Customer Reviews

Sergeant York: An American Hero

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

 

 

A valuable look at York the man, the times he lived in, and the process of creating a national legend. Distinguishes the myths of York's life from the simple facts of his famous exploits. I especially enjoyed the look back at York's rural background and how those values shaped him as a man as well as an American heroic ideal. WEll-researched and documented, but also simply a good read!

Lee views the life of World War I hero Alvin York through the lens of a changing society. York represented, according to Lee, the values of 19th century rural American-simplicity, honesty, hard work, Protestantism, and Anglo-American heritage-in an industrializing society. His defeat of German machine gunners came to symbolize "man over machine" as well. York moved from a pacifist, noninterventionist position to accept America's role as a major world power. This acceptance was based on a religious vision of the US as a defender against evil in the world. Lee's book is well written, moves fast, and well argued. He succeeds in demonstrating that an indivdual life can be used to understand American history in the early 20th century.

After reading the biography on Eddie Rickenbacker, I figured this book would be a good follow-up on the other "hero" of WW-I. However, the book spends little time on Mr. York's military achievements and contains minimal information on battle tactics and strategy of that time. While the book is interesting and quick to read, it does not rate as a 5-star biography. For those armchair generals who is interested in learning about US history, there are no doubt better sources than this book. But for the cost, its well worth the addition to your library.

This is a fine book about the legendary Sergeant Alvin York, recounting his whole life from the early childhood in rural Tenessee to the extraordinary exploits in the Argonne Forest and the turbulent years that followed the moment of glory. The author presents a fine portrait of York, with all its virtues and weaknesses and he does not forget to include also the German account of what happened on that fateful day of October 1918 at the Argonne Forest. I think that the most fanciful part of the book was the explanation of the reasons which catapulted York to fame, the life that York led after his return home and his opinions on current political affairs during the next decades. There are some good black and white photographs in the book and also a few maps.