An Army At Dawn

I finished An Army at Dawn by Rick Atkinson today. My dad passed it on to me while we visited earlier this month. My dad, for as long as I can remember, has had an interest in the history of WWII. So, I did too. As a boy I remember him subscribing to the Time-Life collection of books on WWII. I think there are like 15+ books in the set. For hours I would leaf through the pages, pause at the pictures, and wonder what it would have been like to live that period in color. I accepted my dad's gift gratefully and dove in.

This book did receive the Pulitzer Prize, and it's excellently written. I confess I don't have the kind of mind that wants to keep track of various brigade commanders, troop movements, and like. As a result, I occasionally get lost in the fog of names and battle locations. I suppose it's appropriate that I get lost in the fog of it. It was certainly a fog to the participants, even those who mostly just looked at maps and sent out orders.

The title refers to the American army struggling to find its identity at the US entry into the European war. It turns out even organizations like the military need to learn to fight, learn tenacity, reject entitlement, and grow through failure. Since this is the title, and his major thesis (to my mind at least), the particularity and individual cost of war often gets lost while we observe the war in Africa unfold from 30,000 feet up. If you're looking for individual cost and the insanity of war I recommend All Quiet On The Western Front, or Catch-22 as classic examples of that genre.

I liked it enough to promise my dad I'd order the next one in the trilogy, The Day of Battle, and then pass it on to him after I read it.