Day of Infamy

Engaging Story, Great Reading

Though Walter Lord's Day of Infamy is nearly 50 years old it does not feel dated-in fact, if anything it seems fresh because of the sheer amount of first-hand anecdotes which were only available immediately following the war. Lord weaves many compelling stories of American, Japanese and Hawaiian participants of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Tom Parker's reading is excellent, as always. This is a classic that I highly recommend.

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Pearl Harbor through personal vignettes

There are many detailed books concerning the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor that catapulted the US into World War 2 as an active combatant instead of its then current role as weapons and food supplier, including those from both the US and the Japanese perspective. Many of those give detailed explanations of what happened, when it happened and how each event affected the overall attack. This book is very different in that the entire attack is viewed through the individual actions on hundreds of people, US sailors, marines, soldiers and civilians as well as Japanese sailors. There is no overall high level view of what happened, or a moment by moment description of the events, but rather the story is the sum of all of the individual accounts.

Thus we understand the attacks on the US battleships by hearing what sailors and marines on the ships did, what they could not do, what they saw and how they reacted. Sometimes this narration tells much that an overall account could not, as with the description of how one mess stewart, with no training, took control of one of the machine guns firing at the attacking Japanese planes, how one sailor stayed at his machine gun while the fires raged around him and how sailors trapped below decks waited for either rescue from their sunk ships, or suffocation as the air ran out. Often the narrations, although compelling, fail to tell us how the events hung together and what the views of the commanders were, so the book ends up being a mixed bag.

This book is quite old, having been written in 1957, so it lacks information that has been gleaned in the intervening years through research, but it is still a worthwhile look at the event that started World War II for the US. The narrator, Grover Gardner, has the perfect voice and pace for this type of book and, although much information is missing, especially from the Japanese side, the book is well worth listening to for someone who wants a more personal and less academic view of the terrible events of December 7, 1941. But for those really interested in learning about the attack itself, this book serves more as a companion piece for more detailed books covering the war in the Pacific. While there are many such books now available readers should not go wrong by starting with those by Ian Toll (Pacific Crucible, The Conquering Tide) or James Hornfischer. The former covers the war from the start, the latter from later in the war.

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Full of Personal Insights

This particular history of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor is unique and extraordinary because of its focus on very numerous, brief, revealing and often-poignant direct quotations from those who were present that day. The book gives insight into how it must have felt to be present that day. On this point alone the book is a roaring success.

WOW

I thought I new the story of pearl harbor I did not you need to hear this book. It was beyond my expectations for a good book and history lesson.

From the people who were at Pearl Harbor

Excellent compilation of eyewitnesses who survived the attack. Well done story of the event as seen from those who survived it.

Very easy listening & very detailed

Very easy listening & very detailed, enjoyed the information and the reader. I would recommend this to WWII history enthusiasts.

Great place to start

Read this book for the first time a couple years ago. Seeing that it was included with my membership I decided to revisit it this time in audio form. It’s a great overview of the 48 hour period surrounding the attack as told by eyewitness accounts. You get a feel for the attack from all perspectives that’s a quick listen and doesn’t bog down or go into too much detail. A classic.

Very good information!

It was extra special to listen to this on December 7th, very good information on a lot of things I didn't know until now. Some of the things are well known but overall it was well worth the listen. The narration was a little flat but not bad at all.

it is like you are there a great book

a great book for micro history but I would like to know more about how the really started

Fast & furious comes the details.

Keep up if you can. The details are rapid fire but the facts are mostly portrayed from a personal perspective. This kept my interest more than anything else.

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