A Month that Changed the World

On December l, 1941, America was a divided country. The war in Europe and the Japanese incursions in the Far East seemed far way. The America First Committee urged citizens to stay out of the war, and many agreed with that sentiment. Then came December 7, 1941 and America would never be the same. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor changed the isolationist country into one completely focused on winning the war.

Craig Shirley uses a unique format to tell the story of the month of December 1941. We are treated to a comprehensive selection of items from the newspapers of the day. Not only, do we learn about the battles and the public reaction to them, we hear about what people were doing for recreation, how much things cost (a truly amazing difference from today.), and stories of individual heroism both in the military and on the home front. It's hard to imagine the devastation of losing two sons on the same day in the Pacific, but that was the plight of more than one family.

I highly recommend this book if you love history. It's also a book that brings home how much our country today resembles the country prior to World War II. There are many stories in the book that should make us all stop and think about our beliefs and where we're going. The challenges are not so different.

I reviewed this book as part of the Thomas Nelson Booksneeze Program.