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The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History Paperback – Bargain Price, September 17, 2010
| Robert M Edsel (Author) Find all the books, read about the author, and more. See search results for this author |
| Bret Witter (Contributor) Find all the books, read about the author, and more. See search results for this author |
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In a race against time, behind enemy lines, often unarmed, a special force of American and British museum directors, curators, art historians, and others, called the Momuments Men, risked their lives scouring Europe to prevent the destruction of thousands of years of culture.
Focusing on the eleven-month period between D-Day and V-E Day, this fascinating account follows six Monuments Men and their impossible mission to save the world's great art from the Nazis.
- Print length512 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherCenter Street
- Publication dateSeptember 17, 2010
- Dimensions5.25 x 1.5 x 8 inches
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About the Author
Bret Witter cowrote the bestseller Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World (Grand Central, 2008). He lives in Louisville, KY.
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Product details
- ASIN : B005GNJ688
- Publisher : Center Street (September 17, 2010)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 512 pages
- Item Weight : 12 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.25 x 1.5 x 8 inches
- Customer Reviews:
About the authors

Hello fellow book lovers! Thank you for visiting my page. I am a full-time professional writer, usually working with a co-author on their inspiring true story or to bring their vast knowledge of some interesting subject to the public. I grew up in Huntsville, Alabama, attended Duke University, and worked a series of forgettable jobs for twelve years until getting my big break when Vicki Myron and I collaborated on Dewey, the story of the famous library cat of Spencer, Iowa, in 2008. I have written 8 NYT bestsellers; combined, they have sold more than 3 million copies, been translated into more than 30 languages, and spent almost two years on the New York Times bestseller list. Both Dewey and The Monuments Men, the basis of the movie starring George Clooney, where #1 NYT bestsellers. I live in Decatur, Georgia, and yes, I'm happy to come to your book event if you are in the area (and especially if you are serving wine and/or cookies). Visit my website at www.bretwitter.com.

Robert M. Edsel is the #1 New York Times best-selling author of the non-fiction books, Rescuing Da Vinci, The Monuments Men and Saving Italy. Mr. Edsel is also the co-producer of the award-winning documentary film, The Rape of Europa. Mr. Edsel published Beyond the Dreams of Avarice: The Hermann Goering Collection by Nancy Yeide, the first study devoted to Goering's entire paintings collection. In addition, he is the Founder and Chairman of the nonprofit, Monuments Men Foundation for the Preservation of Art, which received the National Humanities Medal. Mr. Edsel has been awarded the "Texas Medal of Arts" Award; the "President's Call to Service" Award; and the "Hope for Humanity" Award, presented by the Dallas Holocaust Museum. He also serves as a Trustee at the National WWII Museum in New Orleans. A film based on Mr. Edsel's book, The Monuments Men, directed by and starring Academy Award winner George Clooney, was released in February 2014. The film also stars Matt Damon, Cate Blanchett, Bill Murray, John Goodman, Hugh Bonneville, Jean Dujardin and Bob Balaban.
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I’m not sure why Hollywood (does most of what it does) decided to change the characters or make light of the contributions put forth by Rose Valland by intimating her having a crush on Matt Damon’s character.
The Monuments Men were courageous and enterprising, pushing to be in active war zones in their pursuit of art of every kind. They worked closely with residents and a broad array of military personnel. Where the bigwigs so often took the credit—shock—these were the men behind the scenes doing their job and saving millions of pieces of art from the destruction of Hitler’s madness.
The book follows the team from their inception to the close of their work. The author, Robert M. Edsel, did a brilliant job solidly taking us along the path of the battles while not losing sight of the point of the story.
You may find yourself doing what I did throughout the book—gasping in horror as more and more of what Hitler was doing comes to light. I knew about his confiscation of artwork from everyone, everywhere, and yet I was astounded to find out even more of his evil egomaniacal ways.
There are descriptions of the men—and Rose—that I noted along the way, James Rorimer, “He had no practice in failure, and he had no intention of starting now.”
Ms. Valland, “Destiny is not one push, she thought as she waited to cross a quiet street on that cold Paris evening years later, but a thousand small moments that through insight and hard work you line up in the right direction, like a magnet does with metal shavings.”
You’ll enjoy reading about Harry Ettlinger’s journey with the Monuments Men. A German Jew with American citizenship, he served bravely along with the others.
George Stout, “’The sun is fine and, after the rat race, I begin to remember that I am myself and not merely a set of functions.’”
Having been blessed with the experience of standing in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam—a haven of art—reading that paintings were taken from there made me sad and appreciate at all that was saved. It took them six years for the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives to return what they’d found to the proper owners.
This book reads like an adventure story and will keep you interested the entire way through.
If you like history and heroes, read this book, don’t just watch the movie.
Bottom line: Recommended for military history buffs with an appreciation for art history. If you don't know anything about it, it's a new angle in the history of the war. It shows the good, bad, and vile natures of humans.
The monuments men were drawn from the museum and artistic community, and most of them were at least forty. This hits home even more in the movie when we see middle-aged men being recruited into the army. (Of course, many of the actors were older than the characters they portrayed.) The men worked mostly alone, without a lot of resources. After the D-Day landings, they learned how much art had been looted by the Nazis. So the mission wasn't just about protecting monuments from further destruction, it was also the greatest treasure hunt in history.
One woman played a huge part: Rose Valland of the Louvre. She was a witness to the Nazi looting, and she risked her life to document what they had stolen and where they were shipping it. Without her help, much of the art might never have been found. I recommend the book unreservedly.
Top reviews from other countries
The book darts around the cast of characters and I wasn't always able to keep them straight but there was a good list at the beginning which should have helped. I did find, however, that the author seemed to want to tell me a lot of detail and all in the same tone. It seemed almost like reading a shopping list. I really didn't get any tension and there was no variable pacing so even though I really wanted to know what happened I actually found myself bored reading what should have been a gripping story.
My rating relates to the actually telling of this story. The research and subject matter were worthy of a more exciting and readable presentation.
The emphasis is on the US contribution (most war books seem to reflect their author's nationality) but probably inevitable given that the US contribution was greatest and most of the recovery was done in the US-liberated areas. But it fails to come up to the even-handedness of such books as The Longest Day and the author admits as much in his skating over the allied preservation of Roman cities of North Africa.
Overall - not a bad read. Reasonably informative but not specially well written.
If you liked the film (which I did) you will find the book very different and thus I can understand some of the poorer reviews.
Hollywood needs a continuous thread through the film otherwise, the film will be panned and noone will make any money.
This book on the other hand makes a very good effort at handling and explaining a very complex subject matter that has nothing to do with the film whatsoever (except for perhaps the principles and the locations involved)
All the men worked separately and had their own areas of operation, thus their stories are separate ones, if you wish to interpret this as leading the book to seeming "boring" "disjointed" or badly written then that is your opinion.
I personally found it an enjoyable read and well written.
4 Stars as I feel the end of the book was rather rushed but overall a good book.
This book is the story of the recovery of that art. The Monuments Men were given the huge task of finding these hidden treasures, sometimes in the nick of time before they were destroyed. Few in number, they heroically went into places where sometimes fighting was still going on in order to save treasures.
Another reviewer has already noted that British Monuments Men were hardly mentioned, and another slight shortfall was that the original owners of the art and the methods used by the Nazis to loot it were barely mentioned. However, that is all in Lynn Nicholas' book, which I would say complements this book wonderfully.
I recommend this book wholeheartedly to anyone interested in art, and how it has been saved for us to view today.
If it were for the subject matter alone, this book would get five stars. Unluckily the story has been told from an almost exclusively American perspective, as if auditioning for a Hollywood screenplay. Americans' actions are described in an irritatingly folksy way, including many comments from their papers showing their national bigotry (e.g. saying that Roosevelt stood almost alone against the Nazis), while their British colleagues are almost ignored. This may be down to the facts that the author is American and that his admittedly extensive research relies heavily on Americans' memoirs. Perhaps equivalent British sources don't exist?
Read it for the incredible events contained within and for the passion for art that the author convincingly conveys to the reader, but forgive the style and remember that the Americans weren't the only people involved.









