In the book, “The Best War Ever” Adams’ main argument is that we as Americans like to distort history to remember the “good times”. We have a tendency to remember events as we would have wanted them to have happened not as they actually did [page 1, paragraph 3]. His thesis is “The goal of this book is to subject the major aspects of the Good War myth to fresh analysis in the hope of presenting a more realistic picture, one that does not demean the achievement of the United States. At the same time, it does not diminish the stress, suffering, problems, and failures inevitably faced by a society at war” (page xiv, paragraph 3).

The author’s significance is that history needs to be shown as it actually happened. When we mythologize it too much, distortions appear. His first “so what” sentence is “…we do both past and present a disservice when we simplify into mythology the complex patterns of human experience” (page xv, paragraph 1). Another “so what” sentence is “History cannot be repeated, particularly when our version of it is so heavily mythical” (page 5, paragraph 3). The author makes the claim that it is always better to fight then it is to talk (page 4, paragraph 2) and uses the 1938 Munich Conference as one example to prove his claim. This Munich claim is further explored in the next paragraph. In furthering his claim that WWII was remembered as a “good” war, he said that many Vietnam veterans were angry at the fact that they had fought a “bad” war, and lost.

The author claims authority by, on the back of the book, listing that he is a professor of history, and a chair of history, giving him at least the right to write the book. Furthermore, he reassures readers by stating that his book is not the definitive reference on World War Two. He admits to only wanting to “provoke the reader to have fresh insights” (page xiv, paragraph 5). Overall, this admittance of the obvious weaknesses inherent to war studies and his sort of statement of purpose last paragraph serve to ease the reader’s concerns.

The author uses history as his own strongest evidence. He cites the reasoning that Germany was lead to war was because of the Versailles Treaty of 1919 and by the cycle of having to make money to repay World War One’s victors so they could repay America. This, no one can dispute, however, he unpacks the myth that World War Two arose in a vacuum and that “appeasement” and “deterrence” had failed, and only through those policies failing, did the modern democracies realize they needed to go to war (pages 20-21, paragraphs 2-4).

The author seems to imagine his audience as having the “prime-time special” version of World War 2 history. He imagines that they know the basic background of the War but have acquired some misconceptions about it. He endeavors, as he admits, to dispel some of these myths. His writing, overall, seems inviting to the average reader, who may have seen some History Channel special on World War 2, but has not seriously pursued it. He makes allowances for those who do not have a strong knowledge of World War Two by bracketing basic facts, like the 1938 Munich conference, to sort of refresh our memory.

I thought that book was very well written. He took some of the myths, even some I thought to be true, and debunked them, proving his point with numerous citations and outside references. Though, I felt he used too many outside sources. He cited obscure passages and things from newspapers that only I sociologist could love. He used a quote from a student newspaper to substantiate his claim that the Gulf War made people proud to serve their country and that enlisting in the military helped them to show it. Could he have found some other evidence or more “reputable” claim to use?

About the Book: The Best War Ever was written in 1994 by Michael C.C. Adams and Published by John Hopkins Press.