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Flags of Our Fathers (Movie Tie-in Edition)
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List Price: $14.00
Special Price: $11.20
Your Savings: $ 2.80 ( 20% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Bantam
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 940.542528
EAN: 9780553384154
ISBN: 0553384155
Label: Bantam
Manufacturer: Bantam
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 400
Publication Date: 2006-08-29
Publisher: Bantam
Release Date: 2006-08-29
Studio: Bantam
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Editorial Reviews:
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In this unforgettable chronicle of perhaps the most famous moment in American military history, James Bradley has captured the glory, the triumph, the heartbreak, and the legacy of the six men who raised the flag at Iwo Jima. Here is the true story behind the immortal photograph that has come to symbolize the courage and indomitable will of America.
In February 1945, American Marines plunged into the surf at Iwo Jima—and into history. Through a hail of machine-gun and mortar fire that left the beaches strewn with comrades, they battled to the island's highest peak. And after climbing through a landscape of hell itself, they raised a flag.
Now the son of one of the flagraisers has written a powerful account of six very different young men who came together in a moment that will live forever.
To his family, John Bradley never spoke of the photograph or the war. But after his death at age seventy, his family discovered closed boxes of letters and photos. In Flags of Our Fathers, James Bradley draws on those documents to retrace the lives of his father and the men of Easy Company. Following these men's paths to Iwo Jima, James Bradley has written a classic story of the heroic battle for the Pacific's most crucial island—an island riddled with Japanese tunnels and 22,000 fanatic defenders who would fight to the last man.
But perhaps the most interesting part of the story is what happened after the victory. The men in the photo—three were killed during the battle—were proclaimed heroes and flown home, to become reluctant symbols. For two of them, the adulation was shattering. Only James Bradley's father truly survived, displaying no copy of the famous photograph in his home, telling his son only: "The real heroes of Iwo Jima were the guys who didn't come back."
Few books ever have captured the complexity and furor of war and its aftermath as well as Flags of Our Fathers. A penetrating, epic look at a generation at war, this is history told with keen insight, enormous honesty, and the passion of a son paying homage to his father. It is the story of the difference between truth and myth, the meaning of being a hero, and the essence of the human experience of war.
From the Hardcover edition.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Should be required reading for all Americans
Comment: This book is a poignant reminder that freedom is never free. The book is as much a tribute to the men who gave their lives on the island of Iowa Jima as it is an exploration of the lives of those who raised the flag in one of the most iconic photos of all time. Flags of our Fathers aptly illustrates the bravery of our servicemen in the bloodiest battle in the history of the Marines. Every American needs to read Bradley's description of this battle and the human cost of our victory in WWII.
Bradley deftly humanizes the flag raisers, painting their lives with careful detail. He is always fair, portraying their successes and failures with an even, historical tone. At times there is a sentimental quality to his writing, but this doesn't detract from the book as a whole. Who would not have a certain level of sentimentality writing about their war-hero father and his comrades?
This book is a captivating examination of all that is right, and unfortunately, all that is wrong with America and the WWII era. The selflessness of the servicemen both in combat and then as part of war bond drives is both heroic and admirable. The way the US government treated these men, and the way they preyed on their heroism is disgusting and shameful. The US propaganda machine, the racism suffered by the Native American Ezra Hayes, and the failure to offer our soldiers any real counseling or assistance with their mental health after their return to the States are equally disgraceful.
It would be nice, if some 60 years later things had changed, but just go to a movie theater and wait for a National Guard commercial, and you'll realize that as a Nation we are still using our servicemen and women as pawns in political machinations. Research the way soldiers returning from Iraq suffering PTSD are being treated, and it quickly becomes apparent that we have many of the same problems now that we did then. We need to start acknowledging our soldier's bravery and sacrifice without entangling them in the dirty world of politics. We also need to take responsibility for their mental health after we send them to war.
Flags of our Fathers does not take a stance on the modern context of these issues. It doesn't need to. It describes what America did well, what it didn't, and the very real consequences of both extremes in the lives of the men portrayed in the book. It should be a lesson to us all, and this is why I believe every American should read it.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A true American story
Comment: I saw the movie first and later on read the book. The book has a lot of information that re-caps events that have taken place and explains places. Bradley did a remarkable job. The story is nice and an excellent piece of literature that all Americans should read.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Iwo Jima History
Comment: This is super book by James Bradley. It is a colorful, engrossing account of not only the larger battle of Iwo Jima, but also the lives of some typical citizen soldiers before, during and after the war. The book tells the only-human story behind those iconic marines in the famous photo.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A bit disappointing
Comment: I'd read "Flags of Our Fathers" after the superb "Flyboys," and perhaps it was only too easy to be disappointed. "Flyboys" is an amazing book, both focused on the immediate and on the greater picture; even for people who've read plenty of history, there are fresh revelations on every page.
"Flags of our Fathers," on the other hand, is a much more conventional history book, much more narrowly focused. Bradley does do a good job of reaching beyond his father, as he didn't have to do; but he doesn't do a particularly good job of bringing readers into the moment, or of putting them into the greater context.
The story of the men in the famous -- almost ignored -- photo is one that could be told, and should have been told, and was told well enough in "Flags of our Fathers." It's just hard not to wish for something a bit more, as when the author caught his voice in "Flyboys."
Customer Rating:
Summary: The complete story of the island battle,
Comment:
This book is the story of the the amphibious landing, the battle for Mount Suribachi, the three airstrips, Nishi Ridge and finally Kitano Point. Sixteen of three hundred and 82 pages tells briefly of the stateside Bond Drive.
Nothing in this book, approaches the moral ambiguity shown in the film of the same title, which shows only the amphibious landing as far as battles for the critical features of the island. With Bradley's book, there is only a respectful tone, and the heroism of the men is never brought into question. This is one of the great military histories concerning a critical battle in the South pacific.
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