by Douglas Brinkley
Reviewed by Phil Nicolosi

In The Boys of Pointe du Hoc, historian Douglas Brinkley masterfully links the events of June 6, 1944 to Reagan’s famous speeches commemorating the fortieth anniversary of D-Day on June 6, 1984. Brinkley claims that Reagan’s speeches started the renewed interest in the World War II’s “greatest generation,” culminating in numerous books, films, documentaries, and memorials since then. As history teachers, we often find ourselves trying to justify to students why history is important and why we should learn about and remember certain people and events. Brinkley’s book provides us a resource to face those classroom challenges.

Brinkley tells the gripping story of James Earl Rudder’s 2nd Army Ranger Battalion who climbed the jagged cliff at Pointe du Hoc in the face of Nazi fire to help liberate Europe. He then links that moment in time with events four decades later when Reagan delivered what many consider to be his finest speech to the “Boys of Pointe du Hoc” at that very site. What makes this book outstanding for classroom use is the variety of ways teachers can employ it to show students that history matters, that people are products of their time, and that events of years ago still directly affect us today.

The book is essentially written as two stories. For the 2nd Ranger Battalion story, Brinkley uses available primary sources such as accounts of their training and mission, their photos, and their personal letters, placing the reader at the scene in 1944. Students will be drawn to the story; the outcome may be certain, but the drama remains. The second part of the book focuses on events and people who influenced Reagan in his younger days in 1944 and on the construction of his famous speeches in 1984. This story, too, is riveting. From Reagan’s background and his admiration for FDR, to speechwriter Peggy Noonan’s word choices, Brinkley captures almost every emotion that goes into commemorating an event.

A classroom teacher will find this book a genuine asset not only in teaching the content of the 1940’s and 1980’s, but also in helping students to see how a nation “remembers” its history. Brinkley includes the Pointe Du Hoc speech in the Appendix, so students can read the account of the events in the book, compare Brinkley’s work as an historian to the speech itself, and discover how a professional historian or a President retells “memories.” It may also be beneficial for students to select “soundbites” from the speech and justify why their selections proved so memorable. Teachers will find the photos and the full text of letters useful for capturing the emotional component of war from those who experienced both the war and the remembrance. For instance, the daughter of a D-Day veteran who visited France in 1984 wrote one particular letter, which inspired Reagan. She wanted to see what her father, who died a few years earlier, had always talked about. The full text of this letter is included in the book. It is the type of source selection that gives Brinkley’s text such power. Brinkley understands the importance of such a source, but teachers will also see its usefulness because it allows students to see the personal side of history and that common people can do uncommon things.

Just as Trumbull’s painting of the signing of the Declaration of Independence helped capture the eighteenth century’s “greatest generation” approximately forty years after the original event, Brinkley’s work provides us with a highly readable, primary source-filled account of events forty years apart. When Ronald Reagan referred to D-Day in his Farewell Address, he warned that we, as a nation, cannot forget our past. “We won’t know who we are,” he declared, for a loss of an American memory “could result, ultimately, in an erosion of the American spirit.” High school history teachers will find this book useful in making exactly this point to their students.

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