We Publish Sometimes

My review of Flint Whitlock, The Fighting First: The Untold Story of the Big Red One on D-Day; John C. McManus, The Americans at D-Day: The American Experience at the Normandy Invasion; and McManus, The Americans at Normandy: The Summer of 1944--The American War from the Normandy Beaches to Falaise is up at H-War.

Here's the intro:

Military histories remain as popular as ever, which means that professional military historians continue to face the daunting task of finding intellectual value in writing and reading (and reviewing) books that tiptoe the line between academic and popular history. The sixtieth anniversary of 1944 provided a prime opportunity for studies of the D-Day invasion and Normandy campaign that could make money and, hopefully, provide some new insights into those events. Flint Whitlock and John C. McManus are two writers who tried to take advantage of that opportunity.

Let me know what you think of the rest.

Update: A coworker has pointed out a typo in the second paragraph: Whitlock wrote a book on the 10th Mountain Division, not the 11th. There was an 11th Armored Division and an 11th Armored Division in World War II, but no 11th Mountain Division. The point is that I'm an idiot who can't type.