A review by dlbvenice
The Guns at Last Light: The War in Western Europe 1944-1945 by Rick Atkinson

5.0

The Guns at Last Light and its companion volumes in the Liberation Trilogy are a brilliant work of both scholarship and authorship. This history of the American involvement in the European Theater begins with the invasion of North Africa, and ends with the surrender of Germany. In between are countless stories of the battles, the individuals, and the strategy and tactics of the Allies in pushing back and eventually destroying the western portion of the German war machine. Atkinson deftly moves from anecdotes about individual leaders, soldiers, and (a few) journalists to accounts of the battles that always emphasize the experiences of soldiers in the battle field -- and still manage to convey the larger movements, tactics, and strategy.

That's a bold scope, and one requiring a keen grasp of events at scales ranging from the individual to the continental. Atkinson's judicious choice of maps (available on the web) provide an excellent supporting context to the text. In anecdotes and quotes he weaves a picture of some of the key players in the joint Anglo-American effort (and the French bit players, always trying to remain relevant). His treatment of most of the players is remarkably nuanced, allowing the reader to see men like Eisenhower, Alanbrooke, Churchill, Patton, Bradley, and Montgomery in terms of both the qualities that enabled them to rise to the challenges they faced, and their foibles that remind us of their very fallible humanity.

Perhaps the best indication of how good this book and its companion volumes are is the degree to which it sparks interest in topics both within and outside its scope. Atkinson's brief and wrenching description of the capture of concentration camps and the horrors seen by individual soldiers, his brief references to the Eastern Front and the titanic struggle there, and references to the massive production effort in the US to supply both the European and Pacific theatres all impel me to read more about this particular era. For it remains relevant to us here, today. As Atkinson notes the particular fascination and power that Hitler held over both his military and his country, one cannot help but reflect on the currently ascendant authoritarianism within a faction in this country that despoiled our Capitol on 1/6/2021, and currently seeks to control who votes in our elections and to place them under the control of overwhelmingly white GOP-run state legislatures, even explicitly given partisans the opportunity to overturn election results. In that context, histories such as this one have lessons to teach, if we will but listen.