Customer Reviews

American Hero: The Life and Death of Audie Murphy

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a great, yet tragic, account of the life of a young man, Audie Murphy, who was forever damaged by war and forgotten by the country he loved and fought so gallantly and proudly for during the Second World War.

Surprisingly enough there is very little literature on America's most highly decorated World War II soldier and so Charles Whiting's book, "American Hero: The life and Death of Audie Murphy" is very much welcomed and appreciated.

In his book, Whiting tells the story of Audie Murphy, war hero, Hollywood movie star, and complex human being. It is a sad account, poignantly told by a writer who has clearly done his homework before putting pen to paper. Whiting covers Audie Murphy from his poverty stricken childhood years in Texas to the war in Europe, to Hollywood, and finally into the abyss of American memory.

"American Hero" gives the reader a rare opportunity to peek into the life of an American hero who was awarded every decoration America has to offer. Whiting portrays the story of a young Audie Murphy wounded in combat during World War II, his ability to recuperate from his physical injuries, and his inability to recover from the psychological and emotional scars inflicted upon him by the war. The author theorizes that it was the effects of "Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder" that plagued Audie Murphy's life from the battlefields of Europe to the last days of his all-too-short life. Murphy's extreme boredom with life, his reclusiveness, mood swings, gambling, temperament, depression, battle with addiction to sleeping pills, marital infidelities and other behaviors are keenly linked to behaviors attributed to PTSD. But most importantly, Whiting clearly shows the reader the portrait of a young man abandoned and forgotten by the country he so dearly loved and defended to his death in 1971. I could not help but to choke up with emotion at the author's thoughts on Audie Murphy's death and burial at Arlington National Cemetery. "At last America's most decorated soldier was alone with the `glorious dead'. Now he would rest forever...."

People who wish to read about American heroism and its cost should read "American Hero: The life and Death of Audie Murphy"; it's a great book and should be made into a movie. . . .

Whiting's biography of Audie Murphy provides an excellent review of his heroic exploits in the European Theater of Operations during World War II. I found it to be more complete that Murphy's own book, "To Hell and Back." The stories of Murphy's problems dealing with his adjustment to civilian life after the war as well as his career in the film industry are also compelling. However, Whiting mentions nothing about Murphy's education during peacetime and only a passing mention that he joined the National Guard after the outbreak of the Korean War. In a TV documentary I saw many years ago, Murphy was reported to have attended Texas A & M University and rose to the rank of Major in the Army reserves.

The other problem with this book is the poor job of editing that was done. It is fraught with many typographical errors.

In any case, the book is well written and does give insight into the problem of Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome, which was not recognized as such during Audie Murphy's life and times.

I used to watch his films when I was a child and I still am a fan of him mainly because of his heroism as a soldier. If you want to see his truly heroism just watch "To hell and back". There you are going to see what was "a true war hero" and understand that a soldier like this won't born in this world anymore. He was not an ordinary soldier, he was the best one. I agree that this book doesn't match his importance to American history, but where many men that have never attended to any war get rich writing books about their times as protesters in front of Lincoln Monument, it's easy to understand why American people want to forget this kind of a man. Mainly because he was not graduated in any great university. Soldiers have been dying for countries that don't give a damn for them at all. But as a first book about this great American is a good choice, buy it.

Considering he is America's most-decorated soldier, the story of Audie Murphy's combat career as told by Charles Whiting is amazingly dull. There is no convincing explanation given for Murphy's extraordinary actions, and the descriptions of the combat itself are lacking in detail, so it's hard to come up with a feeling for what might have been going on in Murphy's head at the time. It's possible, I suppose, that Murphy just stumbled into heroism like so many before and since, and that he is not really extraordinary at all. That doesn't seem to match the "troubled loner" picture that Whiting describes, but maybe that's all there is. And a final note on the editing ... I have never seen such poor production. The number of spelling mistakes, missing words and missing punctuation in this text are beyond belief. I would guess an average of one glaring mistake every 4 or 5 pages, sometimes in big bunches that make you wonder how this book was brought to market.

A great book on a great American war hero. Not as detailed as I would have liked, but for it's size (239 pages) a good buy.

Interesting but a little dry at first since I am not a 'war buff' simply a Audie Murphy fan. I would, however, recommend it for it's content and pictures.

Audie was my hero when I saw his movie on his true life story. I looked up to him, he had nothing, but achieved everything he put his mind to. On reading his book he had a really hard life, upbringing, & adjusting to the real world. It was unfortunate that Audie did not have a mentor who would not only show him how to adjust to a normal life, but to also take care of his financial responsibilities, in advising him how to invest his money & give him an allowance so that his family would be looked after & benefit from his early success.
Gary Bright
Brisbane
Australia.

A forgotten hero in a forgotten nightmare is well recorded in this detailed book of important history.

The most decorated soldier of any war, ever! Audie Murphy was a born leader and soldier and not one person ever disputed his many heroic actions. In fact, there were many eyewitnesses who confirmed them. This book reveals some facts not covered in other accounts of Audie's life. A good read.

This book is shabby compared to the book written by Harold B. Simpson:
Audie Murphy, American Soldier. This book was printed in two 5000 ea volumes editions. I have the Veterans edition. This book was published in 1975 and is now a very rare collectors item going for at least $75 and as high as $300.00

This book is worth every single detailed fottnoted page. It is a
complete expose on his early days, through his heroics on the battle fields. I am a penultimate fan of Audie Murphy, I served with the 3rd Infantry Division at Kitzingen, Wurzburg and Schweinfurt for over 7 years
of mu military career.

Charles Whiting would have done much better had he researched Simpsons book for the references written in the bibliography.

I would therefore giive Whiting a c- in journalism for this book.