This book is fantastic. Almost every page shows a new set of photos with an equal amount of interesting facts. It is hard to find Knoll Design reference books. It is impossible to find one better than this.

Although I found some of the personality intrigue interesting, the writing was so off-putting at times that it made skimming a virtue. Unfortunately, I cannot take Larrabee seriously as a scholar because of some notable and clearly refutable statements that his admirers are either unaware of, or simply unwilling to acknowledge. A visit to page 83 of the hardcover edition provides ample evidence of sloppiness, untruthfulness, and even vanity -- which of course gets Larrabee into trouble as you will see. When addressing the topic of FDR's foreknowledge of the attack on Pearl Harbor, Larrabee claims "that there is no substantiating evidence whatever." A quick perusal of the reams of interviews with high-level British military and diplomatic sources, agreements between Japan and Germany, intercepted coded messages, and most recently the work of Stinnett (which came after Larrabee's book was published, but which only puts the final dunce cap on Larrabee) make Larrabee's claim absurd. A key objection raised by Larrabee is that Roosevelt, who really would have preferred war with Germany according to Larrabee, would not have provoked Japan into war because there would be no guarantee that Germany would declare war against the U.S. Unfortunately for this argument, Roosevelt was aware of an intercepted diplomatic message between the Japanese ambassador and Von Ribbentrop in which the German foreign minister stated that Germany would join Japan immediately if Japan went to war with the U.S. Furthermore, FDR's cabinet member, Harold Ickes had stated, "For a long time I've believed our best entrance into the war would be [via] Japan...which will inevitably lead to war against Germany." Too many of FDR's defenders raise this same argument -- as if like garlic to a vampire it somehow wards off all questioning of FDR's character or knowledge by means of its devestating effect, which of course is devestating only to those who try to wield it.
Even worse than Larrabee's ignorance is his lack of education -- which, combined with his academic's vanity, deals a serious question mark to his accuracy and perhaps his personal honesty. He resorts to the invalid "argument from authority" or "appealing to the gallery" (choose the fallacy you wish as he seems to rely upon them rather heavily). Again on page 83, after claiming an absolute absense of evidence (and I direct readers to a raft of books on the subject all with plenty of evidence, including Toland, Morgenstern, Beach, and John Denson in addition to Stinnett), he claims that those who claim FDR had foreknowledge of Pearl Harbor are reduced to "arguing that its nonexistence proves the existence of a conspiracy to suppress it. Credo quia absurdum." Not only is this stretching the truth (the part in English), but Larrabee's misquoted and re-constructed Latin phrase is a telling reminder of both his vanity and desperation to impress us with what he wishes were his vast compendium of learning. First of all, the early Christian theologian, Tertullian actually wrote, "Certum est quia impossible est." What I believe happened here is that Larrabee, wishing to pepper his text with something learned beyond the usual phrases such as "modus vivendi," pulled out of his imperfect memory a misquote or else relied upon an inferior source of quotations that was published in English. He then found the phrase, "I believe because it is absurd." This is a commonly encountered mis-translation of Tertullian. But providing the English quote was apparently not sufficient for Larrabee. Wishing to stun us with his vast learning, he attempted to rely upon his (probable) high-school Latin -- which turned out to be a very weak reed indeed -- and made a sorry attempt to do some clumsy Latin composition of his own so that he could use italics lettering in his text. Uh-oh. Mistake. Latin composition requires knowledge, not an amateur or diletante such as Mr. Larrabee. The result? A perceptive reader notices such things and realizes he is dealing with an intellectual lightweight, not a scholar. I wonder if the education institutions with which he was affiliated were ever aware of this streak. If he taught at a university, he must have been insufferable. He certainly isn't among the cognoscenti. Needless to say, things like this cast a pall over the remainder of his book. Ciao!

This is one of the most useful and well written books that I have read on World War II. Larrabee discusses in depth some of the leading American commanders, including: Nimitz, Eisenhower, Lemay, MacArthur, King, Marshall, and Stilwell. His discussion of Vandegrift included a lengthy discussion of Chesty Puller and his exploits on Guadalcanal. Obviously, any discussion of Chesty Puller can be extremely humorous, but Larrabee's anecdotes left me in stitches. I have also read a review on this site alleging that Franklin Roosevelt was aware of the pending attack on Pearl Harbor. The reviewer alleges that based upon the correspondence between the German foreign minister and the Japanese government should have made Roosevelt aware of the attack. My only response is that if German participation was a foregone conclusion, then why did Germany wait until December 11th to declare war? This is an extemely useful overview of the American leaders and the strategy that they employed in World War II. It should be required reading by any American history class studying the 20th century.

If you want a good read on the overall strategy and leadership qualities that these men brought to our country in its finest hour, then take off your shoes and settle into your favorite armchair. The referencing that went into the book is impressive. The facts are stunning. The leadership was impressive.