Band of Brothers (book)


Band of Brothers, subtitled, E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne: From Normandy to Hitler's Eagle's Nest, by Stephen E. Ambrose is an examination of a parachute infantry company in the 101st Airborne Division in the European Theater during World War II. While the book treats the flow of battle, it concentrates on the lives of the soldiers in and associated with the company. The book was later adapted into a 2001 miniseries for HBO by Tom Hanks, Erik Jendreson, and Steven Spielberg, also titled Band of Brothers.

Background

The book rests upon interviews Ambrose conducted with former members of E Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division. The veterans were having a reunion at a hotel in New Orleans, Louisiana; the interviews were conducted as part of a project to collect oral histories of D-Day for the National D-Day Museum in New Orleans. Ambrose was intrigued with the bonds that had developed among the members of Easy Company. He circulated his drafts among the surviving members of the company, asked for input, and incorporated their ideas into later drafts. Ambrose wrote of the finished product, "We have come as close to the true story of Easy Company as possible."

Notable people

The book consists of a foreword, epigraph, and a maps section, followed by 19 chapters. There is an afterword and a brief author's bio after the chapters.
After the table of contents, the book's dedication reads:
To all those members of the Parachute Infantry
United States Army, 1941-1945
who wear the Purple Heart not as a decoration
but as a badge of office.

The epigraph is a quotation from Shakespeare's Henry V, from which the title of the book is derived:
From this day to the ending of the World,
...we in it shall be remembered
...we few, we happy few,
...we band of brothers.

The chapters are: