includes the early fights the Americans and Brits had against French troops, for which I don't think France should ever be forgiven. I knew it happened, but reading about Americans who were trying to rid the the world of Nazis being killed by pompous French concerned with their "honor" made me very angry. Atkinson is good at changing the subject often enough to keep from getting bogged down. He avoids complex accounts of troop movements as much as possible, although when huge armies are involved it can't be avoided entirely. But even when dealing with numbered units, he does it in such away that I had no trouble following. He gives short biographies of the major players and the maps are great. I hate it when places mentioned in the text can't be found on maps. That never happened in this book. The book won the Pulitzer Prize. I thoroughly enjoyed it and gave it a 9.
Reviewed by Roger on 2003-09-09 15:25:49