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Bushmasters: America's Jungle Warriors of W W II
Libro usado en buenas condiciones, por su antiguedad podria contener señales normales de uso
- GenresHistory
Paperback
First published January 1, 1987
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January 15, 2020
Perhaps I started this book with a prejudiced mind, but I am a relative newcomer to Arizona and I love almost everything about this state, and I love learning new aspects of its history.
New to me, anyway.
"Bushmasters" is the story of the 158th Infantry Regiment, composed of Arizonans, especially "Indians," peoples of the reservations, and mixed with troops from "the streets of New Jersey and the prep schools of New England," a group disparate enough.
They went through a long period of training before finally being sent into the Pacific, and some of the ghastliest fighting of that horrible war.
Author Anthony Arthur has done a great job of showing the "big picture" and doing it with many individual stories, each of which needs seeing and remembering.
War is the ultimate insanity of the human race and we get reminded of that by some of those individual stories.
One that can be told here, because it won't intrude on the book itself: The Navajo Code Talkers are fairly well known, the Marine Corps' radio operators whose "code" was primarily only their native language. But what is not known is that the idea originated in the Bushmasters, although for some reason it never got implemented there
Being about war, about death and destruction of World War II, although of course also about courage and heroism, "Bushmasters" can't be called pleasant reading. But it certainly can be called valuable reading. One can learn, as I did, an aspect of history not widely known, and one can be reminded how such an evil activity as war can perform a good by bring together different peoples into a unit that works well for a common goal, and lets those people learn they have more similarities than difference.
This is a book I'm keeping handy to use as a reference as I write about Arizona, and I highly recommend it. Even to non-Arizonans.
New to me, anyway.
"Bushmasters" is the story of the 158th Infantry Regiment, composed of Arizonans, especially "Indians," peoples of the reservations, and mixed with troops from "the streets of New Jersey and the prep schools of New England," a group disparate enough.
They went through a long period of training before finally being sent into the Pacific, and some of the ghastliest fighting of that horrible war.
Author Anthony Arthur has done a great job of showing the "big picture" and doing it with many individual stories, each of which needs seeing and remembering.
War is the ultimate insanity of the human race and we get reminded of that by some of those individual stories.
One that can be told here, because it won't intrude on the book itself: The Navajo Code Talkers are fairly well known, the Marine Corps' radio operators whose "code" was primarily only their native language. But what is not known is that the idea originated in the Bushmasters, although for some reason it never got implemented there
Being about war, about death and destruction of World War II, although of course also about courage and heroism, "Bushmasters" can't be called pleasant reading. But it certainly can be called valuable reading. One can learn, as I did, an aspect of history not widely known, and one can be reminded how such an evil activity as war can perform a good by bring together different peoples into a unit that works well for a common goal, and lets those people learn they have more similarities than difference.
This is a book I'm keeping handy to use as a reference as I write about Arizona, and I highly recommend it. Even to non-Arizonans.
Displaying 1 of 1 review