AMATEURS AT WAR

by Ben Ames Williams '10. Houghton Mifflin Co., 1943, pp.498. $3.00.

I have always prided myself that I have read a great deal of war literature, but in Ben Ames Williams' excellent anthology I found a great deal of material that was new to me. Here are contemporary accounts of Robert Rogers' amazing trip to St. Francis and his even more amazing trek back (remember Northwest Passage by Kenneth Roberts?), Clark's attack on Vincennes, the Battle of Lexington, Breed's Hill, the saga of the BonHomme Richard, Davy Crockett's own account of the Alamo, and so on down to Pickett's charge at Gettysburg (I shall never forget the day that John Pray Wadham '03 took me there), and John Hersey's excellent book Intothe Valley (a selection). So the book covers all major and many minor battles fought by our amateur American soldier.

Williams gives, in his introduction, a keen analysis of the American soldier and the reasons for his greatness which have special significance with the facts of the Tunisian campaign fresh in our memory.

The editor writes a penetrating analysis of each document printed, and I learned a good deal about American history as well as American character from this excellent book. It is really enthralling reading, and I heartily recommend it to your attention.

Corey Ford , doing special work with theArmy Air Corps, is the author of two booksrecently published by Scribner's: From the Ground Up and Shortcut to Tokio, Bothbooks will be reviewed in a later issue— ED.