The Best War Ever: America and World War II

by Michael C.C. Adams

Book Overview

The most readable--and searingly honest--short book ever written on this pivotal conflict. Was World War II really such a "good war"? Popular memory insists that it was, in fact, "the best war ever."... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0801846978
• ISBN13: 9780801846977
• Release Date: November 1993
• Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.8" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

Should be included in anyone's WWII reading

Some of the negative reviews for this book are puzzling. I found it well written and appropriately argued. I think it is important, particularly for a younger generation of which I'm a part, to understand a more accurate picture of WWII. For one, maybe we shouldn't feel so bad about ourselves when we judge our generation against "the greatest." And perhaps soldiers in Vietnam did not face such different conditions than the boys spread around the world in the 40s. If read with a true desire to learn, any supposed slant some feel this book professes should not bear heavily on the reader. The book offers many thinking points such as what young men expected to be a part of in Vietnam after the WWII portrayal to which they were exposed and what the role of the teenager and woman became during and after the war. Most of the information in Adams' book is not new, but it is arranged well and framed into the context of how perceptions of this generation, time period, and supposed American perfection at war are often based upon lore and pride rather than fact and pragmatism.

Debunking myths

It is said that those who refuse to learn history are doomed to repeat it. But those who buy into a sanitized or mythical version of the truth, may do even worse; they may work so hard to avoid repeating what they think they have learned from history that they create even worse problems. This book presents the truth behind many of the collective myths comiong out of WWI. It is compelling reading, and highly recommended reading for every voter!

Revisiting the "Good War" Mythos

Much of the events of WWII has been mythologized not only by Hollywood and government propaganda, and over the years this mythology has been perpetuated by those who lived through the war themselves. Michael C. C. Adams has sought to expose these stories for what they are, fabrication and oversimplifications, and provide the basic facts that facilitate a truer understanding of WWII and the world wide cultural changes surrounding it, both before and after the war itself.In chapter one, "Mythmaking and the War", Adams sets out the myth itself, as defined by Hollywood dramatization, government propaganda, advertisement agencies, and the revised memories of those who stayed home, as well as those who fought in the war itself. The war became "America's golden age, a peak in the life of society when every thing worked out and the good guys definitely got a happy ending." (Adams, 2) The WWII era came to serve a purpose; to be the bygone age which America once was, and if worked hard enough for, could be again. It was, in a sense, America's Garden of Eden, the time and place where all things were right. Of course, this was a manufactured ideal, what Adams calls a "usable past." "In creating a usable past, we seek formulas to apply in solving today's problems. Americans believe that WWII proved one rule above all others...it is usually better to fight than to talk." (Adams, 4) "To make WWII into the best war ever, we must leave out the area bombings and other questionable aspects while exaggerating the good things. The war myth is distorted not so much in what it says as in what it doesn't say." (Adams, 7) This applies not only to the war itself, but also to the home front.Chapter two, "No Easy Answers," begins the process of deconstructing the myth, and demonstrating that the events leading up to WWII began long before the Treaty of Versailles, and the ramifications of WWII will last much longer than the generation that fought it. Adams lays out the frame of the complex political, cultural and economic histories of each of nations which would become involved in WWII, and shows that there was no obvious point at which one decision would have prevented the war from happening. Taken in context, the actions each nation took leading up to WWII make sense. Adams asks, what could have been done differently? Apparently, not much; appeasement didn't work in Europe, and determent didn't work in Asia. There really were no easy answers.Chapter three, "The Patterns of War, 1939-1945" lays out the way in which each nation fought the war, with a new speed and brutality made possible by technology and the remoteness of the enemy. Chapter four, "The American War Machine," demonstrates how the tools were created and sent into battle, and how the soldiers and organization of each army differed, for better or worse. Chapter five, "Overseas," outlines the realities of life for the American soldier both in the European and Pacific theatres, while chapter six,

Was World War II the magical event we always envision?

The Best War Ever was written to combat the images which surfaced in the 70's about the war. Adams argued the media and servicemen glorified the war in the minds of Americans. Our troops were kind and generous, well ordered and glad to fight. No one avoided the draft. Men mingled in the trenches and found friends among other races. Men thought the war had meaning and purpose. Adams goes through systematically and bebunks these myths. Most soldiers were not kind, but became hardened to death. When soldiers took Japanese prisoners, they killed them brutally out of hatred and revenge. Men raped women, killed little children and looted houses. Men lived in filthy conditions, lived among dead bodies for weeks and despaired of ever coming home. Many resorted to homosexual or erotic activity. They could not find meaning in the war. Many in the United States got married or had children to avoid the draft. Of those were were drafted only 20 percent ever served in battle, and only half of those who served ever fired a gun or saw the enemy. This meant 80 percent were behind desks or in communications. It was them who told the wonderful stories of glory and courage. Men in the trenches seldom told their stories due to trauma. Races were segregated and black units often never saw battle. All these realities argue against the John Wayne Hollywood WWII hero. Adams is a masterful story teller; the book is well written and entertaining. The newer generation has always been exposed to these attrocities and realitites due to the change in how the War was taught. This book is written to inform those who still think it was the best war ever.