The Longest Day: The Classic Epic of D-Day Author: Visit Amazon's Cornelius Ryan Page | Language: English | ISBN:
0671890913 | Format: EPUB
The Longest Day: The Classic Epic of D-Day Description
Amazon.com Review
A true classic of World War II history,
The Longest Day tells the story of the massive Allied invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944. Journalist Cornelius Ryan began working on the book in the mid-1950s, while the memories of the D-day participants were still fresh, and he spent three years interviewing D-day survivors in the United States and Europe. When his book was first published in 1959, it was tremendously successful, establishing many of the legends of D-day that endure in the public's mind. Ryan was enormously skillful at weaving small personal stories into the overall narrative, and he would later use the same technique to depict the airborne invasion of Holland in
A Bridge Too Far. Not only is
The Longest Day a pleasure to read, but subsequent historians, dutifully noting its accuracy, have relied heavily on Ryan's research for their own accounts. In short, the book is a "must read" for anyone interested in the D-day invasion.
--Robert McNamaraFrom Publishers Weekly
Ryan's classic military study, the basis for the 1972 film with John Wayne, is reissed for the 50th anniversary of D-Day.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
See all Editorial Reviews
- Paperback: 352 pages
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster (May 1, 1994)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0671890913
- ISBN-13: 978-0671890919
- Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 0.9 inches
- Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Famed author Cornelius Ryan has a unique and appealing way of telling a story that makes his books quite unique, and this huge best seller is no exception. Here he sets the stage for his brilliant trilogy on the war in Europe by chronicling the events surrounding the fabled Allied sea-borne assault in Normandy on June 6, 1944. Its total cost in terms of human life and unnecessary destruction is a cautionary lesson for history. Like his other books, this is a story told at every level, but concentrating on the faithful recollections of the actual participants in the action. Thus, the reader is wept into the action as we get a voyeur's view of the moment-to-moment development of the story as it unfolds in all its horrific detail.
There is a virtual cornucopia of information presented here, and Ryan's approach is scrupulously faithful to the facts, all of them, regardless of the source. Therefore, there is a great deal of attention paid not only to the recollections and experiences of the Allied assault troops, but to German defenders and French civilians caught in the terrible crossfire of the opposing forces. This was the book that originated the man-on-the-ground perspective that has been subsequently used to such advantage both by Ryan and number of notable others. There is little apparent effort here to color the results and make the Allies more circumspect and less provocative in making and activating their star-crossed assault.
The Longest Day: The Classic Epic of D-Day Preview
Link
Please Wait...