Rating: 
Summary: The First Heroes
Review: I have read almost every book on this subject and First Heroes is by far the best. It captures the essence of the individuals who participated and the apparent hopelessness of the mission. It also accurately depicted the disparity of our nation at the time and how formidable the enemy was as none before had. First Heroes is a well-deserved testament to the character of the men who served our country during WWII. These men truly are heroes.
Rating:
Summary: A page-turner from start to finish
Review: I thought this was one of the best history books I ever read. It really gives you the feeling of what it was like for these men to go on their incredible suicide mission, and fills you in on what was going on with American and world history at the time. Even though it's 400 pages, I read it in two days, nonstop - just couldn't put it down. I cried at some parts in the end, since you really get involved with these guys' lives, but that's just how involving the book is.
Completely recommended for anyone, any age.
Rating:
Summary: Very good book
Review: I'll preface my review by saying that I am a big history buff, and especially love military history. And while I found the subject matter of "The First Heroes" to be quite compelling, the writing is so leaden that the book is virtually unreadable. I also have to quibble with the title since the heroic and doomed stand at Wake Island occurred months before the Doolittle raid was just as important as an early psychological victory in the American war against Japan. The most pertinent comment that I can make about "The First Heores" is that I became so bogged down by its lack of narrative force that, despite being an avid reader, I couldn't finish it.
Rating: 
Summary: Informative but Virtually Unreadable
Review: I'll preface my review by saying that I am a big history buff, and especially love military history. And while I found the subject matter of "The First Heroes" to be quite compelling, the writing is so leaden that the book is virtually unreadable. I also have to quibble with the title since the heroic and doomed stand at Wake Island occurred months before the Doolittle raid was just as important as an early psychological victory in the American war against Japan. The most pertinent comment that I can make about "The First Heores" is that I became so bogged down by its lack of narrative force that, despite being an avid reader, I couldn't finish it.
Rating:
Summary: Very readable account
Review: I'm only 70 pages into the book so far, but even after that short bit I find that the previous reviewer's take on the book is basically right on. In what the back cover bills as a "meticulously researched" account, I have found that the book, in places, misses when it comes to what some may consider trivial details. Maybe so, but they're enough to make me--and perhaps others--wince as I try to get through this book. The B-25 called a "Billy"? Never. Guns (actually cannon) termed as 2 centimeter instead of 20mm? Never. VADM "Bill" Halsey (sic; see page 56 of the paperback)? Memo to the author: He was known as "Bull" Halsey to anyone else with just a modicum of knowledge of the major WWII players. I'm not trying to be mean-spirited here, but I share the previous reviewer's concern that some of this wasn't caught well before final editing -- especially since the raid's survivors or other historians should've been able to point out these deficiencies.On the plus side, you do get a very human view of what was going on back then, viewed by the participants in the lens of the day. If you've seen "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo," the bits about the training leading up to the mission and other pertinent details will be familiar. I'll withhold final judgement until I finish, but this book and its subject, though clearly a labor of love, deserves better.
Rating: 
Summary: Details do matter...
Review: I'm only 70 pages into the book so far, but even after that short bit I find that the previous reviewer's take on the book is basically right on. In what the back cover bills as a "meticulously researched" account, I have found that the book, in places, misses when it comes to what some may consider trivial details. Maybe so, but they're enough to make me--and perhaps others--wince as I try to get through this book. The B-25 called a "Billy"? Never. Guns (actually cannon) termed as 2 centimeter instead of 20mm? Never. VADM "Bill" Halsey (sic; see page 56 of the paperback)? Memo to the author: He was known as "Bull" Halsey to anyone else with just a modicum of knowledge of the major WWII players. I'm not trying to be mean-spirited here, but I share the previous reviewer's concern that some of this wasn't caught well before final editing -- especially since the raid's survivors or other historians should've been able to point out these deficiencies. On the plus side, you do get a very human view of what was going on back then, viewed by the participants in the lens of the day. If you've seen "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo," the bits about the training leading up to the mission and other pertinent details will be familiar. I'll withhold final judgement until I finish, but this book and its subject, though clearly a labor of love, deserves better.
Rating:
Summary: Details do matter...
Review: I'm only 70 pages into the book so far, but even after that short bit I find that the previous reviewer's take on the book is basically right on. In what the back cover bills as a "meticulously researched" account, I have found that the book, in places, misses when it comes to what some may consider trivial details. Maybe so, but they're enough to make me--and perhaps others--wince as I try to get through this book. The B-25 called a "Billy"? Never. Guns (actually cannon) termed as 2 centimeter instead of 20mm? Never. VADM "Bill" Halsey (sic; see page 56 of the paperback)? Memo to the author: He was known as "Bull" Halsey to anyone else with just a modicum of knowledge of the major WWII players. I'm not trying to be mean-spirited here, but I share the previous reviewer's concern that some of this wasn't caught well before final editing -- especially since the raid's survivors or other historians should've been able to point out these deficiencies. On the plus side, you do get a very human view of what was going on back then, viewed by the participants in the lens of the day. If you've seen "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo," the bits about the training leading up to the mission and other pertinent details will be familiar. I'll withhold final judgement until I finish, but this book and its subject, though clearly a labor of love, deserves better.
Rating: 
Summary: Look Elsewhere
Review: If you are looking for a book on the Doolittle Raid, read "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo" by Ted Lawson. Don't waste your time with this book.
The book has many factual and grammatical errors. The names of the Japanese Leaders involved are constantly written backwards. For example, Admiral Isoroku Yamamato is written as Yamamoto Isoroku among many others.
The author spends more time on Japan's preparations for the Pearl Harbor attack than he does on America's preparations for the Doolittle Raid. The book is not a page turner.
Rating:
Summary: Doolittle Light
Review: If you are seeking The Authoritative Volume on The Doolittle Raid this book is not it. (I'm not convinced that book has yet been written.) As a war story I found this book enjoyable. It is well paced, not dry, and will hold the attention of a casual reader. As a history of the Raid, I found it uneven. HEROES does have value as a fair entry point for those - like the author himself -who like a good action story but start with little knowledge of the topic. Nelson has captured in book form a lot of oral history and other material that I have not seen in print before. Start here - but move on and read some of the many other books on this topic too. I was surprised at the author's assertion (in the Introduction, and again to an audience at the Smithsonian in October 2002) that he had never heard of the Doolittle Raid as a child. I remember from about age 10 on devouring Edwin Stafford's 'The Big E', Ted Lawson's '30 Seconds over Tokyo', and Robert Welch's 'Life of John Birch', as just 3 examples of books about or including the Raid. (Parts of the 1944 movie version of '30 Seconds' also made it into 1975's 'Midway,' billed as 'actual wartime footage'!) Much of Nelson's book - and much of his research work too, one suspects - is background information only tangentially relevant to the actual Raid. I would have liked to see more about the Raid, the Raiders, and their mission, and less about FDR, Ernie King, and other power players far from the front line. The book does contain errors of fact, and I also found some other needless distractions. The endnotes in particular are in my opinion unusable. His convention of placing Japanese surnames before given names is a politically (and technically) correct affectation, but is confusing to English-speaking readers, unusual in American writing, and almost unique in books on this topic. Discussions of FDR's 'back door to war' and the placing of blame for Pearl Harbor are unbalanced, of minimal relevance, and appear (rightly or wrongly) to be here only to allow the author to advance his favorite position and casually dismiss the work of those who take opposing views.
Rating:
Summary: enjoyable and informative
Review: In this book Craig Nelson tells the full tale of the men involved in the famous Doolittle Raid during WWII. With exhausting notes and quotations, and daunting research, every possible detail that is important to the story of the raid and the men is given. And despite the attention to detail, and despite the length, this book reads like a novel. Even people who are not history buffs will like this book. There's a fascinating short biography in the book of Jimmy Doolittle, one of our nation's greatest aviators. There is the story of the POW camps after the fact and the conversion of Jacob DeShazer, who would later be a leading evangelist in Japan. Much information is given to the planes themselves, the B-24s that carried the weapons of the raid. This book combines all those great elements into one very readable volume.
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