7. An Army at Dawn by Rick Atkinson

army at dawn
Originally uploaded by buzby.

The bottom line is that this is an entertaining and informative read about the North African campaign in WWII.

But it has its problems. First, in one of the early chapters the author writes that it would be too cumbersome to cite every reference that he has used so he does away with footnotes and suggests that his impressive bibliography should suffice. I think that that is wrong. Second, it is written too much like a story and too little like a history book. For example, at one point the author writes that Eisenhower's stomach was churning with anxiety as he headed towards the front. How could anyone possibly know this? In the absence of footnotes we will never know.

My criticisms only serve as minor annoyances to a generally good book.