The War

Culled from the thousands of volumes and myriad accounts of World War II battlefields, The War presents a gripping written record of "the war to end all wars." Clint Willis has painstakingly researched the historical record and includes excerpts of accounts from soldiers, citizens, and oral historians in a volume that documents the impact that the Second World War had on all aspects of life: Historian Stephen Ambrose, in Citizen Soldiers -- the inspiration for the Steven Spielberg film Saving Private Ryan -- details the tragic and heroic accounts of ordinary soldiers on the battlefields of Europe; Iris Chang's The Rape of Nanking chronicles the horrors of the Japanese occupation of China, including an account of a German businessman who intervened to save thousands; and Brave Men, a collection of dispatches from Europe by foreign correspondent Ernie Pyle, which includes a riveting description of the beaches of Normandy 24 hours after the invasion began.