Twilight of the Gods

Hardcover, 944 pages

English language

Published Sept. 1, 2020 by W. W. Norton & Company.

ISBN:: 978-0-393-08065-0

(2 reviews)

The final volume of the magisterial Pacific War Trilogy from acclaimed historian Ian W. Toll, "one of the great storytellers of war" (Evan Thomas). Twilight of the Gods is a riveting account of the harrowing last year of World War II in the Pacific, when the U.S. Navy won the largest naval battle in history; Douglas MacArthur made good his pledge to return to the Philippines; waves of kamikazes attacked the Allied fleets; the Japanese fought to the last man on one island after another; B-29 bombers burned down Japanese cities; and Hiroshima and Nagasaki were vaporized in atomic blasts. Ian W. Toll's narratives of combat in the air, at sea, and on the beaches are as gripping as ever, but he also takes the reader into the halls of power in Washington and Tokyo, where the great questions of strategy and diplomacy were decided. Lionel Barber of the Financial …

The final volume of the magisterial Pacific War Trilogy from acclaimed historian Ian W. Toll, "one of the great storytellers of war" (Evan Thomas). Twilight of the Gods is a riveting account of the harrowing last year of World War II in the Pacific, when the U.S. Navy won the largest naval battle in history; Douglas MacArthur made good his pledge to return to the Philippines; waves of kamikazes attacked the Allied fleets; the Japanese fought to the last man on one island after another; B-29 bombers burned down Japanese cities; and Hiroshima and Nagasaki were vaporized in atomic blasts. Ian W. Toll's narratives of combat in the air, at sea, and on the beaches are as gripping as ever, but he also takes the reader into the halls of power in Washington and Tokyo, where the great questions of strategy and diplomacy were decided. Lionel Barber of the Financial Times chose the second volume of the series (The Conquering Tide) as the preeminent book of 2016, calling it "military history at its best." Readers who have been waiting for the conclusion of Toll's masterpiece will be thrilled by this final volume. - Publisher.

3 editions

markm reviewed Twilight of the Gods by Ian W. Toll

Review of 'Twilight of the Gods' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

The last volume in Toll's great history of the war in the Pacific. He covers McArthur and Halsey's peculiarities, the invasion of the Philippines, the battle of Leyte Gulf, the battles for Iwo Jima and Okinawa, Kamikazies, preparations for the invasion of Japan (an amphibious assault that would have been larger than the D-Day invasion), the atom bombs, and a detailed account of the Japanese government and military's "decision" to surrender. There are also discussions of US submarine warfare and the B-29. I highly recommend the whole three-volume history.

Greg P

rated it

Jul 22