Best War Ever Book Review

Many regard World War II as the best war ever, but why? It seems the one fact that stands out in American minds is that the Allied Powers were fighting against people who were perceived as "evil”, such as Adolf Hitler and Emperor Hirohito. Many disregard all the casualties and hardships and only think about the big picture: victory. Michael C. C. Adams' book, The Best War Ever: America and World War II, attempts to dissipate all of the misconceptions of the Second World War. Americans came out of the war with a positive view of all the years of fighting. This myth was born from several factors, mainly due to the overseas setting of both theaters of the war, intense government propaganda, Hollywood’s glamorization, and widespread economic prosperity. With all of that, Americans were largely sheltered form the brutal truth of World War II. Even to this day, the generation of World War II is viewed as being superior in morality and unity. The popular impressions that were held on to were that “there were no ethnic or gender problems, families were happy and united, and children worked hard in school and read a great number of books” (115). It was a golden era when all Americans set aside their differences and united for a common cause which everyone put above all other priorities. The United States Army was thought of as more advanced in fighting ability, weapons, and supposedly held to a higher standard of ethics on the front. As former World War II Admiral Gene LaRocque stated: “You see only an antiseptic, clean, neat way to die gloriously” (100). Soldiers weren’t blown apart into pieces, they died honorably and nobly. Many factors had to be in place for such a distorted myth to come about. The central one being that the entire war was fought on foreign land with the exception of the bombing of Pearl Harbor. With the conflicts on the other sides of the oceans, Americans would not witness the brutality, destruction, and suffering