Read More About It. . .

World War Two is the most thoroughly documented conflict in recorded history. There are literally hundreds of books exploring the conflict from the broadest scale to the most intimate, personal experience. Any reading list will be noteworthy for the titles, events and perspectives that must be omitted.

The Producers of Utah World War II Stories offer this suggested reading list as both a starting point for exploring stories about the conflict, and as a companion to the very personal stories contained in our documentary series.

Episode One: The Struggle
(Outbreak of the War)

At Dawn We Slept
Gordon W. Prange

The Greatest Generation
Tom Brokaw

The Good War
Studs Terkel

Death March: The Survivors of Bataan
Donald Knox

The Doolittle Raid
Carroll Glines

Episode Two: Europe

D-Day: June 6, 1944
Stephen E. Ambrose

Band of Brothers
Stephen E. Ambrose

Citizen Soldiers
Stephen E. Ambrose

Those Brave Crews
Ray Ward
(Air war and Ploesti)

Battle: The Story of the Bulge
John Toland

Inside the Vicious Heart:
Americans and the Liberation of
Nazi Concentration Camps
Robert Abzug

Episode Three: The Pacific

Eagle Against the Sun
Ronald Spector

Utmost Savagery
Col. Joseph Alexander
(Tarawa)

Flags of Our Fathers
James Bradley
(Iwo Jima)

With the Old Breed
Eugene B. Sledge
(Pelelieu and Okinawa)

Goodbye Darkness
William Manchester

Enola Gay
Gordon Thomas

Hiroshima
John Hersey

Episode Four: The Homefront

No Ordinary Time
Doris Kearns Goodwin

Freedom From Fear:
The American People in WWII
David M. Kennedy

“Don’t You Know There’s a War On?”
Richard Lingeman

Days of Sadness, Years of Triumph
Geoffrey Perrett

Desert Exile
Yoshiko Uchida

Major American Figures of World War II

I Could Never Be So Lucky Again
James Doolittle

Franklin Roosevelt:
Soldier of Freedom
James McGregor Burns

Patton: The Man Behind the Legend
Martin Blumenson

A Soldier’s Story
Omar Bradley

American Caesar
William Manchester
(Douglas MacArthur)

Crusade in Europe
Dwight D. Einsenhower