Eagle Against the Sun: The American War With Japan

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By: Ronald Spector
(33 customer reviews)
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EDITORIAL REVIEW

Only now can the full scope of the war in the Pacific be fully understood. Historian Ronald Spector, drawing on newly declassified intelligence files, an abundance of British and American archival material. Japanese scholarship and documents, and research and memoirs of scholarly and military men, has written a stunning, complete and up-to-date history of the conflict.

PRODUCT DETAILS

Publisher: Vintage
Pub. Date: 12th October 1985
Catalog: Book
Media: Paperback
Number Of Pages: 624
Ean: 9780394741017
Isbn: 0394741013

ABOUT THIS BOOK

USER REVIEWS

Outstanding single-volume on the Pacific war, but supporting maps are needed
~ Written on Nov 11, 2009. out of users found this review helpful.

This is a single-volume history of the United States war against Japan, written by distinguished history professor Ronald Spector, first published in 1985. I was aware of the reputation of Eagle Against the Sun for years before reading it because it appears on many reading lists I've seen for the Pacific war and is widely lauded as the best one-volume work on that topic. It definitely lived up to the hype with thorough coverage of almost every facet of the war with Japan.

Spector starts off with examining the American and Japanese "states of mind" in the prewar years, and discussion of Plan Orange, the overall U.S. strategy in the event of war with Japan. The central narrative is that of the Pacific war starting at Pearl Harbor and ending in Tokyo Bay. Interspersed within that narrative are three contiguous chapters on the China-Burma-India theater and thematic chapters on intelligence, code-breaking, submarine warfare, strategic bombing, and the sociological impact of the war on servicemen. The author draws from a rich variety of primary and secondary sources and includes a bibliographical essay at the end of the book that serves as an excellent jumping-off point for further study.

Macarthur does not fare well at the hands of Spector, nor do the American attempts at cohesion among their armed forces. Spector demonstrates how this lack of cohesion among different service branches, while shared by U.S. and Japan alike, was overcome on the U.S. side by superior administrative structure, industrial output and technology. Spector is also critical of U.S. decisions to split forces between southwest Pacific (Macarthur) and central Pacific (Nimitz), but also very capably gives us the big-picture reasons for these and all major decisions, including those reached at the big conferences among FDR, Churchill and other Allied leaders.

Already knowledgeable about the Pacific war, I was able to follow Spector's narrative despite the absence of maps, save for the insufficient ones inside the cover of Eagle Against the Sun. Had I needed to refer to a map, I have S.E. Morison's volumes on the Pacific, as well as the West Point military atlases. However, if a first-time reader on the Pacific War were to start out with Spector, they would be lost without prior knowledge of Pacific geography. Therefore, as well written as Eagle Against the Sun is, it is NOT sufficient to serve as an introduction to the war with Japan without supporting maps from other sources.

Awesome
~ Written on Aug 26, 2009. out of users found this review helpful.

Great one volume blah blah blah, just get it and read! Dr. Spector is a credit to Johns Hopkins!

Overall Strategy
~ Written on Jul 2, 2009. out of users found this review helpful.

A book that investigates all of the planning and strategy that went into the war in the Pacific. Offers very few stories from the men who were actually fighting but that is not the aim of this book. This book is perhaps the benchmark for overall strategy books on the Pacific war. I would reccomend it to anyone who wants to learn more about the command structure in the Pacific.

Top Book on Pacific War
~ Written on May 25, 2009. 1 out of 1 users found this review helpful.

Little can be stated that has not already been mentioned about this book. It is simply the best single book on World War II in the Pacific. I

Great Overall Account of the Pacific War
~ Written on Mar 9, 2009. 1 out of 1 users found this review helpful.

As others have mentioned, Prof. Spector has produced one of the best one volume works out there on the Pacific War. This book gets my highest recommendation as an introduction to the Pacific War.

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