Flyboys: A True Story of Courage
Selected Book Details
- Paperback
- Edition: 2nd
- Author: James Bradley
- Publisher: Back Bay Books
- Release Date: September 2004
- ISBN-10: 0316159433
- ISBN-13: 9780316159432
- List Price: $15.99
Price Comparisons
E-mail these Cheap Book Prices to a friend!
| Store | Price | Condition | Free Shipping? | Online Coupons and Deals | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon | $0.01 as of 7/31 10pm EST | Used | NO, $3.99 |
| |||
| ValoreBooks | $0.01 as of 7/31 10pm EST | Used | NO, $3.95 |
| |||
| Half.com | $0.75 as of 7/31 10pm EST | Used | NO, $3.49 to $3.99 |
| |||
| Alibris | $0.99 as of 7/31 10pm EST | Used | NO, $3.99 |
| |||
| Half.com | $1.99 as of 7/31 10pm EST | New | NO, $3.49 to $3.99 |
| |||
| Amazon | $4.46 as of 7/31 10pm EST | New | NO, $3.99 |
| |||
| ValoreBooks | $9.74 as of 7/31 10pm EST | New | NO, $3.95 |
| |||
| Amazon | $10.87 as of 7/31 10pm EST | New | YES, spend $25+ |
| |||
| TextbookX | $11.51 as of 7/31 1am EST | New | FREE, with $49 purchase |
| |||
| button not working? Click Here | |||||||
Summaries and Customer Reviews provided by Amazon
SummaryThis acclaimed bestseller brilliantly illuminates a hidden piece of World War II history as it tells the harrowing true story of nine American airmen shot down in the Pacific. One of them, George H. W. Bush, was miraculously rescued. The fate of the others-an explosive 60-year-old secret-is revealed for the first time in FLYBOYS. |
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
heroism and horror
Rating:
Man's inhumanity to man is shown alongside stories of individual courage. Time allows is to see what really happened and acknowledge that war brings out the gamut of human behavior. A valuable fascinating story of WWII.
The Brutality of War
Rating:
James Bradley's fine effort, "Flyboys," packs the same punch of reality that his previous book did. He could have merely profiled the brave pilots captured and tortured on Chichi Jima, and spent lavish time and attention on one Chichi Jima survivor, former president George H.W. Bush. It could have turned into an oral history, without much meat, but Bradley hits a home run here on several fronts.
First, he goes into detail on the conditions of the times, the era in which these men lived, fought and died. He spent a great deal of time describing the Japanese mindset, their militaristic advances, and the suicidal polices in the face of certain defeat. He treads thinly close early in his book in drawing a moral equivalency between the imperial atrocities committed by Japan, and the colonial policies followed by the U.S. and other western nations. We certainly did not treat our native peoples with kid gloves in our westward migration and he points out our policies in colonizing the Philippines, along with how Russian and British colonial powers subjugated peoples in their respective empires. He eventually retreats from that edge, but is correct in pointing out that we as a people must face similar shame in our own history and look at that in the context of his story set in this era.
Second, this book is a harrowing look at war and the moral lines that are crossed by men and nations engaged in all-out conflict. This is an essential understanding to providing context to what transpires in the book, on both sides of the conflict.
To the victors go the spoils, or at least the victors get to write the history. Bradley goes into absolutely harrowing descriptions of the US air raids on Japanese cities, accounts of what it was like to live through the firebombing of Tokyo. War is at the same time necessary and cruel - on both sides.
Equal Treatment for Both Sides, Amazing Research
Rating:
In Flyboys, Bradley treats both sides equally in showing their reasoning for going to war, why they performed the acts they did in war, and their responses to the other sides acts after the war was over. He also let history speak for itself. As an example, most people would say Japan was wrong for going to war with the US, but he does clearly explain what Japan was thinking in making their decisions. This obviously does not mean that anyone should agree with them, but I believe it is very enlightening to know the truth in these situations.
His treatment of the Flyboys stories was also very compelling and while difficult to read at times, paints the ugly picture of war in a very clear way and yet many from both sides are forgiving of the other for the atrocities of war because it was quite simply...war.
While I enjoyed Flyboys quite a bit, I do believe that Bradley's first novel, 'Flags of our Fathers' was better in that the story flowed much smoother. Bradley often spends too much time discussing the background of something and forgets the main storyline that he is trying to tell is about the pilots themselves. Overall, I believe it was a great book and he spent a considerable amount of time researching the facts, interviewing as many people as possible who were involved including a Japanese that executed one of the Flyboys, and piecing it all together in a readable format.
A "history" book about World War Two by an author who runs a Peace Foundation?
Rating:
If you don't think James Bradley has a political adgenda in writing this book, think again. Not only is Bradley the head of his own Peace Foundation, but his Peace Foundation sends American school children to study in Japan for a year.
The first 1/3rd of this book is a thinly veiled bashing of American foreign policy for the past 150 years. In addition he consistantly colors the facts to suit his political adgenda. For example, on page 68, in talking about 250,000 Filipinos killed in the 1899-1902 Philippine-American War, Bradley states: "So Hitler and Tojo combined, with all their mechanized weaponry, killed about the same per month -- 7,000 -- as the American "civilizers" did in the Philippines." In making this comparison, Bradley convienently ignores over 25 million Chinese, British, French and Russians that Germany and Japan killed during the war.
If you stopped reading the book after about 100 pages you would think that Japan had no other choice than to go to war and that World War 2 was America's fault.
That Bradley has no respect for the US military, and never served his country, is obvious in his constantly calling senior US officers by their first name, General Doolittle becomes "Jimmy" and General Billy Mitchell becomes "Billy." And these heroic American pilots are called "boys" and "Flyboys" all through the book. He even capitalized "Flyboys" as if it is some sort of official title. And worst of all, President Roosevelt in consistantly called, "the Dutchman."
If it was not for the personal tales of the pilots he focuses on, and he does tell their stories very well, I would have tossed the book early on.
Strange and twisted
Rating:
From the very first word, this book is tone death. "Fly Boys" is the demeaning title, and the author uses that insulting phrase, even while praising the U.S. pilots. They were not generally referred to as "fly boys" and for most who heard it, it was a slap at the youngsters who gave their lives in the air war. Then, in the text, the books wanders, skips and jumps, often ignoring the "fly boys" for endless pages of anti-war polemic. He is correct, of course, that the United States has proven itself to be a war-like nation, thirsty for battle all over the globe. Our history certainly supports that view. But while most U.S. wars were and are unnecessary and cruel, World War II was justified even if the unnecessary horrors inflicted were not. In any case all that's taught in this book is that humans are blood thirsting. What else is new ?
BROWSE BY SUBJECT
- Audiobooks
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Health, Mind & Body
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel