In this compelling book, G. Kurt Piehler and Sidney Pash bring together a collection of essays offering a fresh examination of American participation in the Second World War, including a long overdue reconsideration of such seminal topics as the forces leading the United States to enter World War II, the role of the American military in the Allied victory, and war-time planning for the postwar world, but also tackle new inquiries into life on the home front and America's commemoration of one of the most controversial and climatic events of the war-the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima.
These outstanding historians cover crucial moments such as:
Franklin D. Roosevelt's pivotal, if at times indecisive, role in leading the United States
The miscalculation of Japanese intentions by American diplomats and the failure of deterrence in preventing war in the Pacific
The experiences and contributions of conscientious objectors to American society in this time of total war
The decision of the United States to fight with an ineffective battle tank at the expense of American lives
The Coast Guard's contribution to the D-Day Landing
How elite foreign policy organizations prior to V-J Day sought to influence American occupation policies regarding Japan
With these essays and much more, The United States in the Second World War is sure to prove a classic to World War II buffs.

Offers a fresh examination of American participation in the Second World War

About the Author

G. Kurt Piehler is author of Remembering War the American Way (Smithsonian Institution Press, 1995; reprint ed., 2004), author of World War II (American Soldiers' Lives Series, Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2007), and co-editor of Major Problems in American Military History (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1999). He is consulting editor for the Oxford Companion to American Military History (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999) and associate editor of Americans at War: Society, Culture, and the Homefront (New York: Macmillan Reference/Gale, 2005). His articles have appeared in the History of Education Quarterly, Journal of the Rutgers University Libraries, and the anthology Commemorations: The Politics of National Identity (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1994). As founding director (1994-98) of the Rutgers Oral History Archives of World War II, Piehler conducted more than 200 interviews with veterans of this conflict.
Sidney Pash is an assistant professor of history at Fayetteville State University, where he teaches courses in U.S., world, and East Asian history. He earned his Ph.D. in 2001 from Rutgers University, where he specialized in interwar U.S.-Japanese diplomatic relations. His most recent works have appeared in the Journal of the North Carolina Association of Historians, The New England Journal of History, and in Jose de Arimateia da Cruz, Becky K. da Cruz, and Andrew J. Dowdle, eds., American Politics: Transformation and Change (Upper Saddle River, N.J.:Pearson, 2004).

Reviews
"This volume of essays on the US in World War II provides a good balance between the coming of war, the waging of war, and the conflict's aftermath. Little-known sources and original vantage points ensure that anyone interested in this seismic conflict will find something new to ponder." -Peter Schrijvers, author of Liberators: The Allies and Belgian Society, 1944-1945 This volume of essays on the US in World War II provides a good balance between the coming of war, the waging of war, and the conflict's aftermath. Little-known sources and original vantage points ensure that anyone interested in this seismic conflict will find something new to ponder.-Peter Schrijvers "well-argues and heavily-researched, these historical studies do, as the book's subtitle promises, present us with 'new perspectives' on a conflict that continues to be well worth studying." -History News Network "Anthology is a fragile genre, depending as it does upon the skills of many to produce one work. The authors and editors are praiseworthy for the depth of their research and the general lucidity of their prose." -Parameters "... A collection of eleven essays by veteran academics on various aspects of U.S. diplomatic, military, and political policy, ranging from President Franklin D. Roosevelt's decision to cast his lot with the democracies in 1941 to the echoes of the Hiroshima bombing among postwar antinuclear activists." -On Point: The Journal of Army History "... a welcome addition to the literature for offering high-level academic essays that display the complexity of just the American portion of the war ... Piehler and Pash are to be commended for putting together a fine collection of essays, useful to both specialists and college courses on World War II." -The Journal of Military History "The United States and the Second World War Provides readers with an academic appetizer plate on several intriguing aspects of the war... each author brings to the table the rich depth of analysis and scholarship. -The Army Historical Foundation "An index rounds out this thoughtful historical assessment with the benefit of hindsight, highly recommended particularly for college library American History shelves." -Library Bookwatch "One of the major strengths of the book lies in its reexamination of well-worn topics... The book offers snippets of topics one might not get without reading a specializes book on a very narrow aspect of the war." -Michaella Marino, Hastings College, H-Net Reviews



Book Information
ISBN 9780823231201
Author G. Kurt Piehler
Format Hardback
Page Count 356
Imprint Fordham University Press
Publisher Fordham University Press