The Best Book Ever Written on World War Two

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	• Up Front Bill Mauldin W. W. Norton, 2000 - 240 pages average customer review:based on 37 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

The Best Book Ever Written on World War Two

I was first introduced to Bill Mauldin by my late father who gave me his battered copy of "Up Front" that was printed in 1945. He told me when he gave it to me that it was his favorite book growing up (he was age 10-15 during World War Two) and that I should read it to better understand the human side of war. He couldn't have been more correct. I came to understand that even when the cause is noble, and the enemy leadership is evil, that war is a horrible thing, even when it is necessary.

Bill Mauldin, who died recently, was a national treasure. His characters Willy and Joe (themselves a national treasure) form the crux of his cartoons from that era, and they embodied everyman in the heroes of the war. For his work he eventually won a Pulitzer prize. Mauldin claimed to be more of a cartoonist than a writer, but the writing is, in my opinion, at least the equal of the cartoons. For people who have never been exposed to the human level, front line realities of war, this book is vital for understanding the men who fight for the freedoms we enjoy.

This is a wonderful book, and I wish that every high school student was required to read it when they studied World War Two in Europe. I am so glad to see it back in print. While I cherish the copy that my Dad gave me many years ago it is now very fragile. I am grateful to have a new copy to thumb through on my bookshelf. If you read any one book this year on World War Two, this has to be it. It will make you proud to be an American, and proud of the men who fought for freedom sixty years ago.

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How I was introduced to the Army

When I was not shaving yet I bought this book in a thrift shop. It was and is one of the best things I ever bought out of there. I learned more about the Army from it than from anything else outside of Basic Training.
The amazing thing I learn from it is that while the uniforms, equipment & weapons change. There is one constant in the universe for sure and that is The Army really does'nt change.
Thanks Bill and God Bless you!

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Like It Was.

Bill Mauldin writes as well as he draws. His writing tells it like it is; his cartoons are what he would like it to be. It was terrible, terrifying, ugly and uncomfortable fighting Germans; but Mauldin makes the experience intelligible to those who weren't there. I see why Eisenhower sent Mauldin to visit Patton. Ike hoped George would understand, finally, why no American general should treat G.I.s like peasants. Patton didn't get it and hated Mauldin for undermining the kind of authority that Patton loved and G.I.'s hated, authority for its own sake. Mauldin's writing and drawings keep a body from getting romantic about war or George Patton, and they ought to be visited by anyone planning to deploy troops.

NOTE: The hardcover book is an offset reprint. Make sure all pages are properly inked. Two pages in the one I saw first were inked too lightly to be read.

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A Fitting Tribute to World War II Veterans

At 23 years old, Pulitzer-Prize winning Cartoonist, Bill Mauldin, experienced first hand, the ravages of World War II. His two archetypes, Willie and Joe, the epitome of the infantryman, brought the war experience back home for America to read and see. While taking an American history class in junior high, I recall the cartoon of Willie and Joe bound to the pages of my textbook in the chapter discussing WWII and the home front. Then years laters while taking a graduate course about the two World Wars and Literature, one of my reading assignments was to read Mauldin's UP Front.

Mauldin exposes his experience as well as World War II soldiers' experience in UP FRONT. His eye as an artist and his unforgettable cartoons provide an exceptional accompaniment to his narration about the war. The book was originally published in 1945, and takes an honest and gritty account of the war. In reference to how soldiers felt about the war, Mauldin states: "All he knows is that he is expected to make great sacrifices for little compensation, and he must make those sacrifices whether he likes it or not" (128).

Mauldin's depiction of WWII will add another dimension to the combatant aspect of the war. He shows how it felt to be in the trenches - dogfaced with all the mud and the gunk, but always there with a sense of hope for the end of the war.

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A National Treasure

Bill Mauldin died yesterday. And so passes a hero's hero, a man who let the dogfaces (and the Marines and sailors, too) know that somebody appreciated and understood them. Mauldin's talent for the politcal cartoon was without peer. And since he was an ordinary GI himself, his insight, dark humor, and typically American irreverance for authority were beyond compare. His famous Willie and Joe were the prototypes for the heros heralded in books about the "Greatest Generation" five decades later. And Mauldin's writing is equal to his drawing. Should anyone today want to learn about World War II, they should be handed a copy of "Up Front" and told, "Read this first." A couple of years ago, Time Magazine selected their Person of the Twentieth Century and chose Albert Einstein. However, the late Stephen Ambrose argued that the choice should have been "GI Joe." I'll not only agree with that, but think that the Time cover should have featured Bill Mauldin's Willie and Joe.

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reviews: 1, 2, 3, page 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

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