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615 reviews for:
The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves, and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History
Robert M. Edsel
3.73 AVERAGE
615 reviews for:
The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves, and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History
Robert M. Edsel
3.73 AVERAGE
reads more like a history book than a novel, hard to slog through.
This book was fantastic. It is an absolutely astonishing history of the workings of the military, post D-Day WWII, art conservation, the effects of fantaticism, a real-life treasure hunt, and the value/importance of art. The MFAA were talented, energetic, and capable people; I have learned an incredible amount from their history.
I almost never read non-fiction, and even then, I never read historical non-fiction, so take my review with a grain of salt. I'm pretty sure I am adding a star just because I learned so much about WWII through this very specific lens of the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives officers -- aka the Monuments Men.
I considered listing a few facts I learned while reading, but they make me sound so ignorant I couldn't bear to type them all out. One anecdotal light-bulb-went-off-in-my-head moment I will share -- when German officer Erwin Rommel was mentioned in passing, and I immediately said to myself, "that is why my uncle's German Shepherd was named Rommel!" Literally every person I mentioned this to afterward said something like this "Yeah, you didn't know who the Desert Fox was?" or "Yeah, he was the African tank commander that tried to assassinate Hitler."
One interesting thing I noticed about this kind of historical writing is that there is almost no dialogue, as every comment made by one of the Monuments Men comes straight from a source, mostly letters to loved ones back home and military correspondences. This was both a positive and a negative, as it gave me great faith in the historical accuracy of what I was reading, but made the text dry and detached at points.
I had decided to read this after seeing the movie trailer (I am a fanatic about reading the book before I see the movie), and will update further after I see it, though I will note now that I glanced at the film's IMDB page to see which actor was playing which character, only to find they are playing fictitious versions, not the actual men featured in the book.
I considered listing a few facts I learned while reading, but they make me sound so ignorant I couldn't bear to type them all out. One anecdotal light-bulb-went-off-in-my-head moment I will share -- when German officer Erwin Rommel was mentioned in passing, and I immediately said to myself, "that is why my uncle's German Shepherd was named Rommel!" Literally every person I mentioned this to afterward said something like this "Yeah, you didn't know who the Desert Fox was?" or "Yeah, he was the African tank commander that tried to assassinate Hitler."
One interesting thing I noticed about this kind of historical writing is that there is almost no dialogue, as every comment made by one of the Monuments Men comes straight from a source, mostly letters to loved ones back home and military correspondences. This was both a positive and a negative, as it gave me great faith in the historical accuracy of what I was reading, but made the text dry and detached at points.
I had decided to read this after seeing the movie trailer (I am a fanatic about reading the book before I see the movie), and will update further after I see it, though I will note now that I glanced at the film's IMDB page to see which actor was playing which character, only to find they are playing fictitious versions, not the actual men featured in the book.
A well-researched true story of the men who were given the task of recovering and protecting the artwork and cultural treasures looted by the Nazis. A little slow going due to its contents, but an amazing story, and one that isn't well known. Thoughtful treatment of both the men involved and the Nazi collaborators, and a really worthwhile read.
Fantastic story. The absolute volume of treasure the Nazis squirreled away is ridiculous. I'm still amazed the mine workers managed to circumvent the order to blow Altaussee -- losing the Bruges Madonna, the Astronomer, the Ghent Altarpiece and everything else down there would have been catastrophic. This book makes me wish I'd been an art history major.
Not the best written book, but the story was amazing.
VERY interesting story about how a handful of people saved Europe's great works of art looted by Nazi Germany during World War II. This is being made into a movie that comes out later this year - I'll definitely be seeing this one!
Fascinating read.
The author is repetitive in places, and it is sometimes dry and pedantic - this certainly reads more like a history tome than a story - but still, a very interesting look at a complex time in human history.
Warning - while the basic premise is the same, the book and the movie are quite different from each other in feel and flow.
The author is repetitive in places, and it is sometimes dry and pedantic - this certainly reads more like a history tome than a story - but still, a very interesting look at a complex time in human history.
Warning - while the basic premise is the same, the book and the movie are quite different from each other in feel and flow.