Full-length accounts of three decisive WWII events—Pearl Harbor, Midway, and the evacuation of Dunkirk—from a #1 New York Times –bestselling author.
In May 1940, the remnants of the French and British armies, broken by Hitler’s blitzkrieg, retreated to the beach at Dunkirk. Prime Minister Winston Churchill ordered an evacuation on May 26, expecting to save no more than a handful of his men. But Britain would not let its soldiers down. Hundreds of fishing boats, pleasure yachts, and commercial vessels streamed into the Channel to back up the Royal Navy. The Miracle of Dunkirk is a striking history of a week when the fate of Britain—and the World—hung in the balance.
On the morning of June 4, 1942, doom sailed on Midway. Hoping to put itself within striking distance of Hawaii and California, the Japanese navy planned an ambush that would obliterate the remnants of the American Pacific fleet. On paper, the Americans had no chance of winning. But because their code breakers knew what was coming, the American navy was able to prepare an ambush of its own. In Incredible Victory , Walter Lord recounts two days of savage battle, during which a small American fleet defied the odds and turned the tide of World War II.
December 7, 1941, began as a quiet morning on the American naval base at Pearl Harbor. But as Japan’s deadly torpedoes suddenly rained down on the Pacific fleet, soldiers, generals, and civilians alike felt shock, then fear, and then rage. From the chaos, a thousand personal stories of courage emerged. Drawn from hundreds of interviews, letters, and diaries, Walter Lord’s Day of Infamy recounts the many tales of heroism and tragedy of those who experienced the attack firsthand.
These three acclaimed war chronicles showcase Walter Lord at the top of his game as a narrative nonfiction master.
**
Review
Praise for The Miracle of Dunkirk
“Stirring . . . The difference between the Lord technique and that of any number of academic historians is the originality of his reportage. . . . Contemporary history at its most readable.” — The New York Times
“Amazing and unexpected heroism . . . Well worth reading.” — Milwaukee Sentinel*
Praise for Incredible Victory
“Graphic and realistic . . . Not an impersonalized account of moves on the chessboard of war, [but] a story of individual people facing crucial problems.” — The New York Times
“[ Lord uses] a kind of literary pointillism, the arrangement of contrasting bits of fact and emotion in such a fashion that a vividly real impression of an event is conveyed to the reader.” — New York Herald Tribune*
Praise for *Day of Infamy
“There have been many books on Pearl Harbor . . . but none of them have equaled Lord’s.” —Stephen E. Ambrose, author of Band of Brothers
“The carefully planned hour-by-hour recording of the surprise assault on Pearl Harbor . . . is as engrossing as the story of the sinking of the Titanic and more harrowing.” — The Atlantic*
About the Author
Walter Lord (1917–2002) was an acclaimed and bestselling author of literary nonfiction best known for his gripping and meticulously researched accounts of watershed historical events. Born in Baltimore, Lord went to work for the Office of Strategic Services during World War II. After the war’s end, Lord joined a New York advertising firm, and began writing nonfiction in his spare time. His first book was The Fremantle Diary (1954), a volume of Civil War diaries that became a surprising success. But it was Lord’s next book, A Night to Remember (1955), that made him famous. The bestseller caused a new flurry of interest in the Titanic and inspired the 1958 film of the same name. Lord went on to use the book’s interview-heavy format as a template for most of his following works, which included detailed reconstructions of the Pearl Harbor attack in Day of Infamy (1957), the battle of Midway in Incredible Victory (1967), and the integration of the University of Mississippi in The Past That Would Not Die (1965). In all, he published a dozen books.
Description:
Full-length accounts of three decisive WWII events—Pearl Harbor, Midway, and the evacuation of Dunkirk—from a #1 New York Times –bestselling author.
In May 1940, the remnants of the French and British armies, broken by Hitler’s blitzkrieg, retreated to the beach at Dunkirk. Prime Minister Winston Churchill ordered an evacuation on May 26, expecting to save no more than a handful of his men. But Britain would not let its soldiers down. Hundreds of fishing boats, pleasure yachts, and commercial vessels streamed into the Channel to back up the Royal Navy. The Miracle of Dunkirk is a striking history of a week when the fate of Britain—and the World—hung in the balance.
On the morning of June 4, 1942, doom sailed on Midway. Hoping to put itself within striking distance of Hawaii and California, the Japanese navy planned an ambush that would obliterate the remnants of the American Pacific fleet. On paper, the Americans had no chance of winning. But because their code breakers knew what was coming, the American navy was able to prepare an ambush of its own. In Incredible Victory , Walter Lord recounts two days of savage battle, during which a small American fleet defied the odds and turned the tide of World War II.
December 7, 1941, began as a quiet morning on the American naval base at Pearl Harbor. But as Japan’s deadly torpedoes suddenly rained down on the Pacific fleet, soldiers, generals, and civilians alike felt shock, then fear, and then rage. From the chaos, a thousand personal stories of courage emerged. Drawn from hundreds of interviews, letters, and diaries, Walter Lord’s Day of Infamy recounts the many tales of heroism and tragedy of those who experienced the attack firsthand.
These three acclaimed war chronicles showcase Walter Lord at the top of his game as a narrative nonfiction master.
**
Review
Praise for The Miracle of Dunkirk
“Stirring . . . The difference between the Lord technique and that of any number of academic historians is the originality of his reportage. . . . Contemporary history at its most readable.” — The New York Times
“Amazing and unexpected heroism . . . Well worth reading.” — Milwaukee Sentinel*
Praise for Incredible Victory
“Graphic and realistic . . . Not an impersonalized account of moves on the chessboard of war, [but] a story of individual people facing crucial problems.” — The New York Times
“[ Lord uses] a kind of literary pointillism, the arrangement of contrasting bits of fact and emotion in such a fashion that a vividly real impression of an event is conveyed to the reader.” — New York Herald Tribune*
Praise for *Day of Infamy
“There have been many books on Pearl Harbor . . . but none of them have equaled Lord’s.” —Stephen E. Ambrose, author of Band of Brothers
“The carefully planned hour-by-hour recording of the surprise assault on Pearl Harbor . . . is as engrossing as the story of the sinking of the Titanic and more harrowing.” — The Atlantic*
About the Author
Walter Lord (1917–2002) was an acclaimed and bestselling author of literary nonfiction best known for his gripping and meticulously researched accounts of watershed historical events. Born in Baltimore, Lord went to work for the Office of Strategic Services during World War II. After the war’s end, Lord joined a New York advertising firm, and began writing nonfiction in his spare time. His first book was The Fremantle Diary (1954), a volume of Civil War diaries that became a surprising success. But it was Lord’s next book, A Night to Remember (1955), that made him famous. The bestseller caused a new flurry of interest in the Titanic and inspired the 1958 film of the same name. Lord went on to use the book’s interview-heavy format as a template for most of his following works, which included detailed reconstructions of the Pearl Harbor attack in Day of Infamy (1957), the battle of Midway in Incredible Victory (1967), and the integration of the University of Mississippi in The Past That Would Not Die (1965). In all, he published a dozen books.