At Dawn We Slept: The Untold Story of Pearl Harbor [Mass Market Paperback]

Gordon W. Prange (Author), Donald M. Goldstein (Afterword), Katherine V. Dillon (Afterword)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 2001

Provides an account of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour in 1941. Prange spent nearly 37 years preparing this book by a series of interviews with surviving Japanese officers who took part in the operation.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

ea. vol: Penguin. 2001. photogs. bibliog. index. pap. $20.95.HIST Prange's twin volumes offer everything you always wanted to know about Pearl Harbor but were afraid to ask, plus pictures! Together, these tomes comprise an exhaustive study of the day that will live in infamy. Prange takes a long, hard look at President Roosevelt's relationship with Japan and implies that FDR all but goaded the empire into bombing the Hawaiian base. With the 60th anniversary of the attack approaching, there no doubt will be many volumes released and rereleased, but these are among the best.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

Diligent, thorough, and evenhanded...At Dawn We Slept is the definitive account of Pearl Harbor. -- Chicago Sun-Times

Prange's exhaustive interviews of people on both sides enable him to tell the story in such personal terms that the reader is bound to feel its power... -- The New York Times Book Review

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Mass Market Paperback: 912 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Books; 60th Anniversary Edition edition (May 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140157344
• ISBN-13: 978-0140157345
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.2 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (55 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #49,931 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

94 of 104 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The definitive work on Pearl Harbor? Perhaps it is..., July 6, 2000

By 

Alan R. Holyoak - See all my reviews

This review is from: At Dawn We Slept: The Untold Story of Pearl Harbor (Mass Market Paperback)

While science is my area of expertise, I have a continuing interest in history. That interest lead me to pick up Prange's book. Gordon Prange has devoted years to accumulating information about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. That information includes interviews and military and government information from the USA and Japan. That accumulated information was then boiled down into this final work -- completed after Prange's death.

While there have been many books and theories proposed about why and how the debacle at Pearl Harbor took place, Prange's approach is well documented, and includes details of the pre-attack politics of the USA and of Japan. His book also includes detailed information about the attack itself, gleaned from interviews with those on both sides who actually participated in the event. But, even with that level of detail, I must admit that the most compelling part of the book for me is the section that follows the actual attack -- when the US government and the military were trying to figure out what actually happened, and who was to blame.

The final series of chapters of the book provide insight into the thoughts and tactics of Adm. Kimmell (CincPAC) and Gen Short (Commanding General of army at Hawaii), the two primary "interested parties" in the event.

Before reading the book, I had a tendency to believe that there may have been something of a conspiracy by the Roosevelt administration to get us into WWII, but after reading this account of Pearl Harbor, I am more likely to believe that the great success, including complete surprise by Japanese naval aviation was the result of a series of ill-advised decisions by the commanders at Hawaii rather than by any entity in Wash DC.

The sticky point in the whole affair was "magic" the US's code-breaking machine that allowed us to monitor coded diplomatic messages sent between Tokyo and some of its embassies. While "magic" was the source of a great deal of information that may have resulted in a different outcome at Pearl Harbor if the commanders there had access to it, we will never really know.

If you are interested in looking in repurcussions from the attack at Pearl Harbor, or if you have an interest in thinking about the whys and hows of the US entry into WWII, I urge you to read this book.

The writing is passable, though sometimes quite dry. The information is well documented, and is believable. This is not, however, a quick read -- there is a lot of meat in this book to be digested as you go along.

All in all an outstanding contribution to the telling of a sensitive piece of American history.

5 stars for content and believability.

Alan Holyoak

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Tragic Series of Miscalculations and Misplaced Assumptions, July 29, 2000

By 

A Customer - See all my reviews

This review is from: At Dawn We Slept: The Untold Story of Pearl Harbor (Mass Market Paperback)

Gordon W. Prange, et al does a superb job of collecting interview and documentary data to examine the entire aspects of the attack (he examines the inquiries in a later book) from American and Japanese perspectives. This is the single most detailed, objective and comprehensive account of the attack on Pearl Harbor ever written. The U.S. military did believe an attack was coming but assumed it would be only in the Phillipines and Southeast Asia. The assumption was made that Japan could not do both, attack in Asia and strike our fleet. We were wrong to assume and Japan made us pay a severe penalty but not one nearly so severe as it could have been, especially as our carriers were at sea and the sub base and fuel farm were unhit. History now shows it is more vital to hit bases than ships. If Pearl Harbor itself had been more damaged, the Pacific Fleet would have had to relocate back to the West Coast and being short of tankers, would have been unable to intervene in any decisive way for some months. As it was, with the base intact, our carriers were able to strike back and within six months won a miracle victory at Midway. For a complementary study, I would recommend Cpt. Homer N. Wallin's, Pearl Harbor, Why? How? Fleet Salvage and Appraisal especially for the details of the huge salvage effort.

17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best of a Vast Lot, May 22, 2001

By 

MWRuger "Music Guy" (Deer Park, Texas United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: At Dawn We Slept: The Untold Story of Pearl Harbor (Mass Market Paperback)

At Dawn We Slept is probably the best book yet written or likely to written on this always compelling subject. I've read most of John Toland's pacific theater histories and "The Pacific War" by John Costello and Samuel Elliot Morrison's quite good "History of United States Naval Operations in World War II : The Rising Sun in the Pacific, 1931-April 1942" and Gordon Prange's work is quite simply the best.

Being in a unique position to really acquire first hand information from the participants and yet retain objectivity in viewing a subject that always arouses passion, Gordon Prange dissects and reveals the path to the war and to the attack on Pearl. While not directly addressing the revisionist view on Roosevelt's "knowledge" of the attack, he easily displays the implausibility of such a view.

The level of detail that he brings to this work reveals his clear orientation as an academic resident, but don't let that deter you from getting this book. It is accessible to anyone with an interest in the subject and the one book that I can wholeheartedly recommend on a complex subject that is faithful to the history and to the reader.

I cannot see how any other writer can approach this subject with out stepping though Gordon Prange's tracks.