So it’s been about a year since The War hit PBS. At the time, I did my best to keep up with the series as it ran, but technology (as in a crappy VCR) foiled my attempt to watch it all straight through. At the time, I ended up missing the last episode (“A World Without War”).
With the DVD now on the streets, I went back and watched it from start to end. While there are little critical “bits” I mentioned in earlier posts here, there is no question that the series is the apex of the cult of World War II as a historical “product.” There is no way an undertaking like this would have been possible without Saving Private Ryan, and as much as many hate to admit, the collected works of Stephen Ambrose, among them Band of Brothers (the book and the series). The market is full, with new titles emerging weekly, it seems. Take a look at any history section at your local (US) chain bookstore. The WW II materials are fast approaching the popularity of American Civil War reading, anecdotally speaking, at least here on the east coast of the US. Nor would this blog be possible, or the web site our of our good host, ww2db.com, or any of the other hundreds of specialty web sites on the net.
My question is this: what is there left to tell? I’m going to ponder that one for a bit and see what comes up. Until then, here is a Burns’ interview recently posted.
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