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Guadalcanal Hardcover – 1 Nov. 1990
Purchase options and add-ons
- Print length800 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherRandom House Inc
- Publication date1 Nov. 1990
- Dimensions16.51 x 6.99 x 24.13 cm
- ISBN-100394588754
- ISBN-13978-0394588759
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Product details
- Publisher : Random House Inc; 1st edition (1 Nov. 1990)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 800 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0394588754
- ISBN-13 : 978-0394588759
- Dimensions : 16.51 x 6.99 x 24.13 cm
- Best Sellers Rank: 1,484,364 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- Customer reviews:
About the author

Richard B. Frank is a graduate of the University of Missouri (1969) and Georgetown University Law Center (1976). He served in the Vietnam War with the 101st Airborne Divisions as an aero rifle platoon leader. He is an independent scholar specializing in the Asia-Pacific War. In 1990, he published his first book Guadalcanal. It won the General Wallace M. Greene, Jr. Award for the best book about Marine Corps history that year. His second work, Downfall: The End of the Imperial Japanese Empire, appeared in 1999. It won the Harry S. Truman Book Award and has been called one of the six best books in English about World War II by Dr. Gerhard Weinberg. Both Random House books became main selections of the History Book Club. In 2007, he completed MacArthur as part of the Palgrave Great Generals series.
Besides his numerous appearances on television and radio, he was a consultant for the epic HBO miniseries, “The Pacific.” He serves on the Board of Presidential Councilors of the U.S. National World War II Museum, including a term as head of that body. He is the principal historical consultant for the museum’s major exhibit titled “The Road to Tokyo.” He is currently working on a narrative history trilogy covering the entire Asia-Pacific War 1937-1945 for W.W. Norton & company. It is the first work in any language to give balanced coverage to not only the maritime war between Japan and the US, but also the continental conflict that ranged across Asia. It further explores how this war shaped the world of the twenty-first century. The first volume of the trilogy, Tower of Skulls, covering the period July 1937 to May 1942, will be published on March 3, 2020. It has received starred reviews in both Kirkus Reviews and Publishers Weekly.
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Top reviews
Top reviews from United Kingdom
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Well written, clearly thoroughly researched and highly readable. Frank succeeds in examine both sides performance, and materiel ( etc) equally well. Five stars without question.
Indeed the book gives the best account of all the battles (sea, air , land) that had been in the South Pacific, connected to the Island of Guadalcanal, describing very carefully all their phases, and giving a hugely detailed account of all the losses of both sides (including the reason for the loss), so you will live all this long campaign as if you were there.
The book contains a deep analysis of the personalities of all the protagonists of both sides, You can , in this way, understand perfectly the reason of their actions.
If you want to listen the final word about this decisive battle, you can't miss this book.
Top reviews from other countries
Dans cette campagne de six mois (août 1942-février 1943), les Japonais perdent à la fois le coeur de leur puissance aéronavale, à savoir leurs équipages surentraînés, mais aussi leur mythe d'invincibilité dans le combat de jungle. Frank combine dans son récit, en effet, une lecture à la fois terrestre, navale et aérienne de la campagne, ce qui n'avait, jusqu'à son époque, pas été fait de manière simultanée. Il bénéficie aussi de l'accès à de nouvelles archives japonaises. Dans ses jugements, Frank se montre relativement clément envers certains amiraux américains comme Fletcher, qui a été très critiqué pour avoir retiré ses porte-avions deux jours après le début du débarquement, laissant ainsi les Marines sans couverture. En revanche, il reproche à l'amiral Callaghan d'être à l'origine de la mort de l'amiral Scott pendant la bataille navale au large de Guadalcanal dans la nuit du 13 novembre 1942, en raison d'un tir fratricide.
L'atout majeur du livre de Frank, basé sur un travail de recherche considérable, est de montrer combien Guadalcanal est véritablement le tournant de la guerre du Pacifique. Surpris par une offensive à laquelle ils ne s'attendaient pas, les Japonais ont désespérément tenté de reprendre l'île, qui sera bientôt baptisée par les soldats nippons "l'île de la désolation". Ce faisant, ils ont subi des pertes en matériel et surtout en hommes qu'ils ne pouvaient se permettre. En tenant Henderson Field et en empêchant les Japonais de mener à bien une contre-offensive d'envergure, sur terre, sur mer et dans les airs, les Américains l'ont emporté et ont reconquis une initiative qu'ils ne lâcheront désormais presque plus dans le Pacifique.
Une somme qui est absolument à lire pour tous ceux qui s'intéressent à cette campagne, illustrée par un imposant livret photo central et une pléthore de cartes. En revanche, il est dommage que les sources ne soient pas récapitulées dans une bibliographie complète en fin de volume.
