McManus, John C. 1965-

PERSONAL:

Born September 13, 1965, in Detroit, MI; son of Michael F. (a marketing executive) and Mary Jane (a homemaker) McManus; married Nancy Woody (an audiologist), September 28, 1996. Ethnicity: "Irish- American." Education: University of Missouri—Columbia, B.J., 1987, M.A., 1991; University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Ph.D., 1996. Politics: Republican. Religion: Roman Catholic. Hobbies and other interests: Sports, aircraft, participating in reenactments, travel.

ADDRESSES:

Home—St. Louis, MO. Agent—Rob Kaplan, Rob Kaplan Associates, 399 Furnace Dock Rd., Cortlandt Manor, NY 10567.

CAREER:

University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, instructor and research associate, 1992-98; St. Louis Community College, St. Louis, MO, instructor in history, 1998—.

MEMBER:

Society for Military History.

WRITINGS:

The Deadly Brotherhood: The American Combat Soldier in World War II, Presidio Press (Novato, CA), 1998.

Deadly Skies: American Combat Airmen in World War II, Presidio Press (Novato, CA), 2000.

The Americans at D-Day: The American Experience at the Normandy Invasion, Forge (New York, NY), 2004.

The Americans at Normandy: The Summer of 1944—the American War from the Normandy Beaches to Falaise, Forge (New York, NY), 2004.

Alamo in the Ardennes: The Untold Story of the American Soldiers Who Made the Defense of Bastogne Possible, J. Wiley (Hoboken, NJ), 2007.

SIDELIGHTS:

John C. McManus is an educator and historian with a particular interest in the World War II era. He is the author of several books about this time period, with a specific focus on the military campaigns involving American forces, including the Normandy invasion. In The Americans at Normandy: The Summer of 1944—the American War from the Normandy Beaches to Falaise McManus offers readers a detailed account of the three months Americans spent fighting on the beaches of Normandy, from the devastating attack at Omaha Beach through the gradual improvement in Allied positioning. A contributor to Kirkus Reviews predicted that the volume would be "of great interest to students of WWII history, and a fine textbook for the military academies, with as many negative as positive examples for future strategists." Jay Freeman, writing in Booklist, found the book to be a "heartrending portrait of ordinary men compelled to do extraordinary things."

Alamo in the Ardennes: The Untold Story of the American Soldiers Who Made the Defense of Bastogne Possible addresses the military strategy that led to the far more famous Battle of the Bulge. McManus discusses the small group of American troops who successfully slowed the German offensive before the 101st Airborne arrived on the scene. A reviewer for Publishers Weekly commented that "by focusing on a less familiar period, McManus makes a modest but original contribution to the vast WWII literature."

McManus once told CA: "I love writing. It is a wonderful mode of communication and a way to reach many people I'll never actually meet. Any writer has to believe that his work has something to say. It is safe to say that the belief in the importance of my subject material is also a major motivation for my writing. It's nice to get paid for doing something so enjoyable.

"My biggest influences have been Stephen Ambrose, James McPherson, Eric Bergerud, and Tom Fleming. All of them have demonstrated that writing good history is an exercise not just in scholarly research, but also in good old-fashioned storytelling. They never lose sight of the fact that history is about people more than anything else. They write their books in such a way that non-academics will want to read them, but they don't do so by compromising proper research. That's good history. I try to write my books in the same mold. I feel very strongly that history is not just for academics. It is also for the general public and should be written in such a way as to interest general readers.

"After finishing my research, I will map out the topics to be covered in each chapter of a book, and then I set out to write them point by point. I make sure to gather all the research information I will need for each topic within each chapter, and then ‘have at it.’ I usually spend the morning writing, break for lunch, and then finish in the late afternoon. I'm not a binge worker; I'm a routine worker. I set a goal for what must be accomplished each day, estimate how much time it will take, and then reach the goal before I let myself knock off for the day. I try to accomplish something significant each day, knowing that this consistent, step-by-step, day-by-day process will inevitably lead to another completed book.

"I have always been fascinated by World War II. Even as a very young child, I would read everything I could on the war. What particularly interested me was combat. Most of the books I read told me what happened in the war, but they did not give me a very good idea of what combat was like for those who were there. As I grew up and decided to pursue a doctorate in history, I became increasingly interested in combat and the realities of warfare. To me, there is nothing more compelling than the story of ordinary Americans in the midst of extraordinary circumstances. Most American combat soldiers started out as regular Americans with hopes, dreams, and plans for the future. World events took their lives in a different direction, and I think it is a fascinating story to see how they coped with such adversity."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, September 15, 2004, Jay Freeman, review of The Americans at Normandy: The Summer of 1944—the American War from the Normandy Beaches to Falaise, p. 197.

Kirkus Reviews, August 1, 2004, review of The Americans at Normandy, p. 728.

Publishers Weekly, January 1, 2007, review of Alamo in the Ardennes: The Untold Story of the American Soldiers Who Made the Defense of Bastogne Possible, p. 45.