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John Toland

Born

in La Crosse, Wisconsin, The United States

June 29, 1912

Died

June 04, 2004

Genre

History, Nonfiction

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Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.
John^Toland - 17th century theologian, Philosopher & Satirist
John^^Toland - American writer and historian (WWII & Dillinger)
John^^^Toland - Article: "The Man who Reads Minds"

John Willard Toland (June 29, 1912 in La Crosse, Wisconsin - January 4, 2004 in Danbury, Connecticut) was an American author and historian. He is best known for his biography of Adolf Hitler.[1]

Toland tried to write history as a straightforward narrative, with minimal analysis or judgment. This method may have stemmed from his original goal of becoming a playwright. In the summers between his college years, he travelled with hobos and wrote several plays with hobos as central character Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.
John^Toland - 17th century theologian, Philosopher & Satirist
John^^Toland - American writer and historian (WWII & Dillinger)
John^^^Toland - Article: "The Man who Reads Minds"

John Willard Toland (June 29, 1912 in La Crosse, Wisconsin - January 4, 2004 in Danbury, Connecticut) was an American author and historian. He is best known for his biography of Adolf Hitler.[1]

Toland tried to write history as a straightforward narrative, with minimal analysis or judgment. This method may have stemmed from his original goal of becoming a playwright. In the summers between his college years, he travelled with hobos and wrote several plays with hobos as central characters, none of which achieved the stage.[2] At one point he managed to publish an article on dirigibles in Look magazine; it proved extremely popular and led to his career as a historian.

One exception to his general approach is his Infamy: Pearl Harbor and Its Aftermath about the Pearl Harbor attack and the investigations of it, in which he wrote about evidence that President Franklin Roosevelt knew in advance of plans to attack the naval base but remained silent. The book was widely criticized at the time. Since the original publication, Toland added new evidence and rebutted early critics. Also, an anonymous source, known as "Seaman Z" (Robert D. Ogg) has since come forth to publicly tell his story.

Perhaps his most important work, for which he won the Pulitzer Prize in 1971, is The Rising Sun. Based on original and extensive interviews with high Japanese officials who survived the war, the book chronicles Imperial Japan from the military rebellion of February 1936 to the end of World War II. The book won the Pulitzer because it was the first book in English to tell the history of the war in the Pacific from the Japanese point of view, rather than from an American perspective.

The stories of the battles for the stepping stones to Japan, the islands in the Pacific which had come under Japanese domination, are told from the perspective of the commander sitting in his cave rather than from that of the heroic forces engaged in the assault. Most of these commanders committed suicide at the conclusion of the battle, but Toland was able to reconstruct their viewpoint from letters to their wives and from reports they sent to Tokyo. Toland died in 2004 of pneumonia.

While predominantly a non-fiction author, Toland also wrote two historical novels, Gods of War and Occupation. He says in his autobiography that he earned little money from his Pulitzer Prize-winning, The Rising Sun, but was set for life from the earnings of his biography of Hitler, for which he also did original research.

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John Toland’s books

Average rating: 4.22 · 17,326 ratings · 1,231 reviews · 36 distinct works • Similar authors

	The Rising Sun: The Decline & Fall of the Japanese Empire, 1936-45 4.30 avg rating — 6,282 ratings — published 1970 — 81 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Adolf Hitler 4.24 avg rating — 3,890 ratings — published 1958 — 101 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Last 100 Days 4.03 avg rating — 3,721 ratings — published 1966 — 83 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Battle: The Story of the Bulge by John Toland, Carlo D'Este (Introduction) 4.15 avg rating — 1,119 ratings — published 1959 — 67 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Infamy: Pearl Harbor and its Aftermath 3.97 avg rating — 823 ratings — published 1982 — 32 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	In Mortal Combat: Korea, 1950–1953 4.28 avg rating — 638 ratings — published 1991 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	No Man's Land: 1918, the Last Year of the Great War 4.11 avg rating — 568 ratings — published 1980 — 39 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Dillinger Days 3.95 avg rating — 492 ratings — published 1963 — 31 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Flying Tigers 3.98 avg rating — 290 ratings — published 1963 — 25 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	But Not in Shame: The Six Months After Pearl Harbor 4.31 avg rating — 162 ratings — published 1961 — 34 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by John Toland…

Series by John Toland

The Rising Sun: The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire, 1936-1945 (2 books)
by

John Toland,

Sam Sloan (Introduction)

4.30 avg rating — 6,354 ratings

Adolf Hitler: The Definitive Biography (2 books)
by

John Toland

4.25 avg rating — 4,055 ratings

Quotes by John Toland (?)

“and if any conclusion was reached, it was that there are no simple lessons in history, that it is human nature that repeats itself, not history.”
― John Toland, The Rising Sun: The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire, 1936-1945

5 likes

“educated lady would have to be sedate”
― John Toland

5 likes

“It is easier to start a war than end one.”
― John Willard Toland, The Rising Sun: The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire, 1936-1945

4 likes

See all John Toland's quotes »

Polls

May/June 2019 General Nonfiction Winner Poll

The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee, 2011 Winner

12 votes, 23.5%

The Rising Sun: The Decline & Fall of the Japanese Empire, 1936-45 by John Toland, 1971 Winner

11 votes, 21.6%

Carry Me Home: Birmingham, Alabama: The Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights Revolution by Diane McWhorter, 2002 Winner

9 votes, 17.6%

Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence by Carl Sagan, 1978 Winner

6 votes, 11.8%

Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and bin Laden from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001 by Steve Coll, 2005 Winner

6 votes, 11.8%

Toms River: A Story of Science and Salvation by Dan Fagin, 2014 Winner

4 votes, 7.8%

Ashes to Ashes: America's Hundred-Year Cigarette War, the Public Health, and the Unabashed Triumph of Philip Morris by Richard Kluger, 1997 Winner

2 votes, 3.9%

The Ants by Bert Hölldobler, 1991 Winner

1 vote, 2.0%

51 total votes

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Topics Mentioning This Author

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The History Book ...: 8. NO ORDINARY TIME ~ CHAPTER 11 - 12 mid (282 - 333) (12/07/09 - 12/13/09) ~ No spoilers, please	68	43	Dec 17, 2009 12:15AM
THE WORLD WAR TWO...: 2012 - July - "Eagle Against the Sun: The American War With Japan" by Ronald Spector	68	70	Jul 31, 2012 03:42PM
The History Book ...: ARCHIVE ONE: PLEASE INTRODUCE YOURSELF ~	6550	4424	May 08, 2013 03:33PM
THE WORLD WAR TWO...: 2013 - May Theme Read - The Battle of the Bulge	182	78	May 27, 2013 09:22PM
The History Book ...: SECOND WORLD WAR - THE LIBERATION TRILOGY - GLOSSARY - PART ONE ~ (SPOILER THREAD)	153	272	Jun 03, 2013 07:00PM
SA Book & Challen...: Questions/Suggestions 2013-2014	173	39	Sep 20, 2014 07:33AM
The History Book ...: SECOND WORLD WAR - THE LIBERATION TRILOGY - BIBLIOGRAPHY ~ (SPOILER THREAD)	49	183	Jan 18, 2015 12:17PM

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John Toland’s Followers (200)

John Toland

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Topics Mentioning This Author

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John Toland’s books