James D. Hornfischerwas a writer, literary agent, and book editor.He was the author of the New York Times bestsellers Neptune's Inferno, The Last Stand of the Tin Can Soldiers, Ship of Ghosts, and The Fleet at Flood Tide, all widely acclaimed accounts of the U.S. Navy in the Pacific during World War II, as well as the upcoming Who Can Hold the Sea. His books have received numerous awards, including the Samuel Eliot Morison Award for Distinguished Service and the Naval Historical Foundation Distinguished Service Award.James D. Hornfischer died in 2021.
“This is a masterful account of the barbaric last year of the
Pacific War, combining original scholarship, engaging prose,
excellent historical judgment, and empathy for the soldier, to
explain why defeating the Japanese proved so costly—and how
American military forces performed so effectively and, in the end,
humanely. The Fleet at Flood Tide is, quite simply, popular and
scholarly military history at its best.”—Victor Davis Hanson,
author of Carnage and Culture, senior fellow in classics
and military history, The Hoover Institution, Stanford
University
“Hornfischer is the dean of World War II naval history . . . [and]
has a crafted an impressive and fast-paced narrative. . . . In his
capable hands, the story races along like an intense thriller . . .
with the powerful prose of a poet. . . . The Fleet at Flood
Tide is narrative nonfiction at its finest—a book simply not
to be missed.”—James M. Scott, Charleston Post and Courier
“An impressively lucid account . . . Mr. Hornfischer crisply and
satisfyingly sketches all these figures, and his
big Iliad contains a hundred smaller ones, as he propels
his complex story forward with supple transitions that never leave
the reader behind in the details. . . . At the end of his
admirable, fascinating book, Mr. Hornfischer makes a strong case
that America’s failing to use the most terrible weapon yet born
would have meant many hundreds of thousands more deaths, theirs and
ours alike.”—The Wall Street Journal
“The Fleet at Flood Tide is the definitive work on the latter
days of the war in the Pacific, diving deeper and with more passion
and eloquence than anything written to date on this crucial and
defining moment in the history of the U.S. Navy. Hornfischer brings
the brutality of total war to full-throated life, from the trenches
and amphibious assaults to the mass suicides of frightened Japanese
civilians to the horrific but necessary decision to use the atomic
bomb. This book is a ticket to watch hell in full session, and
serves at once as an extraordinary memorial to the courageous—and a
cautionary note to a world that remains unstable and turbulent
today.”—Adm. James Stavridis, USN (ret.), former Supreme Allied
Commander, NATO, and Dean of The Fletcher School of Law and
Diplomacy, Tufts University
“In his latest masterpiece on the Pacific War, historian James D.
Hornfischer explores how the shocking lessons of the 1944 Mariana
Islands campaign helped compel the United States to unleash atomic
weaponry as the necessary means to quell the Japanese Empire. . . .
Rich and scholarly military history with fresh critical analysis .
. . The Fleet at Flood Tide is a masterful, fresh account
of the latter days of the war in the Pacific that ably expands on
the prior offerings of such classic naval historians as Samuel
Eliot Morison. In his analysis, Hornfischer offers perspective on
world conflict and cautions for humanity that can be pondered far
beyond the conclusion of World War II.”—The Dallas Morning
News
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