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The United States at War, 1941-1945
An unflinching account of the war and how it was fought, the Second Edition of The United States at War also considers the ways in which Americans regarded allies and enemies, embraced heroes, and accepted the war's purpose. Making the important distinction between popular notions and military and political realities, Professor Hess helps today's reader better understand the complexity of the conflict. Pointing out the controversies surrounding decisions American leaders were forced to make, and charting the course of dynamic historical debates that continue to define our evaluation of American leadership, this objective treatment of the United States' participation in the war is essential reading. Includes 14 photographs.
- GenresHistory
167 pages, Paperback
First published March 28, 2011
22 people want to read
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
January 7, 2013
Craig Henderson
Ms. Brooks and Mrs. Simms
Academic English 10
7 January, 2013
The United States at War, 1941-1945 by Gary R. Hess is a historical non-fiction book about The United States and their involvement in World War II. The author gathers his facts from credible sources and first-hand accounts to give spectacular details of the events.
I found many of these facts interesting, but three in particular stood out to me. The first interesting fact that stood out to me when I was reading this book was that The United States did not always see eye to eye with its allies during the war. For example, when The United States first entered the war they wanted to focus their European Theatre attack on the coast of France. However, the British immediately denied this mainly because they wanted to gain their settlements in Africa back first, and the French line was incredibly too strong and close to Britain. I found this interesting because when you see specials on the history channel or read in the history text books it does not really mention any disagreement between the allied forces. It just states that they all fought together to win the war.
The second fact that I found to be interesting was that during the middle of the battle of Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) the Nazis and Russians were fighting in hand to hand combat in the street of downtown for weeks. Before I had really read into this battle I had thought the two sides dug into trenches and fought it out with guns and other weapons. I had no clue that the majority of the battle was fought with just fists. I found this interesting because World War II was a period of time in which weapons were quickly evolving. Yet the soldiers still had to fight with just their fists.
The third and what I find to be the most interesting fact is that when The United States and Japanese were both monitoring and arguing with each other before the attacks on Pearl Harbor neither wanted to engage in a war with each other. From the beginning of the war The United States had planned to stay out of fighting for as long as they possibly could. But what really surprised me was the fact that the Japanese were in the middle of expanding their empire and were attacking countries left and right. So sooner or later they would have had to attack a United States controlled territory. I would have thought they would have either attacked The United States or made a treaty so they could avoid having to worry about them, but instead they invaded other countries until their forces were so widely spread that it would have been "virtual suicide" to attack anything belonging to The United States. Then the thing that surprised me the most was that despite many thousands of Japanese against attacking The United States the Japanese government went on and attacked The United States Navy fleet at Pearl Harbor and the Philippines on the same day. And both attacks succeeded leaving The United States shocked and questioning leadership.
I would recommend this book to anyone interested in United States history. It was written brilliantly with precise and incredibly exciting detail. Furthermore, this book really brings the reader into the war and allows the reader to witness first-hand accounts from both sides and gives facts that text books leave out. Finally, this book is fairly easy to read there are no large and confusing words and there is very little profanity making The United States at War, 1941-1945 a fantastic book for any historical enthusiast.
Ms. Brooks and Mrs. Simms
Academic English 10
7 January, 2013
The United States at War, 1941-1945 by Gary R. Hess is a historical non-fiction book about The United States and their involvement in World War II. The author gathers his facts from credible sources and first-hand accounts to give spectacular details of the events.
I found many of these facts interesting, but three in particular stood out to me. The first interesting fact that stood out to me when I was reading this book was that The United States did not always see eye to eye with its allies during the war. For example, when The United States first entered the war they wanted to focus their European Theatre attack on the coast of France. However, the British immediately denied this mainly because they wanted to gain their settlements in Africa back first, and the French line was incredibly too strong and close to Britain. I found this interesting because when you see specials on the history channel or read in the history text books it does not really mention any disagreement between the allied forces. It just states that they all fought together to win the war.
The second fact that I found to be interesting was that during the middle of the battle of Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) the Nazis and Russians were fighting in hand to hand combat in the street of downtown for weeks. Before I had really read into this battle I had thought the two sides dug into trenches and fought it out with guns and other weapons. I had no clue that the majority of the battle was fought with just fists. I found this interesting because World War II was a period of time in which weapons were quickly evolving. Yet the soldiers still had to fight with just their fists.
The third and what I find to be the most interesting fact is that when The United States and Japanese were both monitoring and arguing with each other before the attacks on Pearl Harbor neither wanted to engage in a war with each other. From the beginning of the war The United States had planned to stay out of fighting for as long as they possibly could. But what really surprised me was the fact that the Japanese were in the middle of expanding their empire and were attacking countries left and right. So sooner or later they would have had to attack a United States controlled territory. I would have thought they would have either attacked The United States or made a treaty so they could avoid having to worry about them, but instead they invaded other countries until their forces were so widely spread that it would have been "virtual suicide" to attack anything belonging to The United States. Then the thing that surprised me the most was that despite many thousands of Japanese against attacking The United States the Japanese government went on and attacked The United States Navy fleet at Pearl Harbor and the Philippines on the same day. And both attacks succeeded leaving The United States shocked and questioning leadership.
I would recommend this book to anyone interested in United States history. It was written brilliantly with precise and incredibly exciting detail. Furthermore, this book really brings the reader into the war and allows the reader to witness first-hand accounts from both sides and gives facts that text books leave out. Finally, this book is fairly easy to read there are no large and confusing words and there is very little profanity making The United States at War, 1941-1945 a fantastic book for any historical enthusiast.
Displaying 1 of 1 review