Spector’s single-volume history of the Pacific campaigns in World War II is a marvel of breadth and clarity. He begins with American and Japanese societies just prior to the war and ends with the unconditional surrender following the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Spector is mostly concerned with the conduct of the war itself, so he only hints at its larger significance: the change in the balance of power between Japan and China, the rise of a democratic Japan, and the demise of European influence in Asia. “The existence of the strong and stable independent nations of Asia is perhaps the most important and lasting legacy bequeathed by the men and women who perished in the American-Japanese war.”

A volume of this scope will necessarily be skimping on details, but there are still plenty to savor. The rivalry between Nimitz and MacArthur, both personally and as proxies for the power struggle between Army and Navy, is a constant theme. Spector also agrees with Yamamoto that, almost inevitably, American industrial dominance proved the deciding factor in a long war.

I’m sure Spector struggled daily to keep a host of undoubtedly interesting details from bloating or derailing his narrative. Thankfully, his bibliography points the way for the interested reader to keep reading about this crucial time in twentieth-century in American history.