The Vietnam War: An Intimate History

From the award-winning historian and filmmakers of The Civil War, Baseball, The War, The Roosevelts, and others: a vivid, uniquely powerful history of the conflict that tore America apart--the companion volume to the major, multipart PBS film to be aired in September 2017.

More than forty years after it ended, the Vietnam War continues to haunt our country. We still argue over why we were there, whether we could have won, and who was right and wrong in their response to the conflict. When the war divided the country, it created deep political fault lines that continue to divide us today. Now, continuing in the tradition of their critically acclaimed collaborations, the authors draw on dozens and dozens of interviews in America and Vietnam to give us the perspectives of people involved at all levels of the war: U.S. and Vietnamese soldiers and their families, high-level officials in America and Vietnam, antiwar protestors, POWs, and many more. The book plunges us into the chaos and intensity of combat, even as it explains the rationale that got us into Vietnam and kept us there for so many years. Rather than taking sides, the book seeks to understand why the war happened the way it did, and to clarify its complicated legacy. Beautifully written and richly illustrated, this is a tour de force that is certain to launch a new national conversation.

Author: Geoffrey C. Ward, Ken Burns
Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group
Published: 09/05/2017
Pages: 640
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 5.45lbs
Size: 11.20h x 9.20w x 1.70d
ISBN: 9780307700254


Review Citation(s):
Library Journal Prepub Alert 04/15/2017 pg. 61
Kirkus Reviews 08/01/2017 pg. 126
Booklist 08/01/2017 pg. 19
Publishers Weekly 08/21/2017
Library Journal 09/01/2017 pg. 138
Choice 03/01/2018

About the Author
GEOFFREY C. WARD, historian and screenwriter, is the author of nineteen books, including A First-Class Temperament: The Emergence of Franklin Roosevelt, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Francis Parkman Prize, and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. He has written or cowritten many documentary films, including The War, The Civil War, Baseball, The West, Mark Twain, Not for Ourselves Alone, and Jazz.

KEN BURNS, the producer and director of numerous film series, including Vietnam, The Roosevelts, and The War, founded his own documentary film company, Florentine Films, in 1976. His landmark film The Civil War was the highest-rated series in the history of American public television, and his work has won numerous prizes, including the Emmy and Peabody Awards, and two Academy Award nominations. He lives in Walpole, New Hampshire.

LYNN NOVICK's previous directing credits include Prohibition, a three part series on the rise, rule, and fall of the 18th Amendment; Frank Lloyd Wright, a two part biography of the architect; and The Tenth Inning, a four hour sequel to Burns's Baseball, which Novick produced. She also produced his 20 hour series, Jazz. She has received Peabody and Emmy awards.