A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

© 2005 Potomac Books On November 1, 2005, Potomac Books published Shattered Sword: The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway. Co-written by Jonathan Parshall and Anthony Tully, this was the first major book about the pivotal naval engagement that ended the Imperial Japanese Navy's offensive phase in the Pacific War since Gordon W. Prange's Miracle at Midway (1982). Based on extensive research of Japan's military and naval archives, as well as re-examining many American accounts of the battle, Shattered Sword not only tells the story of Midway from the perspective of the Japanese, but it also endeavors to bust myths about the 1942 battle that ended Japan's six-month-long string of victories over the Allies and began to see the balance of power shift to the U.S. Navy. Even though 78 years have passed since the Battle of Midway (June 4-7, 1942), it is still considered one of history's most important naval battles. When Japan's fearsome Combined Fleet set ou...

© 2011 Oxford University Press. Cover photo, US Navy On October 5, 2011, the Oxford University Press published Craig L. Symonds' The Battle of Midway as part of the publisher's Pivotal Moments in American History series.  Based on official American and Japanese historical records, interviews with survivors of the naval campaigns of early 1942, and publications of the period, Symonds' take on one of the most famous - and decisive - battles in the Pacific Theater of Operations explores territory that has been explored by countless writers (including Walter Lord and Gordon W. Prange) and at the same time explodes myths that have been accepted as fact for the past 60 years. The naval Battle of Midway (June 4-6, 1942) has long been considered to be one of the most important naval battles of the Second World War. Almost six months after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, almost 200 Japanese ships, including four of the six carriers that had launched planes against Hawaii ...