The Pearl Harbor Collection: Dec. 7th, At Dawn, Pearl Harbor

by Gordon W. Prange, Tony Roberts (Reader), Donald M. Goldstein (Contributor)

Book by Gordon W. Prange

Genres: History, Audiobook, Nonfiction, World War II

360 pages, Audio Cassette

First published February 1, 2001

About the author

A graduate of the University of Iowa, from where he received his Ph.D. in 1937, Gordon Prange began his teaching career as a professor of history at the University of Maryland. In 1942, he was granted a leave of absence from the University to embark on a wartime career as an officer in the United States Navy. Sent to Japan in 1945 as a member of the American Occupation Forces, after completing his Navy service he continued in Japan as a civilian from 1946 to 1951 as chief of General Douglas MacArthur's 100-person historical staff. When censorship of the Japanese media by Allied Forces was lifted in 1949 and the Civil Censorship Detachment disestablished, Professor Prange, recognizing the historical significance of the CCD material, arranged for its shipment to the University of Maryland. The materials arrived at the University in 1950. On September 15, 1978, the Board of Regents of the University of Maryland passed a motion to name the collection the 'Gordon W. Prange Collection: The Allied Presence in Japan, 1945-1952.' Professor Prange continued to teach at the University of Maryland until several months before his death on May 15, 1980. He is still remembered by alumni as one of the University's truly great teachers, and is well known today for major works on the war in the Pacific, particularly Tora! Tora! Tora!" The Terrapin, the University of Maryland's yearbook, said of his World War I and World War II history lectures in 1964: "Students flock to his class and sit enraptured as he animates the pages of twentieth century European history through his goosesteps, 'Seig Heils', 'Achtungs', machine gun retorts and frantic gestures.

Dr. Prange's manuscript about the attack on Pearl Harbor is credited as the basis for the screenplay Tora! Tora! Tora!, filmed in 1970 while Prange took a leave of absence from the University of Maryland to serve as technical consultant during its filming. His extensive research into the attack on Pearl Harbor was the subject of a PBS television program in 2000, "Prange and Pearl Harbor: A Magnificent Obsession", and was acclaimed "a definitive book on the event" by The Washington Post.

Reviews

[Ed Bernard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gordon Prange is, apparently, a known expert on Pearl Harbor and has written several books on the subject. I will probably never read any of them, because when a professional historian gets into the weeds, I pretty much lose interest — they are debating issues that I just don’t typically care about and they back up their opinions with minutiae that typically don’t add much to the basic outlines of the story. That’s why I picked up this collection, which includes abridged versions of three of his books — At Dawn We Slept, Pearl Harbor: The Verdict of History and December 7, 1941. I finished the first part, made it most of the way through the second and didn’t get to the third. There was nothing wrong with the books at all — in fact, the parts I listened to were exceptional. But they also fell into the problems of what I described above — too much detail, too much concentration on ultimately minor parts of the story. The second book, in which Prange goes person by person through the cast of characters to assign proper blame for the the attack, particularly suffers — in the end, I just don’t care. I mean, his analysis of why FDR almost certainly didn’t know about the attack and allowed it to happen anyway, IS interesting enough but most of this is about whether the commanders on the ground should’ve acted differently, how much the diplomat and bureaucrats in DC could’ve impacted the outcome, etc is just too granular. Again, that’s not the book’s fault — I am just not the audience for it. I DID find At Dawn We Slept interesting because it focused a lot of the Japanese side, but even then, again, the specifics were a little tedious. So, in sum, good-to-great books, just not for me.

Grade: B

[Roberta Westwood · Rating 4 out of 5]

A stunning history
This was a good three volume series, although the books are abridged.
After listening to At Dawn We Slept, I switched recordings and listened to an unabridged version of Pearl Harbor: The Verdict of History (well worth the extra time), then returned to this collection to listen to the third and final book, December 7, 1941. Be aware that there is quite a bit of language of the time is grating (the Japanese referred to as “Japs”).

[Maryrose · Rating 5 out of 5]

I listened to this collection while walking over the last week. Although abridged an excellent documentation of the people in charge and events leading up to December 7, 1941. Sobering to hear again the many occurrences that preceded this horrific event. Seems timely to listen to the story nearly 80 years removed.

[Scott Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid abridgement of some of Gordon Prange's works related to Pearl Harbor. Proved insightful and engaging. Good starter work for those seeking to delve into the story of Pearl Harbor from both the Japanese and American perspectives. The reader is solid with the material. The rating is the same for audio or hard/e-copy.

[Susan Dixon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating. We’ve all seen movies and read books about the attack on Pearl Harbor, but this series explained many of the details and events leading up to the attack on both sides.
Hearing eye-witness accounts was interesting as well. My father lied about his age in order to enlist in the Navy, but he was still stateside on December 7, 1941.
Great effort by the authors and the narrator!

[David Engel · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was very informative of the nuances of our military and political leaderships during the buildup to WWII. A bit swamped with details at times, this was the most detailed exposure to what occurred in the months, weeks and days (and yes...Hours and Minutes!) up to the Pearl Harbor attack.

[Nate Hansen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Eh.