The Rising Sun in the Pacific: 1931-April 1942
by Samuel Eliot Morison
History of United States Naval Operations in World War II (3)
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History of the United States Naval Operations in World War II.Tags
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Accidently started to read, and couldn't put down. Near contemporary narrative history. Started to collect the set through a book club in high school some 30+ years ago, reunited when mom cleaned out a storage unit.
Starts with an 80-page prelude to the war, covers the opening attacks, Coral Sea, and through the Doolittle raid.
Casual racism throughout.
Starts with an 80-page prelude to the war, covers the opening attacks, Coral Sea, and through the Doolittle raid.
Casual racism throughout.
I am a fan of France's WWII navy, and this volume of the USN in WWII is therefore a very sad read. The TOEs are nicely detailed, and the tone is relatively objective. As this is a service history, not a political one there's not a great deal about the complex politics of the French Navy. Maps are good, and the book added to my library as an island of sanity, all be it limited, in the sea of controversy where the French have left us regarding this period.
This third volume of the Morison USN history was originally published in 1947, and the style is very much of the period. This volume emphasizes the attitude that the USN's real WWII was against the Japanese, not the Germans. The analysis of the period prior to Pearl Harbour is very concerned with the steadily growing levels of Japanese aggression not with American policy in the Far east. The covering of the Dec. 7th attack is competent, but much has been revealed since due to the relaxation of the security surrounding the Japanese codes. For operational information and orders of battle Morison was given a lot of official cooperation so these books are essential for the American side of the picture. There's also information on Wake show more Island not easily found elsewhere. show less
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121+ Works 10,861 Members
Samuel Eliot Morison was born in Boston in 1887. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard in 1912 and began teaching history there in 1915, becoming full professor in 1925 and Jonathan Trumbull professor of American history in 1941. He served as the university's official historian and wrote a three-volume history of the institution, the Tercentennial show more History of Harvard College and University, which was completed in 1936. Between 1922 and 1925 he was Harmsworth professor of American history at Oxford. He also was an accomplished sailor who retired from the navy in 1951 as a rear admiral. In preparing for his Pulitzer Prize-winning biographies of Christopher Columbus and John Paul Jones, Admiral of the Ocean Sea (1941) and John Paul Jones: A Sailor's Biography (1952) he took himself out of the study and onto the high seas, where he traced the voyages of his subjects and "lived" their stories insofar as possible. When it came time for the U.S. Navy to select an author to write a history of its operations in World War II, Morison was the natural choice for the task. In 1942, Morison was commissioned by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to write a history of U.S. naval operations in World War II and given the rank of lieutenant commander. The 15 volumes of his History of United States Naval Operations in World War II appeared between 1947 and 1962. Although he retired from Harvard in 1955, Morison continued his research and writing. A product of the Brahmin tradition, Morison wrote about Bostonians and other New Englanders and about life in early Massachusetts. He was an "American historian" in the fullest sense of the term. He also had a keen appreciation for the larger history of the nation and world, provincial is the last word one would use to describe Morison's writing. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- The Rising Sun in the Pacific: 1931-April 1942
- Original publication date
- 1948 (first edition) (first edition); 1953 (corrected edition) (corrected edition)
- People/Characters
- Frank Jack Fletcher; Joseph Grew; William F. Halsey Jr.; Thomas C. Hart; Conrad Helfrich; William A. Glassford (show all 9); Husband E. Kimmel; Douglas MacArthur; Ibo Takahashi
- Important places
- Pacific Ocean; Pearl Harbor, O'ahu, Hawai'i, USA; The Philippines; Wake Island; Dutch East Indies
- Important events
- Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-07-07 | 1945-09-09); World War II (1939 | 1945); World War II, Pacific Theater (1941-12-07 | 1945-09-02); Pearl Harbor Attack; Battle of the Java Sea
- Epigraph
- All hidden things the endless flowing years
Bring forth, and bury that which all men knew.
Falters the firm resolve and plighted word;
And none may say, "It cannot happen here."
-- S... (show all)ophocles, Ajax, 646-649 - Dedication
- To
The Memory of
JAMES FORRESTAL
Under Secretary of The Navy
August 1940 to May 1944
Secretary of The Navy
May 1944 to September 1947
Secretary of Nation Defens... (show all)e
September 1947 to March 1949 - Disambiguation notice
- Volume 3
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- 300
- Popularity
- 106,510
- Reviews
- 3
- Rating
- (4.15)
- Languages
- English, Polish, Russian
- Media
- Paper
- ISBNs
- 8
- UPCs
- 2
- ASINs
- 12
