Reviews

"The Best War Ever plays a pivotal role in historical research considering its purpose to dispel the mythology surrounding the war. Adams peels back the layers of romanticization in literature and film to reveal the truth about armed conflict... The Best War Ever provides an ideal middle ground in depicting the realities of war, and will serve scholars of this period as well as undergraduate and graduate students in contextualizing this significant marker of time more accurately, with less emotion."

"Adams... uses his demythologizing lens to provide a rich overview of American involvement in the war... [He] has a real gift for efficiently explaining complex historical problems."

"Not only is this mythologizing bad history, says Adams, it is dangerous as well. Surrounding the war with an aura of nostalgia both fosters the delusion that war can cure our social ills and makes us strong again, and weakens confidence in our ability to act effectively in our own time."