Reading Materials for the 2023 Albert H Small Normandy Institute (subject to revision)
We will begin our research about a soldier from near our homes who died in the Normandy Campaign and is buried in the Normandy American Cemetery. Working with experienced Institute Staff Members, including faculty from George Washington University, each team of Institute members will work on a biography of the fallen Hometown Hero between January and June. The biography that each student produces will be deposited in the Cemetery’s archives to preserve that soldier’s story and make it available to future visitors to the Cemetery.
Our reading materials will be distributed in December and we will conduct frequent online discussions of them from January 7 through June 5, 2023, which will probably occur every other week, according to a detailed syllabus.
We will watch several video recordings of interviews of World War II veterans to learn about the activities in which they participated. In addition, we will begin our lectures with a series of podcasts about topics important to understanding the sacrifices made by American soldiers in World War II. We will also watch some full-length motion pictures about the Normandy Campaign.
The Primary Readings
Beevor, Antony. D-Day: The Battle for Normandy. 1st American ed. New York: Viking,
2009.
Keegan, John. The Second World War. New York: Penguin Group, 1990.
Kershaw, Alex. The Bedford Boys: One American Town's Ultimate D-Day Sacrifice. 1st
Da Capo Press ed. Cambridge, Mass.: Da Capo Press, 2003.
Osmont, Marie-Louise b. The Normandy Diary of Marie-Louise Osmont: 1940-1944.
New York, N.Y.: Random House/The Discovery Channel Press, 1994.
Primary source materials from archival records.
2009.
Keegan, John. The Second World War. New York: Penguin Group, 1990.
Kershaw, Alex. The Bedford Boys: One American Town's Ultimate D-Day Sacrifice. 1st
Da Capo Press ed. Cambridge, Mass.: Da Capo Press, 2003.
Osmont, Marie-Louise b. The Normandy Diary of Marie-Louise Osmont: 1940-1944.
New York, N.Y.: Random House/The Discovery Channel Press, 1994.
Primary source materials from archival records.
Sources from Which Reading Extracts will be shared via Blackboard or are suggested as optional and/or alternative readings
Atkinson, Rick. An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa: 1942-1943. 1st Owl Books ed., The Liberation Trilogy, V.1. New York: Henry Holt & Co., 2003.
Atkinson, Rick. The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily: 1942-1943. The Liberation Trilogy, V.2. New York: Henry Holt & Co., 2007.
Balkoski, Joseph. Omaha Beach: D-Day, June 6, 1944. Stackpole Books, 2004.
Balkoski, Joseph. Utah Beach: The Amphibious Landing and Airborne Operations on D-Day, June 6, 1944. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2005.
Berr, Helene. The Journal of Helene Berr. Translated by David Belos. New York: Weinstein Books: 2008.
Eisenhower, David. Eisenhower at War, 1943-1945. New York: Vintage Books, 1987.
Eisenhower, Dwight D. Crusade in Europe. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1948.
Fussell, Paul. The Boy’s Crusade: The American Infantry in Northwestern Europe, 1944-1945. Modern Library Chronicles, Pbk., 2005.
Gardner, Ian Day Roger. Tonight We Die as Men: The Untold Story of Third Battalion 506 Parachute Infantry Regiment from Toccoa to D-Day. Oxford: New York, 2009.
Hastings, Max. The Secret War: Spies, Ciphers, and Guerrillas 1939-1945. First US edition. Ed. New York, NY: Harper, an Imprint of Harper Collins Publishers, 2016.
Hines, Samuel, Anne Matthews, Nancy Sorel, Roger Spiller, ed. Reporting World War II. 2 vols, The Library of America, vol. 77-78. New York: Literary Classics of the United States: Distributed by Penguin Books, 1995.
Hemingway, Ernest. “Voyage to Victory: An Eyewitness Report of the Battle for a Normandy Beachhead.” New York: Collier’s, 1944 in Hines, et. al., Reporting on World War II.
Hesketh, Roger Fleetwood. Fortitude: The D-Day Deception Campaign. Woodstock, N.Y.: Overlook Press, 2000.
Hines, Samuel, Anne Matthews, Nancy Sorel, Roger Spiller, ed. Reporting World War II.
Hitchcock, William I. The Bitter Road to Freedom: The Human Cost of Allied Victory in World War II Europe, Free Press; Illustrated ed., 2009.
Howard, Michael. British Intelligence in the Second World War. History of the Second World War; Variation: History of the Second World War. London: H.M.S.O., 1990.
Liebing, A.J., “Cross-Channel Trip” in Hines, et. al., Reporting World War II
Lukacs, John. Five Days in London: May 1940. New Haven: Ct: Yale University Press, 1999.
Mauldin, Bill. Up Front. Reissued ed. New York: W.W. Norton, 2000.
Morison, S.E. (1947.) History of the United States Naval Operations in World War II. Boston, Little, Brown. (15 Vol.: v.1. The Battle of the Atlantic, September 1939-May 1943 – v. January 1943-June 1944 – v.10. The Atlantic Battle Won, May 1943 – v.9 Sicily, Salerno, Anzio, Invasion of France and Germany, 1944-1945.)
Nance, E.R., Dawn on Omaha Beach: We Were There. Lynchburg, Va: Warwick House Publishing, 2018.
Olson, Lynne. Citizens of London: The Americans Who Stood with Britain in Its Darkest, Finest Hour. Random House trade pbk. Ed. New York, Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2010.
Potter, E.B., et al. Sea Power: A Naval History. Annapolis, Md., Naval Institute Press, 1981.
Pyle, Ernie. Brave Men. 1st Bison Books print ed. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2001.
Samet, E. D. Looking for the Good War: American Amnesia and the Violent Pursuit of Happiness. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2021.
Smith, Michael, and Ralph Erskine, eds. Action This Day. New York: Bantam Press, 2001.
Spector, Ronald H. At War at Sea: Sailors and Naval Warfare in the Twentieth Century. New York: Vikings, 2001.
Symonds, Craig L. Neptune: The Allied Invasion of Europe and the D-Day Landings.
New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2014.
Symonds, Craig L. World War II at Sea: A Global History. New York: Oxford University Press, 2018.
Terkel, Studs. "The Good War": An Oral History of World War Two. New York: Pantheon Books, 1984
Thomas A. Guglielmo “A Martial Freedom Movement: Black GI’s Political Struggles During World War II.” Journal of American History, Volume 104, Issue 4, March 2018, (879-903).
Weinberg, G. L. (2005). A World at Arms: A Global History of World War II. Cambridge, New York, 2005.
Atkinson, Rick. The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily: 1942-1943. The Liberation Trilogy, V.2. New York: Henry Holt & Co., 2007.
Balkoski, Joseph. Omaha Beach: D-Day, June 6, 1944. Stackpole Books, 2004.
Balkoski, Joseph. Utah Beach: The Amphibious Landing and Airborne Operations on D-Day, June 6, 1944. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2005.
Berr, Helene. The Journal of Helene Berr. Translated by David Belos. New York: Weinstein Books: 2008.
Eisenhower, David. Eisenhower at War, 1943-1945. New York: Vintage Books, 1987.
Eisenhower, Dwight D. Crusade in Europe. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1948.
Fussell, Paul. The Boy’s Crusade: The American Infantry in Northwestern Europe, 1944-1945. Modern Library Chronicles, Pbk., 2005.
Gardner, Ian Day Roger. Tonight We Die as Men: The Untold Story of Third Battalion 506 Parachute Infantry Regiment from Toccoa to D-Day. Oxford: New York, 2009.
Hastings, Max. The Secret War: Spies, Ciphers, and Guerrillas 1939-1945. First US edition. Ed. New York, NY: Harper, an Imprint of Harper Collins Publishers, 2016.
Hines, Samuel, Anne Matthews, Nancy Sorel, Roger Spiller, ed. Reporting World War II. 2 vols, The Library of America, vol. 77-78. New York: Literary Classics of the United States: Distributed by Penguin Books, 1995.
Hemingway, Ernest. “Voyage to Victory: An Eyewitness Report of the Battle for a Normandy Beachhead.” New York: Collier’s, 1944 in Hines, et. al., Reporting on World War II.
Hesketh, Roger Fleetwood. Fortitude: The D-Day Deception Campaign. Woodstock, N.Y.: Overlook Press, 2000.
Hines, Samuel, Anne Matthews, Nancy Sorel, Roger Spiller, ed. Reporting World War II.
Hitchcock, William I. The Bitter Road to Freedom: The Human Cost of Allied Victory in World War II Europe, Free Press; Illustrated ed., 2009.
Howard, Michael. British Intelligence in the Second World War. History of the Second World War; Variation: History of the Second World War. London: H.M.S.O., 1990.
Liebing, A.J., “Cross-Channel Trip” in Hines, et. al., Reporting World War II
Lukacs, John. Five Days in London: May 1940. New Haven: Ct: Yale University Press, 1999.
Mauldin, Bill. Up Front. Reissued ed. New York: W.W. Norton, 2000.
Morison, S.E. (1947.) History of the United States Naval Operations in World War II. Boston, Little, Brown. (15 Vol.: v.1. The Battle of the Atlantic, September 1939-May 1943 – v. January 1943-June 1944 – v.10. The Atlantic Battle Won, May 1943 – v.9 Sicily, Salerno, Anzio, Invasion of France and Germany, 1944-1945.)
Nance, E.R., Dawn on Omaha Beach: We Were There. Lynchburg, Va: Warwick House Publishing, 2018.
Olson, Lynne. Citizens of London: The Americans Who Stood with Britain in Its Darkest, Finest Hour. Random House trade pbk. Ed. New York, Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2010.
Potter, E.B., et al. Sea Power: A Naval History. Annapolis, Md., Naval Institute Press, 1981.
Pyle, Ernie. Brave Men. 1st Bison Books print ed. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2001.
Samet, E. D. Looking for the Good War: American Amnesia and the Violent Pursuit of Happiness. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2021.
Smith, Michael, and Ralph Erskine, eds. Action This Day. New York: Bantam Press, 2001.
Spector, Ronald H. At War at Sea: Sailors and Naval Warfare in the Twentieth Century. New York: Vikings, 2001.
Symonds, Craig L. Neptune: The Allied Invasion of Europe and the D-Day Landings.
New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2014.
Symonds, Craig L. World War II at Sea: A Global History. New York: Oxford University Press, 2018.
Terkel, Studs. "The Good War": An Oral History of World War Two. New York: Pantheon Books, 1984
Thomas A. Guglielmo “A Martial Freedom Movement: Black GI’s Political Struggles During World War II.” Journal of American History, Volume 104, Issue 4, March 2018, (879-903).
Weinberg, G. L. (2005). A World at Arms: A Global History of World War II. Cambridge, New York, 2005.