I've read the Civil War trio and wanted to read about WWII. It's written in same manner and holds your interest throughout. Can't wait to read Days of Infamy.
Gives a perspective of the reasons for war from the other side.

Thoroughly researched and well written. As detailed as any WWII buff could want. A plausible and facinating "what if" story that really only changed one historical event: What if Yamamoto personally led the attack on Pearl Harbor, instead of the historical leader, Nagumo? The authors examine in great detail the real personalities of the two Japanese Admirals and credibly extrapolate what a difference one man can make to history.

Buy This Book!!

This is a really enthralling book. I was expecting a glorified romantical type story, but was pleasantly surprised at the amount of real history. Very well written. Very informative. Overall excellent reading.

The authors have done a great job of maintaining a very accurate portrayal of the events leading up to December 7, 1941 in both Hawaii and Japan. It is a pleasure to see correct locations and names for the areas of interest. Having spent time at Eta Jima (now a staff college for the JDF, having worked in Yamamoto's HQ at Iwakuni (now a Marine Corps Air Station) and finally having lived in Hawaii for nearly 23 years I found that I did not experience the frustration of dealing with the typical inaccuracies of many writers describing these locales.

The book takes a great turn with the speculation of what would likely have happened had the decisive and aggressive Yamamoto held sway over the outcome of this well planned attack and "finished the job". It takes the reader to a level of understanding of the mind set of the Japanese in being willing to accept the risks inherent in this bold plan and the frustrations of some of the American military intelligence group as well as our strategic planners in facing this possible threat.

A good read that will keep you coming back.

A masterful book, as is the second in the series. Should be required reading for all US high school students.

I thought I had pretty well been Pearl Harbored and had no further interest in the topic after reading all the popular history texts of the last couple of decades, but I was intrigued by the alternate history track, and William Forstchen's other series about the Lost Regiment hooked me on his writing.

The story line with the various characters was very engaging and I read it straight through, late into the night. I agree with the other reviewer about sloppy editing spoiling things. "Wheel chokes" was the first clanger, a rumpled suitcase becoming a "rumbled suitcase" (must have been noisy in there), and several other sloppy spellcheck items were distracting. I was unaware that FOD was an issue for propeller planes, and I'm frankly not quite sold on that. Props blow debris away from themselves, but I suppose it's possible that it could blow debris into another operating propeller. There is also a statement that an object "as small as a penny" could cause a problem. Well, okay, but the location is a Japanese carrier. The proper term would have been small as a coin, as I wouldn't really expect English or American pennies showing up in the pockets of Japanese carrier sailors. I don't know what the smallest coin denomination in Japanese currency is, but it probably has a Japanese name.
I can live with Churchill being just a little more hip to modern lingo, and at least they didn't have him quit smoking and go AA to be politically correct.
I am anxious to read the next volume, though, because overall the novel is a winner. I do wish the publisher would let me edit it, however. I think there are only a half dozen of us who can still spell without the computer telling us how, and we just can't do everything.

Gingrich's trilogy on the Civil War was great in that it was beautifully researched history, but you didn't know how it was going to come out, and the constant action kept the clumsy writing from getting in the way. Pearl Harbor, drags on through endless jabbering until the final pages. It is horribly redundant, focuses on irrelevant detail (like the decor of the Pan Am Clipper, mentioned at least three times), and had truly no character development whatsoever. This is apparently designed as the first book of another trilogy, but maybe they could have cut it down to just two books if they really didn't have the material for three. A serious let-down.

I didn't mind the tweaking of the names and ranks, but when the author added a false third wave attack to the plot I wondered why he was trying to rewrite history. The actual written matter is done in a rather unbelievable manner. The characters were a bit unreal.

Despite the dust cover indicating detailed research into the history of the Pacific War, Gingrich and Forstchen breathe life into myths historians have vigorously spent decades destroying. These include:

1. Polar view of the Japanese. To say the Japanese only had binary opinions on world events is to neglect the plethora of fine historical work existing on the Japanese military and strategy leading to the Pacific War. The discussion about Japanese opinions on the Washington Treaty could not be further from historical record. These passages read more like someone remembering their high school history than reading about it.

2. The simplified command structure of the Japanese military. The United States had the Departments of War and Navy, each with two "branches" under them (The Army had the Army and the Army Air Corps; The Navy had the Navy and the Marine Corps.) The Japanese had a much more convoluted command structure. Read real history, such as Kaigun by Evans and Peattie.

3. Yamamoto had the choice to accompany the Kido Butai. Not true.

4. Yamamoto and Nagumo targeted American aircraft carriers. If you read the orders as published by Nagumo, US battleships were of higher precedence than US aircraft carriers, should both vessels have been in port. The 1940's Japan understood American tactics better these two writers. Yamamoto did not revolutionize carrier tactics; it was the Americans with the loss of their battleships.

5. The biggest myth: Pearl Harbor was NOT attacked on 7 Dec 1941; the US Pacific Fleet AT Pearl Harbor was attacked. The attack was an operational raid against a threat to the flank of the Japanese strategic aim of the "Southern Resource Area," specifically the Dutch East Indies. The raids on various airfields was more to protect the Kido Butai and attacking aircraft.

I recommend reading any true history, even Roberta Wohlstetter's book (written before most of the crypto reports were declassified.) Read Kaigun by Evans and Peattie, Pearl Harbor by H.P. Willmott, A Gathering Darkness by Tohmatsu and Willmott, or Empires in the Balance by H.P. Willmott.

I strongly recommend avoiding this book.

My husband and I read this piece of fiction and as long as you remember it is just that, you will probably enjoy Newt's Pearl Harbor.

After hesitatingly picking up Gettysburg, getting sucked into the story, and quickly finishing the series, I was anxious to read Pearl Harbor. This book gives great insight into the background of both sides of the events leading up to December 7, 1941 and the ensuing conflict. The actual attack on Pearl Harbor potrayed in the book gives the reader a sense of relief, in that as horrific and as tragic as that day actually was, it could have been much worse.

This book is a page-turner for certain. I cannot wait until the next installment is released.

This novel is written in a manner that cleverly interweaves some personal stories and experiences with the actualities of that most challenging time in the history of our country, Great Britian, and that of Japan. It certainly held my attention throughout. The 3-star rating was driven by the one main problem with this particular novel; sloppy editing. Here are some examples: (1) Page 134, line 1: Cecil should be James; (2) Page 156, last paragraph, line 1: Cecil should be Carl; (3) Page 162, paragraph 4, lines 1 and 2, and page 164, paragraph 6, line 1: has a seaman second class taking LCDR Watson's telegram inside the 14th Naval District headquarter's building while the marine security guard remained at his post outside the building, but then on page 164 refers to the "marine who had gone inside.."; (4) Page 171, paragraph 8, line 6: a typo, delete "a"; (5) Page 205, paragraph 1, line 7: a typo, final should be finally; (6) Page 223, paragraph 5, line 2: insert the word "are" between we and now; (7) Page 295, lines 2 and 4: a chief petty officer's title can be shortened to chief but never to petty officer; (8) page 330, lines 5 and 6: if Jeremiah Sims was in the army air corps he would not be a Lieutenant Junior Grade but a First Lieutenant, the former grade being a naval officer rank; (9) Page 351, line 5: a more appropriate reference to the submarine's superstructure protruding out of the water would be conning tower.

Other comments: (a) The inserted photography and captions were very good; and (b) I look forward to the remaining novels in the new Pacific War series and will be anxious to see how the authors handle the strategies of General Douglas MacArthur vis-a-vis naval strategies, given their rather one-sided views already expressed on pages 272 and 284 of the subject novel.

Thank you.

Commander Joseph A. Schweigart, Jr., USN (ret)

The book was purchased for a friend who has a husband that likes Newt.

The disconcerting thing was that I received the book that I ordered, and then two days later received the same book that someone in
California had ordered. I returned it to Amazon at my expense, thinking that the person in CA wanted it for Christmas and wouldn't get it at all if it wasn't returned. I have no idea what happened to the returned book as I have not heard from Amazon.
A. Severs

A work of fiction that nevertheless describes many of the historical facts that led up to Pearl Harbor.

Well, well, well. It turns out that Newt Gingrich is not only one of the smartest political minds around....he (in partnership with Forstchen) is also one of the better authors around!!!

"Pearl Harbor" is a great read that also provides excellent perspective on the thinking and the events leading up to Japan's attack on the United States at Pearl Harbor. The story is informatively and engagingly told through the eyes of the Japanese, the British and the Americans. I found it hard to put this book down, and nearly impossible to put down once the final attack began.

The book is not perfect, however. Like other reviewers, I found the editing rather sloppy in many places. I was also a bit irritated by the gross overuse of the word "chuckled." (I also have the "chuckled" complaint with W.E.B. Griffin books--maybe it has something to do with the military genre.) The photos were very interesting, but a few maps would have been useful too. Finally, footnotes or an afterbook clarifying what was history and what was fiction would have been tremendously useful for those of us who have only a rudimentary knowledge of the events being described.

All in all, though, this is one of the most informative and readable books I have encountered in quite some time. If you like W.E.B. Griffin, you should love this. If you just like historical fiction, you should like this too. I anxiously await the next installment. In the meantime, I think I will pick up their Civil War series.

While this book is better than the excerable "1945" it shows the same defects as the authors Civil War series; poor characterisation, sloppy proofreading, little attention to fact checking, after-the-fact moralising, terribly slow moving, implausible, poor writing and a lack of understanding of the ideas involved.

The characters, well many don't even get a two dimensional portrayal it's so bad. Obviously the authors lack the ability to visualise events from another person's perspective (unsurprising in the case of Gingrich). Other reviewers have commented on the moral equivilances created in the book, these would simply not have occurred to those portrayed in 1941.

What is it with proofreading these days? Have all the editors been replaced by computers? The book is littered with spelling and grammer mistakes, basic factual errors (just look at the Iowas on the cover...) and similar problems (one character has evidently mastered teleportation).

Facts. You just can't avoid them even in a work of allo-history. These are numerous errors, as I've mentioned, accross the spectrum of attitudes, character knowledge and factual reality.

I'm not going to bother expanding on my other points; it's not worth my time.
Avoid the book; if you're curious I'm sure it'll end up in bargin bins soon.

It also has a suspicious number of brief 5-star reviews on Amazon with similar phrasing...........

I liked the book in general because it gave a good synopsis of the run-up to the war with Japan. However, some of the dialogue was "butchered", and worst of all, there were a number of factual errors that two knowledgable authors (and their editor) let slip by them. Here ae just a few: The Hawaii army commander was given as General Stark. In fact it was General Short (Stark was the CNO on Washington). An army officer has the rank of "Lieutenant Junior Grade"; that's a navy rank. The novel says that the Army-Navy football game was interrupted by the attack (The game was played earlier on a Saturday). In one scene a character suddenly appears in a dialogue when in fact he was thousands of miles away. And there were others. These authors can do much better. Maybe they should get a competent editor and proof-reader.

Just like the books of their Civil War trilogy, this book is well-written, easily read, and I enjoyed it thoroughly. I especially liked the insights into the thoughts of the Japanese leaders that led them to war with the U.S. I believe that the twist that the book takes in its departure from history is not only interesting, but very plausible. Once again, the authors make you feel that you are a part of the action through thier writing style. I highly anticipate the next book in this series.

A gripping tale of some of the people and the events that led to the infamous December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor. Surprisingly, the story starts in 1934; the December 7 event was not conceived and executed over the previous several months, it started with happenings seven years before. Gingrich and Forstchen bring to life intimate conversations between some of the players in this drama. After all, it is a novel, so the authors are able to take us behind the scenes and tell us what people were probably saying and doing at critical points in the story. This book had a special impact on me because I was on a ship in Pearl Harbor when the war ended in 1945.

Well written. Holds your interest and is hard to put down once you start reading it.

My father Cdr. W.M.Curtis Jr. and myself a teenager in WW 2 often discussed Pearl Harbor and what lead up to it. Dad spent his war years planning amphibious warfare in the Pacific, and after the war when I became a midshipman [1948 - 1952] discussing those days. It was interesting to see author Gingrich's insight into the build up to Pearl. It was pretty much as we saw it and dad always said that FDR let it happen to mobilize the country for the war he knew was coming. As a side note the extensive coverage of Cdr. Fuchida in the book was well done, and anyone interested in the gospel, and Pearl Harbor should look up Mitsuo Fuchida on the internet.
Rev. Dr. William M. Curtis III

Newt and Bill have written another interesting alternative history book. However, the book is not completely plausible and the real studied historian of the Pacific War will struggle with many elements of this. First, let me provide the positives of this. The lead up to the war is very interesting based upon the experiences of three protaganists: one from the US, one from Britain and one from Japan. The one from Japan is Lt. Commander Fuchida who led the attack at Pearl Harbor. The others experience the Nanking massacres (Britain), the US Panay attack (US) and, of course Pearl Harbor (US) and Singapore (Britain) which is just starting as the book ends. This makes the book very personal and provides an interesting historical perspective based upon the views of these individuals that is very believable. Another area of interest is the focus on the reasons why the war started: (1) the cut off of oil, and more than that (2) Japan's desire to have a British type empire in the Far East (after all the British did it, why can't we?) Where the book doesn't get believable is in the premise that leads to an alternative to Pearl Harbor, that is, Yamamoto is leading the attack instead of Nagumo. I can't see that being approved by the leaders of Japan and the Emperor given what was happening at that time (let's get this clear - the moves to the south were more important to the Japanese than the attack at Pearl Harbor was because the primary reason that they started the war was that they needed the oil. In fact, Yamamoto had to threaten to resign to even get this to be part of the overall plan.) Why put their leading naval commander in the middle of a battle that wasn't the most important part of the starting plan to them? And, why put their primary naval leader in this risky venture? (Let's make this clear - naval air attacks at this time were a very uncertain exercise at best prior to this, and the intelligence was not perfect - the Americans could have known what was going on and had their carriers and battleships waiting for them, etc.) So, as a knowledgable reader of the Pacific War, I find myself in a doubting mode. What is even more doubtful is the third attack and the book ends with Yamamoto commiting to sinking the US Carriers! In the real events, Yamamoto had a chance to override Nagumo's desire to retire, and didn't. If he was there, would things really be different? I bet I can guess the ending of all this (probably in the sequel) - there will be a Midway type battle in December, 1941! That will be very unbelievable because neither side was experienced enough to make this happen. So, all in all, I don't think that I recommend this book for the experienced Pacific War reader, but at least the beginning is interesting and the begineer reader may find this interesting and a start to looking into what really happened.

Newt and Bill have written another interesting alternative history book. However, the book is not completely plausible and the real studied historian of the Pacific War will struggle with many elements of this. First, let me provide the positives of this. The lead up to the war is very interesting based upon the experiences of three protaganists: one from the US, one from Britain and one from Japan. The one from Japan is Lt. Commander Fuchida who led the attack at Pearl Harbor. The others experience the Nanking massacres (Britain), the US Panay attack (US) and, of course Pearl Harbor (US) and Singapore (Britain) which is just starting as the book ends. This makes the book very personal and provides an interesting historical perspective based upon the views of these individuals that is very believable. Another area of interest is the focus on the reasons why the war started: (1) the cut off of oil, and more than that (2) Japan's desire to have a British type empire in the Far East (after all the British did it, why can't we?) Where the book doesn't get believable is in the premise that leads to an alternative to Pearl Harbor, that is, Yamamoto is leading the attack instead of Nagumo. I can't see that being approved by the leaders of Japan and the Emperor given what was happening at that time (let's get this clear - the moves to the south were more important to the Japanese than the attack at Pearl Harbor was because the primary reason that they started the war was that they needed the oil.) Why put their primary naval leader in this risky venture? (Let's make this clear - naval air attacks at this time were a very uncertain exercise at best prior to this, and the intelligence was not perfect - the Americans could have known what was going on and had their carriers and battleships waiting for them, etc.) So, as a knowledgable reader of the Pacific War, I find myself in a doubting mode. What is even more doubtful is the third attack and the book ends with Yamamoto commiting to sinking the US Carriers! And, I bet I can guess the ending of all this (probably in the sequel) - there will be a Midway type battle in December, 1941! That will be very unbelievable because neither side was experienced enough to make this happen. So, all in all, I don't think that I recommend this book for the experienced Pacific War reader, but at least the beginning is interesting.

I enjoyed this book, although I have to admit that I was disappointed because I was expecting it to be up to the Gettysburg series. It developed slowly, but once you reached the halfway point in the book it was tough to put down. You do not have to like Newt to like this book. These two guys help you easily visualize what is happening as you read.

In any story about the Pearl Harbor attack, the attack itself is going to be one of the central "characters," and the narrative of the attack is almost inevitably going to be the most dramatic part of the plot. That's just as well in this case, as I found "Pearl Harbor" by Gingrich and Forstchen to be an interesting and mildly thought-provoking novel despite being weighed down by characters to whom the reader develops (or at least this reader developed) very little personal or emotional connection.

This is an "alternative history" novel of sorts, but not the kind that assumes time travel or poses "counterfactuals" like Wendell Willkie winning the election in 1940. In fact, the point at which fiction diverges from fact in "Pearl Harbor" is so subtle that readers unfamiliar with the Pearl Harbor attack run the risk, I imagine, of never noticing where the intersection happened. The road the authors have taken, though, is a plausible one, and the consequences of that difference flow logically. It's this element I'm looking forward to seeing explored further in later books in the promised series.

What was far less satisfying, however, was the authors' character development and, frankly, their writing. For one thing, this could have used at least one more pass by a good editor to catch spelling errors ("chocks" versus "chokes;" "terra incognito"), anachronisms (would Winston Churchill really have described someone as "outside the loop" [p. 270]?), and repeated descriptions, phrases, or actions -- if I had a drink every time Fuchida "slapped his pilot on the shoulder," I'd be drunk as a senator by the time the bombs started falling.

The fictional characters here are, as I said, not particularly engaging. I realized a good part of the way through the book that I wasn't really interested in them as such, but only as pegs on which to hang the story. One I came to think of as "Captain Cecil Backstory," useful mainly for long discussions with Winston Churchill during which the authors could explain Japanese culture and politics. Real-life characters like Churchill and FDR struck me as very imprecise portraits. (I've read a lot by and about Churchill, and I know Gingrich has as well. I was surprised, therefore, by how non-Churchillian the "Churchill" in this book sounded.) The one person in the book I did find interesting, and about whom I'm looking forward to reading more in later books, was Mitsuo Fuchida, the commander of the Japanese air strikes.

Because I'm a student of the Pearl Harbor attack and have read a fair amount about it, both fiction and nonfiction, I approached this book with a certain eagerness. I'm really sorry the characterization left so much to be desired, but the plausible and interesting premise may be enough to justify it and make me want to pick up later titles.

I cannot wait for the next book!!! Newt did a fantastic job intermingling fact with slight fiction that keeps the reader locked in. Cannot wait to see what comes next.

This is an entertaining book, one that should be a "must read." I think It's primary direction is the seemingly total immersion of the pre-war Japanese life of their "warriors." It can certainly bring us forward to today's extremist "warriors" of the mid-East. Scary thoughts!

I cannot imagine why, between them, the authors and St. Martin's Press could not manage to proof-read this book! It is, ultimately, a great read. However, I have never seen so many howlingly bad errors! At one point, because of a missed comma, (page 287) the authors describe one of the main characters as stupid, which they certainly do not mean to do. That is only one of literally hundreds of typos and other errors that really are unforgivable. If they are the doing of the publisher, the authors deserve better. If they are the doing of the authors, they need to learn to proof-read. I do not recall anything similar in their surprisingly good Civil War series, though.
I repeat, this is a great read, despite the miserably poor proof-reading, as well as the authors trying (unsuccessfully) to draw analogies between the days leading up to Pearl Harbor, and the War on Terror.

This novel by former Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich and William R. Forstchen, Ph.D.,tells the story of the events leading up to the 12/7/41 sneak attack by the Japanese. Most people don't know that speaker Gingrich is an historian of some note and the longest-serving teacher of the joint War Fighting course for major generals.
I believe the author's secondary (perhaps primary) purpose was to show the parallels between our troubled planet's situation in 2007 and in 1941. The main similarity is that both time frames featured a clash between two very dissimilar cultures; the Japanese and American cultures in 1941 on one hand, and the islamofacists and the Americans in 2007 on the other.
In both cases we were forced to fight back after a dastardly sneak attack. In both cases the U.S. was disadvantaged by our respect for the sanctity of human life. The Japanese militarists had little regard for human life, as demonstrated by both "The Rape of Nanking," a story related in the book in gruesome detail, and the similarly unprovoked attack on Pearl Harbor. The parallel today is our struggle with the new type of warfare initiated by the Muslim extremists whose primary strategy is terrorism, featuring the random killing of innocents by suicide bombers, September 11th being the most vivid example.
Another parallel is the role of human hubris in the decision to make war. A reader can't help being struck by the utter stupidity of the Japanese Warlords thinking their tiny island, about the size of California, could defeat the U.S. Similar cognitive dissonance is shown by the backward Islamic extremist segment of the world's population thinking they can prevail today.

Pearl Harbor Was Very Disappointing. Slow To Develop. A Little One-sided. The New Direct Of History Did Not Take Much Imagination. Definitely Not Up To The Standards Set By The Gettysburg SeriesPearl Harbor: A Novel of December 8th

I read their civil war series and I loved it, so it was no suprise to discover the extraordinary intrigue in this alternate scenario. What if Yamamoto launched a third wave in Japan's infamous attack, and followed through with a crushing blow that would truly cripple America's pacific fleet? That's what happens in the first of their new series and I eagerly anticipate the next book.

A superb WW II alternate history. The main problem with alternate histories is what to change and what not to change. Change too much and you simply write a caricature of the event, change too little and it becomes a bad history. Mr Gingrich and Mr Forsaken got this alternate history just about right. Like their wonderful Civil War trilogy, this opening salvo concerning WW II mixes just the right amount of fact with historical fiction to render a most satisfying "what if" scenario. The addition of "real" photographs gives the work an air of authenticity that adds to the Fax realism. The excellent mix of actual historical individuals and mythical characters allows the authors to delve into the possible reasons for why and how things developed between the nations involved in that epic conflict.
Changing one significant fact gives a whole new slant on the Pearl Harbor "sneak" attack by Japan on 7 Dec 1941. You'll have to read the book to figure out what they changed, but needless to say it is monumental to the outcome of December 7, 1941.
The authors did an excellent job of mixing historical fact with fiction to engage the reader. Mostly true, the history lessons concerning the lead up to the Pearl Harbor attack are illustrative of the confusing post WW I-Prue WW II times. The authors examine the Japanese mindset and how they came to concluded that war was the answer to all their political and geographic problems. Using real and mythical minor characters the authors were able to examine the national psyches of the period and how they affected the eventual war plans developed. Why DID Japan attack Pearl Harbor? Why was the American fleet there except for the vaunted carriers? The authors attempt to answer these questions all the while proposing an alternate scenario as to the actual attacks outcome. I won't give away the solid ending but needless to say more on this what if WW II scenario is obviously on the way from these 2 fine authors.
No gratuitous sex, language, or violence. Action battle scenes are well done and add an air of realism. The examination of Japanese culture is well done. The use of mythical conversations between the real players adds to the reader's understanding of both the difficult times and the complex political atmosphere.
Highly recommended if you like alternate histories. Obviously sequels are in the offing. If the authors' previous Civil War trilogy is any indication this WW II multi-book epic will be well worth the reading adventure.

If you are a history buff, and, if WW2 is of interest, than this book is begging to be read. Plenty of historical facts with just the right amount of character interplay to make the dialogue seem very real and pertinent.

I have never really liked reading novels based on history. This book is the reason why. This book has changed history in as much as the actual attack on Pearl Harbor. In the first instance Admiral Yamamoto was not in direct, hands on, command of the attack force that attacked Pearl Harbor.In the second instance there was only two waves of attackers not three. In the third instance the oil storage tanks, submarine pens, and the dry dock were not destroyed by the third non existant wave. This is pure fiction and I cannot abide in it just for the sake of a "novel".

Pearl Harbor: A Novel of December 8th by Newt Gingrich and William R. Forstchen ended up being a whole lot better than I expected. I went in without too many preconceived notions in terms of quality or style. My cynical side also wondered if the Gingrich name was just on there to sell more books. What I found instead was a tight blend of historical fiction that left me with a much greater appreciation for what happened back in 1941.

Rather than just focus on the events of that particular day and/or month, Gingrich and Forstchen go back to the '30s and recreate the mood and sentiment of the time. Japan was invading China, and the atrocities of the invading troops ranks with war crimes of more current conflicts. With Europe in a constant state of conflict, Japan felt that it was their right to assert influence in the Asian region in order to (literally) fuel their country and their military forces. American and British leaders didn't agree with that direction, and made it quite clear that they opposed the direction that Japan was taking. But Japan was convinced that America was not up to an armed conflict, and that a strong military strike against their assets in the Pacific would guarantee Japan's place as the leader and conqueror of the region. Unfortunately for America, intelligence missed all the signs that pointed to the Pearl Harbor attack. And unfortunately for Japan, they underestimated the will of America when faced with a direct attack on their shores.

I think what made this book work so well for me is that it wasn't a dry recitation of facts and events. You saw the unfolding drama through the eyes of significant players, and it read more like a novel than a documentary. While the research is solid, the "fiction" part allowed the authors to add color and meaning to things that might not garner the same attention in a different format. I also felt much more emotion as to what it must have been like to be at Pearl Harbor during the height of the attack. It would have been a nightmare not seen on American soil since the Civil War.

My wife and I will be visiting Hawaii for the first time in a couple of months as part of a vacation. After reading this book, a visit to Pearl Harbor has become a necessity rather than an option...

First the good. I found the pre-war section of this book really interesting. I liked how the authors tried to get you to understand Japanese culture and motives. Any retelling of Pearl Harbor needs that context.

When major events are fictionalized and mixed with real events I get a little uncomfortable. Most readers of Newt know this is his thing, and expect it. However, I would have preferred a footnote here and there tellings us things like the third attack wave never really happened.

All in all, I do recommend this book, but like others say, be prepared for some bad editing. Wings "sheer" off planes so often it can drive you crazy. Sometimes it is difficult to tell who is speaking in a conversation, etc..

For my money I would have enjoyed this book more if it simply followed real and fictional characters through real history. Having said that, this is my first read of the "what if" genre. Maybe I will like it better after reading the upcoming series. Now I give it 3 1/2 out of 5.

Excellent way to get people to read history. They write it in the way of a novel with conversations that might have occurred with historical characters but portraying actual events. I found it hard to put it down.

You know the ending. You've heard this tory a hundred times. Why would another book make any difference?

This one, by Gingrich and Forstchen, is a thrilling tale from the point of view of a few American and Japanese men whose lives are intertwined. I'm not enough of a historian to develop any conclusion whether the detail in this "novel" is truth or fiction. I do know that the authors' slant on the historical fact of the attack on Pearl Harbor was riveting.

When I visited the USS Arizona Memorial, I remember the docent discussing what he called the failure of the Japanese attack: the failure to destroy the supplies of aviation fuel (enough to level Honolulu), and the failure to destroy the massive dry docks and repair facilities that could get the damaged ships working again. According to this book, some fuel oil tanks were destroyed, and the doors of the dry dock were bombed.

Perhaps a unique aspect of this book is how the Japanese strategy was influenced by observations of the failure of the aerial German attack on England. Another interesting connection was the impact of the Japanese Army's atrocities at Nanking affecting some of the principle characters in the book.

Again, I wish I was enough of a history buff to separate reality from fiction. Regardless, this was an enjoyable novel.

The reviewer who alleges to be a WWII vet and then goes on to claim that Gingrich and Forstchen are pandering to the Japanese in order to gain a foreign rights book sale there, is way off the mark. The horrifically graphic scene in the book, about what happened at Nanking, will most likely impact any chance of a sale in that country and for me shatters as well any argument that the authors were "pandering," to the Japanese view point. The power of this book is, that for perhaps the first time in a novel, American authors have attempted to look at the war in the Pacific from "the other side," in much the same way Eastwood did with "Letters from Iwo Jima." I think they pulled off a couragous move by doing this. They do not condone by any stretch of the imagination what the Japanese did, but instead try to ask the tough question of how good moral men, could go down a path that would lead to such evil. Few know that after the war, Fuchida, who led the strike on Pearl Harbor, atoned, became a Christian, worked to try and restore good relations between Japan and America, and was a frequent visitor with Rev. Billy Graham who had befriended him. The alleged WWII vet and a few other reviewers who seem so upset that the authors put a human face on our opponents, remind me of the same reviewers who trashed the first novel by Gingrich and Forstchen, "Gettysburg," which postulated what might have happened if Lee had won that battle. Some of them were screaming that the authors were now apologists for Southern slavery and therefore were racists, simply because they painted the great general Robert E. Lee in a sympathetic light and did so for other Confederate officers and men. None of these critics (who I've always suspected were more motivated by politics rather than true literary criticism) bothered to read some of Forstchen's other works nor bothered to check that he is a specialist on the African American combat experience during that war and wrote an award winning novel on the subject. Nor did any of these critics later come forward and atone when that trilogy led to a conclusion few had foreseen and was most definitely not an apology for slavery.

It is easy to throw mud at authors who labor to give a balanced view. I wonder what the alleged veteran will say after Gingrich and Forstchen put out several more books in this series, will he step forward then and have the courage to admit he was wrong? And as for my own criticism: Yes, there were some technical and editing mistakes, but take apart any book published these days and you'll find the same. As to the story, it was besides being a great read, an exciting lesson in history as well. I am eager to see the next installment.

I just finished the book. As a huge fan of their Civil War series, I confess to being commensurately unimpressed with Pearl Harbor. The story line drags in places -- I think it is partly because the authors try to cover a pretty broad waterfront, story-wise. But the real disappointment is in the editing. By my count, there are almost 70 significant failures to catch bad grammar, disconsonant phrasing, mixed metaphors, misspelled words, and even the occasional mistake on nomenclature. Taken together, it really diminished my enjoyment of the novel, to the point where I have returned it to the publisher with a note and a request for a refund. From my standpoint, the delta between the superlative writing and editing in the Civil War series and the issues in Pearl Harbor are huge, and I would not recommend the book. A real bummer, and one I hope will be corrected in their next volume. I also hope that the publisher will see fit to correct these issues in a later edition -- I might buy it again if that happened.

As a World War II veteran, I was shocked and outraged by this story. With rare exceptions----eg,segments on the vicious Japanese brutality in China----from beginning to end it glorified the Japanese while intimating that most Americans were buffoons or worse. I can only believe this is an effort to make it sell in the Japanese market and to the type American who seems to enjoy blaming our own nation for all the world's problems, then amd now. Fiction or fact, I detest such in a story about one of the pivotal events in American history!!

This book is ok for the most part, though there are several historical issues to be taken depending on how far you're willing to allow creative license. I'll cover those in a minute though first I wish to cover an editorial error that was most distracting...on page 156 of the hard cover version in the midst of a conversation between Minoro Genda and Tooey Spaatz on the Pan Am clipper the last paragraph starts off with a comment from a character that is not even on the plane.

The build up to the attack is well laid out and essentially as historical, I'll leave the primary twist which is the essential point of the story to be discovered by those wishing to read the book. On the attack...again if you wish to allow artistic license it is well detailed and well thought out; however from a historic point of view it falls short. A minor nit here, unless you count the U.S.S. Utah as a battleship (it was a target ship at the time) there were a total of 8 battleships at the harbor including the Pennsylvania in dry dock. He counts the total of the Japanese aircraft losses however appears to neglect the damage to the aircraft that did make it back to the carriers, again an essential part of his story. He neglects to mention the radar station on the north coast of Oahu which spotted the incoming first raid and was still functioning throughout the day, another point for later in the story. The what if in his story is well thought out in reference to the Japanese actions but underplays the American response.

My dad is a WWII navy vet. At his age one of the things he enjoys most is reading books about WWII. So, I got him "PEARL Harbor" for fathers day, he loved it. He said it is the best book he has read about "PEARL HARBOR". Once he started to read it, he had trouble putting it down. Yes, he was in the navy on December 7, 1941.

I am not a big history guy, but the book was fantastic and was hard to put down. I only hope they continue their next book picking up on where that one left off. Fantastic.

A lot of hype, but not much substance. Book failed to meet my expectations. Would not recommend.

I could not have been more pleased with this book. It has held my interest throughout. Newt is, and has always been one of my favorites.
Please require more from him. Thanks. JM

The best book I've read since 'Flags of Our Fathers". It kept you interested to the point you couldn't put it down. A lot of work went into this book.

Newt Gingrich does it again. His ability to place the reader right in the middle of historical events is remarkable. I can't wait for the next book of his in this series.

This well written story of the events leading up to the attack on Pearl Harbor is a compelling read. My husband and I both enjoyed reading it.

This is an absolutely excellent book, taken from both sides, American and Japanese, with historic accuracy. Obviously Speaker Gingrich did much research and molded it into an extremely interesting, entertaining, and educational work. I recommend it highly, even as possible required reading in high school/college.