Biggest Brother: The Life of Major Dick Winters, The Man Who Lead the Band of Brothers - Hardcover

Alexander, Larry

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0451215109 ISBN 13: 9780451215109

Publisher: NAL Hardcover, 2005

Synopsis

Complemented by never-before-seen photographs and insights by family, friends, and fellow veterans, this inspirational chronicle pays tribute to the war-time accomplishments of Major Richard D. Winters, the skillful leader of the Band of Brothers, the legendary fighting unit of World War II.

About this title

About the Author

Larry Alexander has been a journalist and columnist for the Intelligencer Journal newspaper in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, for more than a decade, winning numerous awards for excellence in journalism. He grew up on the same street in the same town as Major Dick Winters, three decades later.

Reviews

The commander of Easy Company, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, was the subject of Stephen Ambrose's Band of Brothers, the HBO miniseries made from it, and now this biography from a Pennsylvania journalist. Much of the book covers the same ground as the preceding work (Winters's command from Normandy through the Battle of the Bulge), but it also covers his youth in rural Pennsylvania, the Depression-era hardships he survived and the old-fashioned work ethic that stood him in good stead when he was drafted in 1941. Promotion eventually brought Winters to the rank of major and command of the 2nd Battalion of the 506th, and he was urged to stay in the army after WWII and again during Korea. But he settled down as a successful seller of livestock feed, raised a family and at the end of the book is still alive at 87. This straightforward study of the best sort of small-unit leader—fair, judiciously rewarding merit or the lack thereof, able to deal with a wide variety of people, leading from in front—is for the dedicated only. (May)
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Here is the story behind Stephen Ambrose's Band of Brothers (1992), about Easy Company, the 101st Army Airborne, from D-Day to the end of World War II, and the popular TV miniseries made from it. It is the story of what distinguished Easy Company from other first-class field units: its leadership, in the person of Major Richard Winters, its commander. Winters grew up in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, during the Depression. His family's means were straitened, and everyone had to contribute. Although an indifferent high-school student, Winters, because the family wished him to, put himself through college, graduating in time to choose between the draft and enlistment. Alexander is especially good at showing how Winters' sense of responsibility developed as a student, an enlistee, in OCS, and as an officer. He also gives a detailed picture of the army of 60-plus years ago, and the process that turned thousands of young civilians into the men who beat the Germans. For any reader interested in leadership, the miniseries, or both. Frieda Murray
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: NAL Hardcover
• Publication date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0451215109
• ISBN 13: 9780451215109
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 320