Here are 100 books that Pacific Crucible fans have personally recommended if you like
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I am a Professor Emeritus of History at the United States Naval Academy, where I taught for thirty years, including a four-year term as History Department Chair. I was the first person to win both the Naval Academy’s Teacher of the Year award (1988) and its Researcher of the Year award (1998). I received the Navy Meritorious Service Award in 1989 and the Superior Civilian Service medal four times. In 1994-95, I was a Professor of Strategy at the Britannia Royal Naval College in Dartmouth, England. After retirement, I returned to the Naval Academy in 2012 as The Class of 1957 Distinguished Professor of Naval History.
The Second World War marked the apogee of American naval power, and there are many wonderful books about it, especially about the Pacific War. One of the many such books is James D. Hornfisher’s book, which is a dramatic telling of the furious engagement off the island of Samar during the Battle for Leyte Gulf in 1944 when a small group of destroyers stood up to a Japanese battleship-cruiser force.
“This will be a fight against overwhelming odds from which survival cannot be expected. We will do what damage we can.”
With these words, Lieutenant Commander Robert W. Copeland addressed the crew of the destroyer escort USS Samuel B. Roberts on the morning of October 25, 1944, off the Philippine Island of Samar. On the horizon loomed the mightiest ships of the Japanese navy, a massive fleet that represented the last hope of a staggering empire. All that stood between it and Douglas MacArthur’ s vulnerable invasion force were the Roberts and the other small ships of a tiny American…
I became an author because I loved books and wanted to craft my own. Here are five books I consumed first as a reader and then as a writer, methodically noting what made these books brilliant in style, depth, and plot. If you enjoy thrillers or science fiction and are looking for books to hone your craft as a writer, here are my choices.
This book is the book that made me decide to become an author. I was always a voracious reader and crazy about all things technological—space exploration, airplanes, naval warfare, you name it. In my mind, there was no way anyone would want to read a book about my interests—until Tom Clancy showed it absolutely could be done and singlehandedly created a new genre of fiction with one book.
His research was so accurate that he was accused of spilling classified information about our submarine capabilities and tactics. But no, he was just an insurance agent from Owings, Maryland, who touched a 220-volt wire in my soul that made me decide, “Someday I’m going to do that, too!”
Tom Clancy's rich imagination and his remarkable grasp of the capabilities of advanced technology give this novel an amazing ring of authenticity. It is a thriller with a new twist, a "military procedural" with an ingenious, tightly woven plot that revolves around the defection of a Soviet nuclear submarine--the USSR's newest and most valuable ship, with its most trusted and skilled officer at the helm.
A deadly serious game of hide-and-seek is on. The entire Soviet Atlantic Fleet is ordered to hunt down the submarine and destroy her at all costs. The…
I’m pretty well qualified to provide you with a list of five great books about men at war because, frankly, I’ve spent half my life reading them and the other half trying to write them (you be the judge!). My degree in Military Studies was focused on the question of what makes men endure the lunacy of war (whether they be ‘goodies’ or ‘baddies’), and it was in fiction that I found some of the clearest answers–clue: it’s often less about country and duty and more about the love of the men alongside the soldier. In learning how to write, I also learned how to recognize great–enjoy!
I came across this book while researching why the US Army (and Marines) struggled so badly in the Vietnam War. As with all the books I’m recommending here, it spoke to me of how men go to war for their duty but stay at war for their brothers.
It speaks volumes of the frustrations and contradictions of a war in which an American generation skewed to the poor and racially discriminated against was sent to fight a highly motivated army of liberation and paid the price for their obedience. And told me more about what really happened in the valleys of that benighted country than any history book could.
I read it cover to cover and then read it again, eagerly consuming its truth at a time when the scars were so fresh that the truth was barely starting to emerge, and I commend it to you both as a…
Hailed as the most important novel to emerge from the Vietnam War when first published in 1978, this book launched a spectacular writing career for James Webb that now includes four bestselling novels. A much-decorated former Marine who fought and was wounded in Vietnam, Webb tells the story of a platoon of tough, young Marines enduring the tropical hell of Southeast Asian jungles while facing an invisible enemy--in a war no one understands. Filled with the sounds and smells of combat, it is nevertheless a book about people, an amazing variety of closely observed characters caught up in circumstances beyond…
The first and only full-length biography of Hazel Ying Lee, an unrecognized pioneer and unsung World War II hero who fought for a country that actively discriminated against her gender, race, and ambition.
This unique hidden figure defied countless stereotypes to become the first Asian American woman in United States…
Let me tell you a story. Once upon a time, there was a young boy who made model airplanes and hung them on his bedroom ceiling with fishing lines and thumbtacks as if the planes were dogfighting. The aircraft were inspired by a movie called The Battle of Britain and were the same Messerschmitts, Spitfires, and Hurricanes. The boy grew up and began writing books for a living, making it his mission to help people love history as much as he did. One day, it dawned on him to write about his long-ago planes and their epic battle. I am that boy, and that's when I wrote my book.
I write stories about famous people and moments in history. I like to strip down the narrative and make history read like a top-notch thriller. But to do that, I need to stand on the shoulders of authors who devoted ten or a dozen years to researching and writing the detailed lives of a subject they adore. I do not have the attention span to spend so long on one character.
I love this book because William Manchester (and Paul Reid, who stepped in to finish the book when Manchester died) loves Winston Churchill. What he wore, how he spoke, who he loved, what he drank. It is hundreds of pages of gorgeous detail, waiting for a long winter’s reading night.
This is the second in William Manchester's masterly 3 volume life of Winston Churchill. It contests the favoured view that Churchill's finest hour was as Britain's wartime leader, viewing his greatest period as a statesman during 1932 to 1940, ignored in Parliament and disowned by the social and political establishment as a warmonger, he stood his ground, both in the Commons and outside of it, maintaining his principles until ultimately he succeeded in drawing the country behind him. He is seen as a man with limitations who could be unkind and callous, indiscreet and reckless to the point of foolhardiness…
I am a Professor Emeritus of History at the United States Naval Academy, where I taught for thirty years, including a four-year term as History Department Chair. I was the first person to win both the Naval Academy’s Teacher of the Year award (1988) and its Researcher of the Year award (1998). I received the Navy Meritorious Service Award in 1989 and the Superior Civilian Service medal four times. In 1994-95, I was a Professor of Strategy at the Britannia Royal Naval College in Dartmouth, England. After retirement, I returned to the Naval Academy in 2012 as The Class of 1957 Distinguished Professor of Naval History.
In chronological order, I’ll start with this book (1882, modern reprint 1999) by Theodore Roosevelt. There are many excellent modern books about this conflict, but a reader cannot go wrong by turning to an early book on the subject by a young (22) Theodore Roosevelt. Begun as his senior thesis at Harvard, it remains in print today and breathes with the future president’s love of all things naval.
"The Naval War of 1812" is an insightful historical work written by Theodore Roosevelt, an esteemed American statesman, historian, and the 26th President of the United States. Published in 1882, this comprehensive book delves into the lesser-known aspects of the War of 1812, focusing specifically on the naval battles that shaped the conflict between the United States and Great Britain.
In this complete edition, Roosevelt meticulously examines the events leading up to the war, providing a detailed account of the political tensions, economic disputes, and maritime issues that ultimately culminated in the conflict. He masterfully explores the motivations and strategies…
I am a Professor Emeritus of History at the United States Naval Academy, where I taught for thirty years, including a four-year term as History Department Chair. I was the first person to win both the Naval Academy’s Teacher of the Year award (1988) and its Researcher of the Year award (1998). I received the Navy Meritorious Service Award in 1989 and the Superior Civilian Service medal four times. In 1994-95, I was a Professor of Strategy at the Britannia Royal Naval College in Dartmouth, England. After retirement, I returned to the Naval Academy in 2012 as The Class of 1957 Distinguished Professor of Naval History.
The dean of American naval historians was Samuel Eliot Morison, who penned a remarkable number of books on the subject, including the 15-volume History Of Naval Operations In World War II. But among his best works is this biography that he wrote on Matthew Perry, which covers the years from the War of 1812 through the Civil War.
The younger brother of Oliver Hazard Perry of Lake Erie fame, Matthew Perry was a central player in the African Squadron, the War with Mexico, and the Opening of Japan.
A very good+ copy, clean, crisp, and unmarked, in a very good- dust jacket with some foxing and a few chips and tears. First edition. Cloth. 8vo. xxiii, 482 pp. Illus. with 75 b/w photos, drawings, and maps. The American Naval Officer who Helped Found Liberia, Hunted Pirates in the West Indies, Practised Diplomacy with the Sultan of Turkey and the King of the Two Sicilies Commanded the Gult Squadron in the Mexican War, Promoted the Steam Navy and the Shell Gun, and Conducted the Naval Expedition which Opened Japan.
It is April 1st, 2038. Day 60 of China's blockade of the rebel island of Taiwan. The US government has agreed to provide Taiwan with a weapons system so advanced, it can disrupt the balance of power in the region. But what pilot would be crazy enough to run the…
I am a Professor Emeritus of History at the United States Naval Academy, where I taught for thirty years, including a four-year term as History Department Chair. I was the first person to win both the Naval Academy’s Teacher of the Year award (1988) and its Researcher of the Year award (1998). I received the Navy Meritorious Service Award in 1989 and the Superior Civilian Service medal four times. In 1994-95, I was a Professor of Strategy at the Britannia Royal Naval College in Dartmouth, England. After retirement, I returned to the Naval Academy in 2012 as The Class of 1957 Distinguished Professor of Naval History.
Any important American naval history book list must include Alfred Thayer Mahan’s book. It is not about American naval history, but it greatly influenced American naval history. It is not a good read; detailed descriptions of fleet engagements between ships of the line from the Anglo-Dutch wars to the Napoleonic Wars dominate the narrative.
However, Mahan’s emphasis on the importance of possessing naval power provided the impetus for America’s own naval expansion at the end of the 19th century.
This illustrated edition of Influence of Sea Power Upon History is complete with the original tables and battle maps, permitting readers utmost comprehension of the naval engagements described.
Alfred Mahan's exceptional examination of naval military forces and their growing significance and sway in the colonial era of Empire, remains unrivalled for its all-encompassing approach to the growth of naval conflict in the 17th and 18th centuries. Designed both as a reference book and as a vivid history in its own right, this text describes how various European powers grappled with and sought to exploit the advent of new technology and…
I am Daniel Hammel and my father Eric Hammel was a prolific author and military historian. He specialized in the Marine Corps and specifically World War II. Though he has passed, several of these books, especially Day of Infamy, inspired him to become an author, where he wrote over 40 books. This list is an ode to my father, Eric, and to his many accomplishments.
The third and final book of the epic Pacific War Trilogy, Twilight of the Gods is the story of the crushing of the once venerable Japanese Empire. At just under 800 pages the book describes in the great detail the coming apocalypse for the Japanese war machine. While 1943 was pivotal with the war in the Pacific having essentially been won by the Allies, it was 1944 and 1945 where the real murder of empire happened. In these two years of horrendous fighting, hundreds of thousands died for what was clearly a lost cause. The Japanese tried one last time at the Battle of Leyte Gulf, but were massacred by the incredible might of the U.S. Navy and combined forces. Toll brings the reader into the little details of the war, and how they affected everything.
In June 1944, the United States launched a crushing assault on the Japanese navy in the Battle of the Philippine Sea. The capture of the Mariana Islands and the accompanying ruin of Japanese carrier airpower marked a pivotal moment in the Pacific War. No tactical masterstroke or blunder could reverse the increasingly lopsided balance of power between the two combatants. The War in the Pacific had entered its endgame.
Beginning with the Honolulu Conference, when President Franklin Delano Roosevelt met with his Pacific theater commanders to plan the last phase of the campaign against Japan, Twilight of the Gods brings…
I am a professional historian who has been writing books for more than forty years. Most of the books have been about war and dictatorship in the first half of the twentieth century. My last book, The Bombing War: Europe 1939-1945, developed my long interest in air war history, which goes back to my first major book written in 1980 on air warfare in World War II.
This is simply one of the finest books to be written on the final critical two years of the Pacific War, with extensive detail on the Japanese side of the conflict and plenty of new insights into the better-known American story. It is a big book, but this was a large conflict both in terms of space, time, and the resources deployed. It was also chiefly a story of amphibious naval warfare, an original and significant development in modern warfare that too often gets understated. By the end of the conflict, the American armed forces had created the shape that they were to employ for the next half-century in projecting power overseas.
May 8, 1945, Victory in Europe Day-shortened to "V.E. Day"-brought with it the demise of Nazi Germany. But for the Allies, the war was only half-won. Exhausted but exuberant American soldiers, ready to return home, were sent to join the fighting in the Pacific, which by the spring and summer of 1945 had turned into a grueling campaign of bloody attrition against an enemy determined to fight to the last man. Germany had surrendered unconditionally. The Japanese would clearly make the conditions of victory extraordinarily high.
Following V-E Day, American citizens understandably clamored for their young men to be shipped…
From the author of Washington’s Spies, the thrilling story of two rival secret agents — one Confederate, the other Union — sent to Britain during the Civil War.
The South’s James Bulloch, charming and devious, was ordered to acquire a clandestine fleet intended to break Lincoln’s blockade, sink Northern…
We are three anthropologists who have focused decades of research on the cultures and histories of the beautiful part of the world known as Micronesia. We wrote this book when we realized that the many volumes of history on War in the Pacific focused on the combatants, and told us little of the experiences of the Islanders across whose lands, seas, and airspace the war was fought. Kwajalein, Enewetak, Pohnpei, Chuuk, Peleliu, Saipan, Guam, Tinian—these were not just battlegrounds, but also precious homelands. Our goal was to combine documentary history with interviews of more than 300 elders to tell the story of the war in Micronesia as it was experienced by Islanders who lived through it.
Anyone interested in the War in the Pacific will find this collection of 175 photographs showing the variety of interactions of Islanders and foreign servicemen interesting. It goes beyond official military photos (though there are plenty of those) to include photos from Japanese sources and veterans’ personal photographs. The text gives insight into the conditions of war and how Islanders and foreign fighters perceived and dealt with each other. A beautifully produced book.
Explores the massive and sudden contact between powerful military forces and Pacific islanders, blending oral histories recorded in the islands after WWII with some 175 photographs gleaned from Japanese newspaper morgues, the private albums of US veterans, and Allied military archives. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.
