Amazing Tales for Making Men Out of Boys

Written by Neil Oliver

Narrated by Gideon Emery

Stories of heroism, exploration, and sacrifice -- including Apollo XIII and Scott of the Antarctic -- that inspire boys to be courageous, selfless, and open to adventure

Tales of brave and selfless deeds used to be part of every boy’s education. We grew up sharing stories with our fathers, uncles, and grandfathers of how other men had lived their lives, met their challenges, reached their goals, and faced their deaths. Becoming a man was about comradeship and standing by your friends whatever the circumstances. And it meant that sometimes it was more important to die a hero than live a coward’s life. Through Neil Oliver’s vivid, stirring accounts we can rediscover the stories that inspire men to perform acts greater than themselves. These are the epics that we should all know by heart; the tales of courage, endurance, and sacrifice that made men out of boys.

Amazing Tales for Making Men Out of Boys is packed with classic stories of courage and heroism from around the world and includes four stories especially for the American edition: Omaha Beach, June 6th 1944; The Alamo; The Civil War Battle of Shilo; and The Revolutionary War Sea Battle of John Paul Jones and the Bon Homme Richard.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: May 5, 2009
• ISBN: 9780061894121

Neil Oliver

Neil Oliver is a Scottish archaeologist, historian, broadcaster and writer who has become widely known as the presenter of BBC's flagship series A History of Scotland. Before that, his distinctive style was much in evidence as the charismatic presenter of the award-winning multi-part documentary series Coast and the author of its tie-in book. His archaeological training at Glasgow University was put to good use in BBC2's series Two Men in a Trench where he visited historic British battlefields and attempted to recreate the events of each battle. He co-wrote the two accompanying books. He has also presented the BBC series A History of Ancient Britain, Vikings, The Last Explorers and Sacred Wonders of Britain, as well as Coast Australia. He lives in Stirling with his wife and three children. Find out more at www.neiloliver.com or follow him on Twitter @NEIL_OLIVER_

Reviews for Amazing Tales for Making Men Out of Boys

[helenliz_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

 OK! I admit, I'm not a boy, but I decided to ignore the implicit sexism in the title and read it anyway. It's basically a big book of boys adventures.



What makes a hero - according to this book it is a combination of circumstances and example; without the heroes of the past there's nothing to live up to. The examples of herosim in this book aren't always the obvious ones and are from around the world. They make it perfectly plain how over used the word "hero" is. The media describe a footballer as a hero for kicking a ball into a net; that's not the heroism of this book. In here heroes are ordinary men who find that, when the situation calls for it, that they are capable of performing something extrordinary.



They are, in various degrees, moving. All of them ask you to think if you would have or could have done the same thing. As the tales make plain, there is nothing in a hero to show that they will become a hero - it's not always about being the biggest, strongest or boldest, sometimes it is simply about being one of a band of brothers. Some of them are similar, an outnumbered group of soldiers fight to the last man. But somehow it's never entirely pointless, and it echoes down the ages.



It slightly looses the thread towards the end and there is no rounding off chapter to match the intial opening, which means that it feels open ended - in a way, I suppose, it should do, there will always be occasions that call for heroes - we can only hope that they will be there if they are ever called for."

[iamthenewno2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Oliver has an interesting starting point for his collection of daring-do, that British Men are no longer 'Manly-Men' and he is perhaps correct.

The work is a collection of tales of bravery, most of which I was aware of but others I will have to source more information on, not only British but he also includes French, Native Indian and Byzantine tales. For those looking for an in-depth coverage of these events it would be better to look elsewhere but as an introduction or pointer to further works the book serves well.

I only found one discussion point in the book but this one leads me to think that due to the light investigation that has gone into the tales others may also exist, in the chapter on Dien Bien Phu Oliver states that 2 civilian airmen where the first American casualties in Vietnam but from the far more detailed 'The Last valley' by Martin Windrow stated that the 'Airline' which supplied these fliers, "Civil Air Transport", was wholly owned by the CIA from 1950.