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Loading... The Boys of Pointe du Hoc: Ronald Reagan, D-Day, and the U.S. Army 2nd Ranger Battalion (2005)by Douglas Brinkley
   None No current Talk conversations about this book.   ) rivkat | Aug 30, 2018 |   )1  whymaggiemay | Apr 3, 2017 | I have to say this book was pretty boring. The mini bios of Peggy Noonan and others involved in the writing of Reagan's speeches and the minute details of how these speeches developed were a little much for me. The backstories and glossing over of politics of the time were only somewhat interesting to me. The speeches were considered to be among Reagan's most powerful and memorable. If you're a huge Reagan fan then this book is for you, if not then read something else. Most interesting to me was Reagan's admiration of and sometimes emulation of FDR. He wasn't exactly the Goldwater conservative that liberals like to remember him as. Recordings of the two speeches are included after the epilogue (here's one reprinted). 2 stars out of 5. (  ) justindtapp | Jun 3, 2015 | )1 foof2you | Apr 5, 2015 | The actual story of the landings is just a summary. I suppose in re-reading the title I could have guessed that since "Reagan" is in the title and what he had to do with the actual landings was... absolutely nothing. OK, so the fact that the landings description was essentially an article-length summary, that gets a pass. The true "plot" of this story was: apparently Brinkley was ga-ga for Reagan and simply felt he couldn't hold those feelings in. He writes as if he simply won't feel better until he gushes about how incredible, how patriotic, how downright "home-y" Reagan was.. a beautiful soul... dear ol' Reagan couldn't do no wrong!. Ummmmm... I lived thru this, I remember Reagan, I can't believe what a farce this book is. Not only does Brinkley drool over his own recounting of his hero - he grabs individuals to back him up. Now, I fully support those individuals right to believe that Reagan was the godly creature they felt him to be - and those stories were actually wonderful to hear. I never knew that Reagan had groupies but, sure enough, he was a rock star . But Brinkley, he was a newscaster, a journalist, supposedly able to critically think about world events and knew better... but I guess even love-sick puppies can become journalists. So, you think Reagan was the greatest thing since sliced bread? Read this book, Brinkley is right there with ya. He even includes the actual tapes of Reagan's speeches. Now, actually, that was cool just to have as a reference, because during the entire story I kept thinking "what drugs is this guy on? I heard Reagan's P.d.H speeches and WTF is he talking about?"; so it was good to actually hear the speeches so that I didn't think my memory was failing. ( ) marshapetry | Nov 12, 2014 | no reviews | add a review
AwardsDistinctions
Biography & Autobiography.
Politics.
Nonfiction.
HTML:"These are the boys of Pointe du Hoc. Theseare the men who took the cliffs. These are thechampions who helped free a continent. Theseare the heroes who helped end a war."??Ronald Reagan, June 6, 1984,Normandy, France Acclaimed historian and author of the "New York Times" bestselling Tour of Duty Douglas Brinkley tells the riveting account of the brave U.S. Army Rangers who stormed the coast of Normandy on D-Day and the President, forty years later, who paid them homage. The importance of Pointe du Hoc to Allied planners like General Dwight Eisenhower cannot be overstated. The heavy U.S. and British warships poised in the English Channel had eighteen targets on their bombardment list for D-Day morning. The 100-foot promontory known as Pointe du Hoc ?? where six big German guns were ensconced ?? was number one. General Omar Bradley, in fact, called knocking out the Nazi defenses at the Pointe the toughest of any task assigned on June 6, 1944. Under the bulldoggish command of Colonel James E. Rudder of Texas, who is profiled here, these elite forces "Rudder's Rangers" ?? took control of the fortified cliff. The liberation of Europe was under way. Based upon recently released documents from the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, the Eisenhower Center, Texas A & M University, and the U.S. Army Military History Institute, The Boys of Pointe du Hoc is the first in-depth, anecdotal remembrance of these fearless Army Rangers. With brilliant deftness, Brinkley moves between two events four decades apart to tell the dual story of the making of Reagan's two uplifting 1984 speeches, considered by many to be among the best orations the Great Communicator ever gave, and the actual heroic event, which was indelibly captured as well in the opening scenes of Steven Spielberg's "Saving Private Ryan".Just as compellingly, Brinkley tells the story of how Lisa Zanatta Henn, the daughter of a D-Day veteran, forged a special friendship with President Reagan that changed public perceptions of World War II veterans forever. Two White House speechwriters ?? Peggy Noonan and Tony Dolan ?? emerge in the narrative as the master scribes whose ethereal prose helped Reagan become the spokesperson for the entire World War I No library descriptions found. |
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 Google Books — Loading...GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)940.54History and Geography Europe Europe 1918- Military History Of World War IILC ClassificationRatingAverage: (3.69)
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