Reviews
Advance praise for The Fleet at Flood Tide "This is a masterful account of the barbaric last year of the Pacific War, combining original scholarship, engaging prose, excellent historical judgment, and empathy for the soldier, to explain why defeating the Japanese proved so costly--and how American military forces performed so effectively and, in the end, humanely. The Fleet at Flood Tide is, quite simply, popular and scholarly military history at its best." --Victor Davis Hanson, author of Carnage and Culture, senior fellow in classics and military history, The Hoover Institution, Stanford University "We have here a carefully researched and well-written account of key stages and events in the final portion of the war in the Pacific that includes a careful look at the Japanese side as well as the American. The campaign in the Marianas and the background and reality of the atomic bomb are exceptionally thoughtfully presented." --Gerhard L. Weinberg, author of A World at Arms: A Global History of World War II, professor emeritus of history, University of North Carolina " The Fleet at Flood Tide is the definitive work on the latter days of the war in the Pacific, diving deeper and with more passion and eloquence than anything written to date on this crucial and defining moment in the history of the U.S. Navy. Hornfischer brings the brutality of total war to full-throated life, from the trenches and amphibious assaults to the mass suicides of frightened Japanese civilians to the horrific but necessary decision to use the atomic bomb. This book is a ticket to watch hell in full session, and serves at once as an extraordinary memorial to the courageous--and a cautionary note to a world that remains unstable and turbulent today." --Adm. James Stavridis, USN (ret.), former Supreme Allied Commander, NATO, and Dean of The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University " The Fleet at Flood Tide is a majestic account of the decisive moment of the Pacific War--an epic land, air, and sea struggle like none other in history--told with poetic power by one of our most distinguished historians. It puts the reader right there, in the eye of storm--on the decks of the great carriers, in the caves of the savagely contested islands, in the cockpit of the four-engine machine that delivered the war-ending bomb." --Donald L. Miller, author of D-Days in the Pacific, Advance praise for The Fleet at Flood Tide "This is a masterful account of the barbaric last year of the Pacific War, combining original scholarship, engaging prose, excellent historical judgment, and empathy for the soldier, to explain why defeating the Japanese proved so costly--and how American military forces performed so effectively and, in the end, humanely. The Fleet at Flood Tide is, quite simply, popular and scholarly military history at its best." --Victor Davis Hanson, author of Carnage and Culture, senior fellow in classics and military history, The Hoover Institution, Stanford University "We have here a carefully researched and well-written account of key stages and events in the final portion of the war in the Pacific that includes a careful look at the Japanese side as well as the American. The campaign in the Marianas and the background and reality of the atomic bomb are exceptionally thoughtfully presented." --Gerhard L. Weinberg, author of A World at Arms: A Global History of World War II, professor emeritus of history, University of North Carolina " The Fleet at Flood Tide is the definitive work of the latter days of the war in the Pacific, diving deeper and with more passion and eloquence than anything written to date on this crucial and defining moment in the history of the U.S. Navy. Hornfischer brings the brutality of total war to full-throated life, from the trenches and amphibious assaults to the mass suicides of frightened Japanese civilians to the horrific but necessary decision to use the atomic bomb. This book is a ticket to watch hell in full session, and serves at once as an extraordinary memorial to the courageous--and a cautionary note to a world that remains unstable and turbulent today." --Adm. James Stavridis, USN (ret.), Supreme Allied Commander, NATO, and Dean of The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University " The Fleet at Flood Tide is a majestic account of the decisive moment of the Pacific War--an epic land, air, and sea struggle like none other in history--told with poetic power by one of our most distinguished historians. It puts the reader right there, in the eye of storm--on the decks of the great carriers, in the caves of the savagely contested islands, in the cockpit of the four-engine machine that delivered the war-ending bomb." --Donald L. Miller, author of D-Days in the Pacific, Advance praise for The Fleet at Flood Tide "This is a masterful account of the barbaric last year of the Pacific War, combining original scholarship, engaging prose, excellent historical judgment, and empathy for the soldier, to explain why defeating the Japanese proved so costly--and how American military forces performed so effectively and, in the end, humanely. The Fleet at Flood Tide is, quite simply, popular and scholarly military history at its best." --Victor Davis Hanson, author of Carnage and Culture, senior fellow in classics and military history, The Hoover Institution, Stanford University "We have here a carefully researched and well-written account of key stages and events in the final portion of the war in the Pacific that includes a careful look at the Japanese side as well as the American. The campaign in the Marianas and the background and reality of the atomic bomb are exceptionally thoughtfully presented." --Gerhard L. Weinberg, author of A World at Arms: A Global History of World War II, professor emeritus of history, University of North Carolina " The Fleet at Flood Tide is the definitive work on the latter days of the war in the Pacific, diving deeper and with more passion and eloquence than anything written to date on this crucial and defining moment in the history of the U.S. Navy. Hornfischer brings the brutality of total war to full-throated life, from the trenches and amphibious assaults to the mass suicides of frightened Japanese civilians to the horrific but necessary decision to use the atomic bomb. This book is a ticket to watch hell in full session, and serves at once as an extraordinary memorial to the courageous--and a cautionary note to a world that remains unstable and turbulent today." --Adm. James Stavridis, USN (ret.), former Supreme Allied Commander, NATO, and Dean of The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University " The Fleet at Flood Tide is a majestic account of the decisive moment of the Pacific War--an epic land, air, and sea struggle like none other in history--told with poetic power by one of our most distinguished historians. It puts the reader right there, in the eye of storm--on the decks of the great carriers, in the caves of the savagely contested islands, in the cockpit of the four-engine machine that delivered the war-ending bomb." --Donald L. Miller, author of D-Days in the Pacific "Focusing on the terrible battles of 1944 and 1945, Hornfischer takes the reader into the hell of combat in the air, at sea, and on land. . . . If any book can explain why the eventual use of atom bombs was necessary in order to bring to a final end the suicidal madness of the Japanese military, as well as the atrocities they were committing wherever they went, The Fleet at Flood Tide is it." --Nigel Hamilton, author of the FDR at War trilogy
