I just wanted to put in a plug for a great documentary by Ken Burns that is on PBS each night this week at 8:00. It is about WWII. It focuses on the war with the backdrop of four towns in the US (the soldiers from those towns and where they fought, the factory/war effort of those towns, and the families they left behind), one of which is local to me in CT. We saw the World Premiere in Waterbury, CT with my uncle who is a WWII vet. It was really moving.

In fact, the CT family they focus on is Italian American. The story of that family is very touching. The only English word the mom can say is "cemetary," which she tells the bus driver each day to visit her husband's grave. Anyhow, it is a great series for those of you who get PBS!

Lori,

I've been watching the series on my local PBS station. As with all of Ken Burns' documentaries, it's extremely well done. The book on the series is currently available and DVDs for the entire series with extras go on sale in early October. The DVD set is already on my Christmas wish list.

Also scheduled for release in early October is the second volume of Rick Atkinson's World War II in Europe Liberation trilogy, The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944. The first volume, An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942-1943, won a Pulitizer Prize. Besides conducting exhaustive and meticulous research, Atkiinson uses the same fluid, riveting historical narrative style which Shelby Foote employed in his three volume The Civil War: A Narrative and which Bruce Catton used in his multi volume The Army of the Potomac.

Biff

Hey Biff...can I ask you for a favor? I taped the first night, didn't know it was a four part thing. Would it be possible to tell me when you hear of it being available to purchase? I'm sure I won't remember by next month and I'd really like to get it. I would really appreciate it.

Gina,

Amazon has it available for preorder for $84.99, a 35% discount. Release date is 2 October.

Biff

This sounds so interesting. I haven't watched any TV lately. Maybe I'll pre order it too.

WOW! As always Biff, thanks for the help. My husband would love this and I am going to order it for him for Christmas. Thanks!

Gina,

If your husband is a World War II buff, I'm sure he'd also like Sir Jeremy Isaacs' The World at War released in 1974. Narrated by Sir Laurence Olivier, it's the finest documentary ever produced on the war. It initially aired in the mid 70s for 26 weeks on television in one hour episodes; the set includes about 5 hours of extras in addition to the 26 hours. My serious interest in the Second World War began in 2000 and I was happy to find that our local library system had the series available on VHS. I enjoyed the series so much that I purchased the set when it was initially released on DVD. It's available from Amazon also for about $55 which is one third of what I paid when it was first released on DVD.

And of course the other seminal Burns' documentary The Civil War is also available on DVD from Amazon for about $98 although I was able to purchase my set for around $80 when Borders was running a recent 2 day 40% off sale.

Try your local library to see if it has copies of Isaacs' documentary and take out the first one or two episodes. If you enjoy history and documentaries, you'll be back for more.

Biff

The companion book to Ken Burns' War is already at Costco for about $25! BTW, they do a good job of introducing each episode, so for those of you that missed the beginning, you can jump right in.

Thanks for the "heads up" on this. I watched it last night and really enjoyed it. I am sorry I missed the first night.

Didn't you get choked up when Babe's sister read his birthday letter? I had already knew he died because he was a local person, but it was still so sad. He would have been 85 had he lived!

Hey Biff, thanks again. My husband will love this stuff. I will check the library and I am always checking ebay for good prices to buy. Great information!

FYI: Costco has the series available online for $79.99