by William B. Hopkins
Minneapolis: Zenith/MBI, 2008. Pp. vii, 392.
Illus, maps, notes, biblio., index. $30.00. ISBN:0760334358
As indicated in its sub-title, this work provides a comprehensive look at Pacific War at the highest levels, policy, grand strategy, economics, and particularly the personalities, political and military, who directed the war.
A trio of chapters setting the deep background are followed by a series of chapters that unfold chronologically, and cover specific campaigns or aspects the war, including strategic direction, economic mobilization, the submarine and air offensives, and the surrender of
Japan
. Operational developments are treated only in the broadest outline, and tactical and technical matters hardly at all, which is appropriate given the purpose of the book.
The book successfully synthesizes a good deal of recent scholarship on the war, and is likely to be of use to anyone with an interest in the Pacific Theater.