Rating: 
Summary: The definitive text on Pearl Harbor
Review: Prange spent 39 years writing and researching this well footnoted book. Never again will the reader hear the actual words of Genda, Fuchida and other principle participants of this historic engagement. Prange is at his best.
Rating:
Summary: "THE" complete Pearl Harbor story.
Review: Prange's thoughts on the Pearl Harbor attack are finely
woven with the comprehensive facts he has collected, creating a captivating story that manages to teach us a little history...
Though lacking in certain maps, diagrams and pictures, Prange manages to present both sides of the story though detailed analysis of the events. To his credit, he backs his analysis with a large bibliography, allowing the reader to verify any fact.
Rating:
Summary: Remarkable Analysis of a Pivotal Event in History
Review: The attack on Pearl Harbor is often described as a key turning point in history. In many ways, it was the culmination of centuries of colonialism in Asia and the Pacific, centuries which saw the rise of Anglo-centric liberal imperialism and the emergence of an Asian imperial axis with China and Japan as the focal points. Given this backdrop, the Pearl Harbor raid can be said to be the belated, overcompensatory and miscalculated response of a predatory state to the cumulative actions of political entities which had advocated the creation of nation-empires for economic gain. But, not surprisingly, Prange's "At Dawn We Slept" deals with geopolitics in a limited way. Instead, it expounds at length on events leading to the so-called day of infamy, and gives readers painstakingly reconstructed insights into the mindsets of the numerous personalities involved. "At Dawn We Slept" is the story of how the Imperial Japanese Navy assembled the strongest naval armada at the time, and how that armada was forged into a highly effective weapon against an obsolescent battle fleet. It is also a story about a lamentable failure of imagination on the part of the US chain of command. The attack itself was a clever operation, partly based on a carrier-based raid executed by the British against Italian battleships in Taranto, Italy, and principally designed to remove the US Pacific Fleet out of the chessboard. However, Prange points out that the Pearl Harbor raid was carried out by the Imperial Navy not primarily due to military expediency, but partly due to the intransigence of Admiral Yamamoto. Prange's interviews with Japanese officers involved in the planning and execution revealed the level of punctiliousness of the Japanese navy regarding the ill-fated plan, and the infighting that ensued following the introduction of the Pearl Harbor concept. Only Yamamoto's insistence that the attack be carried out led to its ultimate implementation. The book sets out to present a balanced view, covering both Japanese and American viewpoints about the historical fulcrum that is December 7, 1941. And it succeeds primarily because of rigorous research. Nearly four decades were spent by Prange interviewing key participants, and what emerged from his investigation is perhaps the most comprehensive account of the sordid Pear Harbor affair. As a bonus, Prange and his editors manage to convincingly refute the so-called revisionist school of thought about the attack. All in all, "At Dawn We Slept" is a monumental effort that, in light of recent geopolitical events, deserves to be read.
Rating:
Summary: A must for the Pearl Harbor buff!
Review: The most detailed and factual text available on the subject of Pearl. Get the Japanese and American perspective through actual interviews by Prange. A classic! Prange and his writers are true masters. Who was at fault? Read the book! JJR, M.A.
Rating:
Summary: The Definitive History Of The Day That Will Live In Infamy
Review: Thirty seven years in the making, Gordon W. Prange's AT DAWN WE SLEPT is, like Shelby Foote's three volume THE CIVIL WAR and Alan Nevins' ORDEAL OF THE UNION, a masterwork of historical research that is unmatched in its attention to detail, its writing style (edited and completed by others after Mr. Prange's death along with the companion volume MIRACLE AT MIDWAY), and its ability to weave literally thousands of disparate elements into a penetrating analysis of why we slept at dawn. Although the detail sometimes becomes overwhelming, it also puts human faces to the protagonists, both Japanese and American. Prange's thesis, that the dynamic Japanese nation felt constrained by American geopolitical goals, is the cornerstone of most modern scholarship on the outbreak of the Pacific War. America's isolationism and complacency is also addressed. Although the military had frequently war gamed an attack on Oahu (and the Japanese studied these war games in detail), it is nothing short of incredible that the U.S. considered the Japanese at most a second-rate threat, and did nothing to prepare for what had long since been foreseen. In its exhaustive examination of the events leading up to December 7th, we can read a cautionary tale. There is no question but that December 7, 1941 and September 11, 2001 and kindred days with kindred histories. Those who do not learn from history are so terribly doomed to repeat it.
Rating: 
Summary: Timely re-issue
Review: This book and its follow up have both been re-issued this year; well timed but I don't think it's coincidental. There has been a lot of recent interest in Pearl Harbor, and as night follows day, that means historians are going to be revisiting the tragedy. Conspiracy theories started on the day after Pearl Harbor and they're still with us. Two of the conspiracy theory groups are "Roosevelt revisionists" and the "intelligence/codes/secrets" school of thought. The first set focus less on military operations but moreso on FDR. THE NEW DEALERS WAR being a recently released case in point. While the substantive work may be a legitimate reinterprative biography that looks at FDR's performance as president, these authors invariably see complicity on his part in either deliberately provoking Japan, or witholding information. Information is the link with the second group who say intelligence information, specifically the withholding of it from key people, is the source of the tragedy. DAY OF DECEIT is a recent example. All this is necessary preamble to AT DAWN WE SLEPT because this book is as thorough with its research as any other, and long ago tackled and then disproved, not just these, but all other conspiracy theories. This book, originally published in 1981, can only be re-issued not updated as Gordon Prange died in the 1980's. The fact that newly declassified intelligence intercepts have been made available does not affect the soundness of the books argument and its only a pity that Prange is not around to give his interpretation. One of the main points of this book is that the conspiracy theories, by focusing on American sources of the tragedy, totally discount and diminish the role of the Japanese, and this book clearly shows what an error that is. Mr Prange argues that the Japanese were too headstrong to be manipulated and used as would be required in such an eloborate conspiracy. Furthermore the idea for the attack on Pearl Harbor originated with Adm. Yamamoto. Perhaps most damaging to a conspiracy is Prange's conclusion that even if intelligence messages had been acted on by us, and the Japanese had lost the element of surprise, they would have fought through the resistance, absorbed losses, and pressed home the attack. He convincingly argues that they anticipated losses. Prange knows this because his is one of the few books to have relied heavily on interviews with many of the surviving Japanese participants. The arguments and analysis in this book are sound; other books may be more entertaining and better written but few are as thorough.
Rating:
Summary: The definitive book on Pearl Harbor.
Review: This book debunks all the myths about Pearl Harbor. Professor Prange spent over 30 years researching this book and when you read it you will realize it was hubris on the part of Kimmell and Short more than anything which lead to the Pearl Harbor disaster.
Rating:
Summary: Well argued, wonderfully written, and uses all sources.
Review: This book is an example of good exhaustive historical research and balanced conclusions. Although long, it is gripping and academic, (a sometimes rare combination, as I've found out in my graduate studies). One should read this book and also read the book by Henry C. Clausen, since he was an actual investigator into the tragedy. Prange should be congradulated for using Clausen's perspective something many other authors of Pearl Harbor didn't use. Read this book!
Rating:
Summary: Very well researched but not a thrill a minute
Review: This book is extremely well researched and is very informative, especially concerning the planning of the attack, the pre-war American and Japanese navies, and the responsibilities of the Army and Navy concerning the protection of the fleet at Pearl Harbor. What it is not is a story of the attack itself, the description of which only lasts about fifteen or twenty pages. If you like to read narrative histories along the lines of David McCullough and Barbra Tuchman, you might find this book a bit dry.
Rating:
Summary: The Best
Review: This book is the best ever on the attack. For anyone who wants a serious knowledge of the attack they should read this one
| 
