Nemesis
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Review
‘“Nemesis is a triumph…provocative, insightful… impressive…Put all these elements together – the ambition, insight, sureness of touch – and you have a book of real quality’. Sunday Times
‘Solid scholarship, a supreme understanding of strategy, stirring evocations of battles and trenchant opinion…Hastings proves himself once again to be the master of his material.’ Sunday Times ‘Books of the Year’
‘Magisterial…it is truly cathartic to reach the end of the Second World War in Hastings's company.’ Times ‘Books of the Year’
‘Brilliantly organised, compassionate but unsparing in its judgements…a monumental achievement.’ George Steiner, Sunday Times ‘Books of the Year’
'Hastings has covered a vast canvas with superbly realised detail, and has provided an excellent companion to Armageddon'. Daily Telegraph
‘Absolutely excellent.’ John Simpson, Observer
‘Remarkably impressive.’ Guardian
'Hastings is…a master of the sort of detail that illuminates the human cost. It is the way he leaps so adeptly to and fro between the vast panorama and the tiny snapshot pictures that makes him such a readable historian.' Mail on Sunday
‘A delight to read…its originality lies…in the meticulousness of the author's research…an absorbing read…”Nemesis” is an engrossing book.’ Evening Standard
“Brilliantly though Hastings lays out the strategic context, his real talent lies in his account of the 'terrible human experience' that it involved…This is a book not only for military history buffs but for anyone who wants to understand what happened in half the world during one of the bloodiest periods of the blood-soaked 20th century.’ The Spectator
‘An outstandingly gripping and authoritative account of the battle for Japan, and a monument to human bravery and savagery.’ Daily Telegraph
‘This is an absorbing story woven from the grand designs of the policy–makers and strategists together with the letters, diaries and memoirs of those who fought at the sharp end, friend and foe alike. The balance is sustained with admirable skill…”Nemesis” is Max Hastings's best book…nformed, lively, thorough.’ Literary Review
Reviews for ‘Warriors’:
‘With this collection, Hastings is back on home territory, where he can bring his unique blend of skills as war reporter, and social as well as military historian to bear…This is one of the best and most diverting of his shorter pieces.’ Evening Standard‘
Spectacular…Hastings makes important points about the war in the East that have been all too rarely heard…excellent…compelling…searingly powerful.’ Sunday Telegraph
‘Highly readable…absorbing…excellent…admirably balanced…the author's attitude…refreshingly modern and sensitive.’ Guardian
‘A delight to read…absorbing…engrossing.’ Scotsman
‘Hastings lays out the campaigns with admirable clarity…this is magisterial history.’ First Post
More Reviews for ‘Warriors”:
‘All (of the stories) are corking…opinions are stated firmly and with big bold swings of the pendulum. His virtues are clarity and decisiveness – greatly to be admired when it comes to making clear, for the lay reader, roughly what is going on in the fiendishly complex and bloody engagements he describes.’ Spectator
Sunday Times
'Nemesis is a triumph.'
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
170 of 182 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Most accounts of the fall of Japan follow, understandably, the progress of the US across the Pacific, culminating in the invasions of the Philippines, Iwo Jima, Okinawa and finally the cataclysmic events of August 1945. Hastings paints a much broader picture, following events in Burma, where the British Empire forces were engaged in a stunningly successful but ultimately pointless, in terms of the final destruction of Japan, campaign, to Borneo where the Australians where relegated to fighting in a backwater, losing much of their stature gained in the Western Desert 3 years before, and being hampered by in-fighting. Macarthur's arrogance - megalomania even - in the Philippines is described with the savage battle for Manila. The necessity for the battle for Iwo is seriously questioned with the normal answer "it saved allied aircrews" being doubted. Some of what he describes is well-known - the fire bombing of Japan's cities, the battle for Okinawa are covered well but less-known aspects are handled well: the China war (which had been going on for far longer that WW2), the Soviet invasion of Manchuria (Stalin's race to grab land before the war ended - the battles there continued for some days after the "official" surrender) and the choking of Japan's logistical supplies by the relatively small (compared with the U-Boats a couple of years earlier) US submarine force. Hastings makes the point that the sinking of Japan's merchant navy dwindled back in late '44 and early 45 for the very simple reason: there was pretty well nothing more to sink. He criticises the USAAF (a la Bomber Command) for not diverting more resources into the mining of the Inland Sea. When this did happen, the results almost crippled Japan's inter-island traffic. The actual nuclear attacks are briefly covered - I suspect that Hastings realised that they are just too well known - but the political build up, in Washington, Tokyo and Moscow, is covered is some detail.
For those used to Hastings's earlier work dealing with the end of WW2 in Europe - Armageddon and Overlord - will be familiar with his technique of mixing personal memories and reflections with the broader picture - both military and political. In Nemesis he succeeds again admirably and this book thoroughly deserves five stars.
For those used to Hastings's earlier work dealing with the end of WW2 in Europe - Armageddon and Overlord - will be familiar with his technique of mixing personal memories and reflections with the broader picture - both military and political. In Nemesis he succeeds again admirably and this book thoroughly deserves five stars.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
My knowledge of the Pacific War is fairly limited and confined to the Pearl harbour to Midway period so what I wanted was a broad brush view of the later stages of the conflict and this tome fulfilled my need very well.
Hastings gives a good chronological account of each part of the campaign with plenty of flavour and puts the battles and decisions of all participants into context: if the evidence supports a conclusion he makes the argument and if it does not he outlines the case for each conclusion, ventures his opinion but leaves the other possibilities open for you to make your own mind up. I like this sort of approach in preference to shying away from opinion or asserting your own to the exclusion of any other possibility. The fact that the entire region is covered and not just the US campign is also very welcome and the well worn arguments regarding the dropping of the Bombs and the political situation in Japan etc. are very concisely covered.
I was left with a fair framework for the period to hang further reading onto, a great deal of respect for those who fought on both sides and a small slice of anger towards their collected political and military masters.
Had I had to spend time at the pointy end on either side I would have felt ill used I think; a very Good read.
Hastings gives a good chronological account of each part of the campaign with plenty of flavour and puts the battles and decisions of all participants into context: if the evidence supports a conclusion he makes the argument and if it does not he outlines the case for each conclusion, ventures his opinion but leaves the other possibilities open for you to make your own mind up. I like this sort of approach in preference to shying away from opinion or asserting your own to the exclusion of any other possibility. The fact that the entire region is covered and not just the US campign is also very welcome and the well worn arguments regarding the dropping of the Bombs and the political situation in Japan etc. are very concisely covered.
I was left with a fair framework for the period to hang further reading onto, a great deal of respect for those who fought on both sides and a small slice of anger towards their collected political and military masters.
Had I had to spend time at the pointy end on either side I would have felt ill used I think; a very Good read.
41 of 44 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Max Hastings describes how and why Japan was finally brought low in 1945 - the politics and the military grand strategy - and what it was like for the ordinary people swept up by these events. And in his descriptions of action on the ground in China, Burma, the Philippines and across the Pacific, he succeeds in conveying the horror of total warfare by allowing participants to speak for themselves. The book does not, however, provide a detailed operational analysis of the campaigns involved, and the absence of a bibliography which is dismissed as an author's `peacock display', is therefore a disappointment. A good bibliography is a resource and the literature of this subject is little better known than its detail, so the absence of one, or at least of a bibliographic essay, is a pity - hence only 4 stars. This is all the more apparent given Hastings's clear exposition of Japanese as well as American strategic imperatives; he shows why this war degenerated into a slugfest.
There are excellent pen pictures of leading characters, and the failings of senior commanders are rigorously examined: General Douglas MacArthur, for example, was a paranoid megalomaniac obsessed with his personal mission to liberate the Philippines, and ignored any intelligence that didn't suit him. In describing systematic Japanese brutality towards both Allied prisoners and fellow Asians, Hastings is also careful to shade the coin, showing that not all Japanese were sadists. But if today some Japanese suggest such inhumanity was no worse than Allied bombing, he notes that having started the war, they `waged it with such savagery towards the innocent and impotent that it is easy to understand the rage which filled Allied hearts in 1945'.
The horror of the atomic bombs is put in context by the description of the fire bomb raid on Tokyo of 9 March 1945, in which as many as 100,000 people died, and the strategic significance of aerial bombardment is itself put in context with the submarine campaign that effectively crippled Japan's economy. Subsequently Hastings doesn't dwell on the horrible effects of the bombs themselves, but describes the Tolstoyan inevitability of their use in balanced terms. He concludes that if today Japan is guilty of a collective rejection of historical fact in denying its army's brutal and nihilistic actions, some US historians interpret the pursuit of decisive victory - unconditional surrender - as the American way of war, an outlook that `renders the country liable to chronic disappointment'. In Nemesis Hastings has covered a vast canvas with superbly realised detail, and has provided an excellent companion to Armageddon, his earlier study of the defeat of Germany.
There are excellent pen pictures of leading characters, and the failings of senior commanders are rigorously examined: General Douglas MacArthur, for example, was a paranoid megalomaniac obsessed with his personal mission to liberate the Philippines, and ignored any intelligence that didn't suit him. In describing systematic Japanese brutality towards both Allied prisoners and fellow Asians, Hastings is also careful to shade the coin, showing that not all Japanese were sadists. But if today some Japanese suggest such inhumanity was no worse than Allied bombing, he notes that having started the war, they `waged it with such savagery towards the innocent and impotent that it is easy to understand the rage which filled Allied hearts in 1945'.
The horror of the atomic bombs is put in context by the description of the fire bomb raid on Tokyo of 9 March 1945, in which as many as 100,000 people died, and the strategic significance of aerial bombardment is itself put in context with the submarine campaign that effectively crippled Japan's economy. Subsequently Hastings doesn't dwell on the horrible effects of the bombs themselves, but describes the Tolstoyan inevitability of their use in balanced terms. He concludes that if today Japan is guilty of a collective rejection of historical fact in denying its army's brutal and nihilistic actions, some US historians interpret the pursuit of decisive victory - unconditional surrender - as the American way of war, an outlook that `renders the country liable to chronic disappointment'. In Nemesis Hastings has covered a vast canvas with superbly realised detail, and has provided an excellent companion to Armageddon, his earlier study of the defeat of Germany.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Brilliant stuff from one of the WW2 historical masters
Would've gotten five stars if he had included the fascinating details about the treatment of prisoners on both sides. Read more
Published 4 days ago by K McCarthy
Another of Hasting's good WW2 history books
I've read most of Macx Hasting's books. I enjoyed Overlord, Battle for the Falklands, Bomber Command, the Korean War and Armageddon. He keeps it lively and always interesting. Read more
Published 12 days ago by Capone Boy
An Excellent Book
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and found it both informative and well-written . It is of the standard I have long come to expect from Max Hastings . Read more
Published 1 month ago by Terry J
The Pacific theatre
As someone with a long time interest in WW2 I was drawn to this book because of its focus on the Pacific side of the conflict which is often overlooked, especially in Europe. Read more
Published 1 month ago by M. G. Tokyo
Brilliant
I really enjoyed this book. A great amount of detail which may bore some people as it is long and at times heavy reading but must be the best book on this subject.
Published 13 months ago by T. E. Foster
Best Book on the Pacific War
A first class read covering the final two years of the war in the Pacific.
Detailed information reflects the research by the author and the book includes many stories from... Read more
Detailed information reflects the research by the author and the book includes many stories from... Read more
Published 14 months ago by May Bird
Not his best...by a long way
I've read several of Max Hasting books and have enjoyed them (Overlord, Bomber Command(I can't recall it's specific name)and Nemesis), I rather looked forward to his treatment of... Read more
Published 18 months ago by David I. Brown
rubbish!
Possibly the biggest compilation of rubbish ever written. It's opinionated, out-right wrong in some places and yet is meant to be an historical account... Read more
Published on 2 May 2010 by Evan Skuthorpe
Great book...
As with other Hastings books, a really good read...Not full of needless info and facts and figures, good accounts from the guys on the ground and good coverage of some lesser... Read more
Published on 28 Jan 2010 by Katrina Smith
NEMESIS - MAX HASTINGS
Like most people I would imagine, my knowledge of the Second World War is mostly confined to the Eurasian and North African theatres and is shamefully threadbare when it comes to... Read more
Published on 28 Jan 2010 by Hillpaul
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