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The Vietnam War an intimate history

by Ward, Geoffrey C.,

Format: Book on CD 2017
Availability: Available at 1 Library 1 of 1 copy

Available (1)
Location Collection Call #
Northland Public Library Audio Books 959.7043 W21 (COMPACT DISC)
Location  Northland Public Library
 
Collection  Audio Books
 
Call Number  959.7043 W21 (COMPACT DISC)
 
 

Summary
From the award-winning historian and filmmakers of The Civil War, Baseball, The War, The Roosevelts, and others: a vivid, uniquely powerful history of the conflict that tore America apart--the companion volume to the major, multipart PBS film to be aired in September 2017.

More than forty years after it ended, the Vietnam War continues to haunt our country. We still argue over why we were there, whether we could have won, and who was right and wrong in their response to the conflict. When the war divided the country, it created deep political fault lines that continue to divide us today. Now, continuing in the tradition of their critically acclaimed collaborations, the authors draw on dozens and dozens of interviews in America and Vietnam to give us the perspectives of people involved at all levels of the war: U.S. and Vietnamese soldiers and their families, high-level officials in America and Vietnam, antiwar protestors, POWs, and many more. The book plunges us into the chaos and intensity of combat, even as it explains the rationale that got us into Vietnam and kept us there for so many years. Rather than taking sides, the book seeks to understand why the war happened the way it did, and to clarify its complicated legacy. Beautifully written and richly illustrated, this is a tour de force that is certain to launch a new national conversation.

Read by Brian Corrigan with Fred Sanders, and with an introduction read by Ken Burns

Published Reviews
Booklist Review: "*Starred Review* In their new intimate yet capacious history, the award-winning, audience-enthralling duo of historian and screenwriter Ward and documentarian extraordinaire Burns investigate the complex, divisive, and tragic Vietnam War from a unique plurality of perspectives. The consistently lucid, flowing, and dramatic narrative begins with French colonial rule in Indochina, then marches forward through every phase of Vietnam's struggle for independence, the international intervention that divided the country, the ensuing civil war, and the Cold War-instigated, ultimately catastrophic American embroilment over four administrations. With the combined impact of robustly detailed writing and more than 500 staggering photographs, Ward and Burns thoroughly chronicle horrific combat and relentless bombing missions, the mass deployment of napalm and Agent Orange, the suffering and death of civilians, the resiliency of North Vietnamese forces, and the powerful antiwar movement. The eye-opening stories of key public figures, from Ho Chi Minh and Ngo Dinh Diem to Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon, are matched by those of ordinary people, including American and South and North Vietnamese soldiers and their families; an American doctor POW; a woman field nurse; a young, long-separated North Vietnamese couple; antiwar activists, including war veterans; and Vietnamese refugees. With reflections by prominent journalists and writers, including Philip Caputo and Viet Thanh Nguyen, this is a vivid, affecting, definitive, and essential illustrated history. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Powerful in its own right, this superlative volume will be released with much fanfare and a 350,000 print run in conjunction with the September airing of Burns and Ward's 10-part PBS series.--Seaman, Donna Copyright 2017 Booklist"
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Publisher's Weekly Review: "Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Burns continues his tradition of narrating the audio abridgment of his documentary work, as he has done before with The Civil War, The National Parks, and other projects. The results are mixed, but that's not because Burns lacks talent as a narrator; he has a measured, clear voice, and a strong delivery. Rather, the abridgment itself and the limitations of the audio format cause this product to falter-missing are the intense battle images, the unforgettable music of the 1960s and '70s, and the personal interviews with Vietnamese speakers. Here, the only eyewitness recordings spliced in with the narration are ones by Americans. As a result, Burns, with his natural American accent, becomes the mouthpiece for Vietnamese soldiers and civilians, which creates a distance for the listener. The recordings of U.S. presidents with various generals and advisers becomes tedious in the audiobook, with Burns merely reading "Johnson" and "McNamara" followed by a rendering of their remarks. A Knopf hardcover. (Sept.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved."
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Additional Information
Subjects Vietnam War, 1961-1975.
Audiobooks.
Publisher [Westminster, Maryland] :Books on Tape,2017
Edition Unabridged.
Contributors Burns, Ken, 1953- author, narrator.
Corrigan, Brian, narrator.
Sanders, Fred, 1955- narrator.
Participants/Performers Read by Brian Corrigan, Ken Burns and Fred Sanders.
Language English
Notes Title from web page.
Compact discs.
Description 25 audio discs (approximately 31 hr.) : digital ; 4 3/4 in.
ISBN 9780307970848
0307970841
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