World War II (1931-1945)
“The Second World War presented a mirror to the human condition which blinded anyone who looked into it.” — Norman Mailer, “The White Negro: Superficial Reflections on the Hipster” (1957)
Of the endless ocean of books on the Second World War, we have dozens and dozens of new and carefully chosen titles. I define it as beginning with the Japanese Empire’s invasion of Manchuria and ending with not only V-E and V-J Days but also the immediate crises of displaced people, the Soviet Union’s creation of the Iron Curtain, and the growing revelations of the extent of the Holocaust.
In significant ways the Second World War was the defining crucible of the 20th Century. The First World War was prelude, the legacy of the 19th Century’s imperialism, and the Cold War was the sequel. Of the making of books about it there is no end — but the persistence of good research and good writing, and good publication underscores the war’s centrality of the world we live in today and the world our descendents will live in for the foreseeable future.
Last Chapter
Last Chapter
Last Chapter, first published in 1946, is war correspondent Ernie Pyle's final book of his experiences in World War II. From Africa, Italy, and D-Day on the European continent, Pyle's accounts provided an intimate, honest look at the life of America's fighting men and the enemies they faced. In Last Chapter, , illustrated with 16 pages of photographs, Pyle travels to the Pacific, where he was assigned to the U.S. Navy. In the Marianas first, and then living with the crews who flew the B-29s over the Japanese homeland, Pyle was experiencing a side of the war that was new to him. Next he joined an aircraft carrier on the invasion of Okinawa. He made the landing with the Marines and saw Okinawa secured. Tragically, however, Pyle was killed by a Japanese bullet near the war's end on April 17, 1945, while reporting from the island of Ie Shima.
"No man in this war has so well told the story of the American fighting man as American fighting men wanted it told," wrote Harry Truman. "He deserves the gratitude of all his countrymen."