This Memorial Day will mark the high point of the celebration of the 60th anniversary of World War II, with the dedication of the National World War II Memorial on the Mall in Washington, D.C. The Associated Press is participating in this event with an exhibition at Washington's Union Station and with the publication of this book, the definitive presentation of the AP's most significant and influential photographs relation to World War II.
Almost 200 reporters and photographers fanned out around the globe to cover World War II for the Associated Press. Five lost their lives. Seven others won Pulitzer Prizes, including Joe Rosenthal, who clambered up Iwo Jima's Mount Suribachi to take the flag-raising photo that became the emblem of American victory and one of the most famous pictures of all time. The AP's photographic coverage of World War II was as comprehensive as any compiled by one organization, and is unrivalled in its coverage of U.S. Soldiers. The photographs transmitted to American newspapers by the AP during the war rival in importance Matthew Brady's coverage of the Civil War, and they have never been published before in one photographic album. Arranged sequentially, these images tell the history of the war, from Generals Eisenhower and Patton planning operations in Europe, to the D-Day landings, to the celebration of V-E Day in Times Square.
Mined from the Associated Press archives, these 167 black and white photos are precious historical treasures, ranging from some of the most celebrated images of the century to rare relics not seen since World War II. They're arranged chronogically, with informatively evocative brief captions, a formal yet moving foreword by war hero/Senator/National WW II Memorial Chairman Bob Dole, and an action-packed, you-are-there introduction by death-defying war correspondent Walter Cronkite. Paging through the book almost serves as an impressionistic, quickie history of the conflict, glimpsed from burning airplanes, submarine periscopes, London Underground bomb shelters, rickety rope bridges, decapitated cathedrals, smoking ruins, and scenes of brutality and tenderness, calamity and tearful relief. The context helps rescue the most famous pictures from cliché: you get more from Joe Rosenthal's Pulitzer-winning shot of six Marines hoisting the flag atop Iwo Jima by seeing his pix of the battle leading up to it and by reading that half of those six died without ever seeing the photo. If it is not perverse or disrespectful to say so, many of the images are beautiful as art, in the compositional style of Life Magazine (where some appeared). Nurses perched in midair surreally attempt to clean a bombed hospital room whose walls have vanished. British soldiers march in a line past a line of tall white pillars, Roman ruins that echo their shapes. Churchill appears to levitate a RAF fighter by sheer force of will. Even the grisly pictures of victims manage to respect the dead by means of esthetic and journalistic seriousness. Many pictures capture moments of drama so stunning you can't believe the photographer survived--and many didn't. The photo reproductions aren't glossy, but they're gritty, and that's appropriate. They were news. They still are. --Tim Appelo
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 5.0 / 5.0
Great collection:
A very good collection of well-known and not-so-well known photos from the war that defined the "greatest generation." Most are incredibly powerful.
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