Prompt and Utter Destruction, J. Samuel Walker
Prompt and Utter Destruction, J. Samuel Walker
List: $12.99 | Sale: $9.10
Club: $6.49

Prompt and Utter Destruction
Truman and the Use of Atomic Bombs against Japan, Third Edition

Author: J. Samuel Walker

Narrator: Eric Jason Martin

Unabridged: 4 hr 47 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 05/14/2019


Synopsis

In this concise account of why America used atomic bombs against Japan in 1945, J. Samuel Walker analyzes the reasons behind President Truman's most controversial decision. Delineating what was known and not known by American leaders at the time, Walker evaluates the options available for ending the war with Japan. In this new edition, Walker incorporates a decade of new research—mostly from Japanese archives only recently made available—that provides fresh insight on the strategic considerations that led to dropping the bomb. From the debate about whether to invade or continue the conventional bombing of Japan to Tokyo's agonizing deliberations over surrender and the effects of both low- and high-level radiation exposure, Walker continues to shed light on one of the most earthshaking moments in history.

Rising above an often polemical debate, the third edition presents an accessible synthesis of previous work and new research to help make sense of the events that ushered in the atomic age.

About J. Samuel Walker

J. Samuel Walker is a prize-winning historian and author of books on the history of American foreign policy, nuclear energy, and college basketball.


Reviews

Goodreads review by tobi

This book was very well written, but also painfully American. If you read this book alone, you’d probably get the impression that the only people victim to the Japanese were Americans, the only people fighting the Japanese were Americans, and American scientists and governors built the atomic bomb a......more

Goodreads review by Jeremy

Read this book in college for a Cold War course, and reread it recently ahead of my new position. Thoughtful history that considers the global landscape and Truman’s thinking in the months leading up to the decision to drop the bomb.......more

Goodreads review by Mark

After visiting Hiroshima a couple of weeks ago, I decided on my return to Canada to read this wonderfully concise and balanced "post-revisionist" history of the decision to use the A-Bomb. So in the light of all the evidence, was the bomb necessary? " The answer is yes... and no. Yes the bomb was ne......more