Denise

To safeguard these things will show respect for the beliefs and customs of all men and will bear witness that these things belong not only to a particular people but also to the heritage of mankind.

I am always interested in learning more about WWII, specifically about the people that risked their lives during the war to save others' lives or to save important cultural objects. Basically I just love reading about the courageous people that served during WWII and seeing what their lives were like and what they accomplished during the war. When I saw the movie adaptation of this book (while the movie was based on true events you could tell it was loosely based), I knew that I really wanted to read the book.

Readers will be really interested in reading this book if they want to know more about the men and women (well Rose Valland is really the only woman that is really talked about in detail) that were a part of the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives (MFAA) section that helped save and return artwork looted by the Germans during WWII. This book really talks about the background of each of the Monuments Men and discusses what each man (and Rose Valland, who without none of this probably would have happened) did during the war.

This book does at time briefly discuss the artwork that MFAA is trying to find and save but it is definitely not the best in going into detail about the artwork. I have heard that there are other books that focus more on the artwork and I would recommend this book to someone if they are looking more to learn about the individual Monuments Men and their activities during the war. I would have liked to have learned a bit more about the stolen artwork but I do appreciate what the author did cover in this book.