Make a Hero

A gripping portrait of courage, trauma, and the making of the most decorated American soldier of WWII, Audie Murphy, providing an intimate perspective on both his fights on the battlefield and the demons that followed him home. 

On the battlefields of Europe, Audie Murphy faced machine guns, tanks, and impossible odds on his path to becoming a famed Medal of Honor recipient. But stories of his bravery fail to reveal the much more complex story of the man behind the military decorations.  

In this powerful and deeply human narrative, MAKE A HERO traces Murphy’s journey from a childhood marked by poverty and hardship in rural Texas to the battlefields in Italy, France, and Germany. Along the way, he emerges not simply as a symbol of courage, but as a complicated young man shaped by not only the violence and loss of war, but the crushing weight of being turned into a national icon upon his return home and being retraumatized by his career as an actor. 

More than a chronicle of battlefield heroics, MAKE A HERO examines how heroes are made — and what that process costs them. It reveals the gulf between the brutal reality of combat and the polished public image created by the military, the media, and Hollywood. Through Murphy’s story, the book offers a gripping portrait of war, trauma, survival, and the burden of living up to a myth.

• “Edward Lengel cuts through the myth to reveal Audie Murphy, the hero and real person. Crisply written, deeply moving, and insightful, Make A Hero is a compelling story of bravery, vulnerability, and the true cost of war."
   
  Patrick K. O'Donnell, Historian and bestselling author of Dog Company and Revolutionary Snipers
• “Audie Murphy was the most decorated US soldier of WW2 and is one of the most written about. This superb book offers a new take, a bracing reminder of the price paid by those who go to hell and back - an incisive, surprising and elegant account of a spectacular warrior."
  Alex Kershaw, New York Times bestselling author of Against All Odds