The New York Times Book Review - Mark Perry Voc
…the third volume of Toll's superb trilogy on the Pacific War…is a study as detailed as it is unsparing, with [Ernest] King, [Chester] Nimitz, [Raymond] Spruance and [William] Halsey as pivotal to victory in the Pacific as George Marshall, Dwight Eisenhower, Omar Bradley and George Patton were to the victory in Europe. And while the names of these Navy giants do not roll off the tongue as readily now as those of their celebrated Army counterparts, they should—with Nimitz emerging as the true architect of America's Pacific naval strategy and Spruance as his masterly, if sometimes overly careful, tactician…[Twilight of the Gods] is exhaustive and authoritative and it shows the Navy in World War II as it really was, warts and all.
Publishers Weekly
★ 04/20/2020
Historian Toll (The Conquering Tide) brings his Pacific War trilogy to a dramatic conclusion in this expertly told account of the final year of WWII. After an intriguing examination of how FDR directed the efforts of U.S. military commanders Douglas MacArthur, Chester Nimitz, and William “Bull” Halsey to roll back earlier Japanese advances, Toll switches from grand strategy to harrowing, first-person accounts of Pacific Theater battles. At Leyte, the Japanese turned kamikaze attacks into both a propaganda tool and an integral element of their defense against America’s carrier fleet. Fulfilling his promise to return to the Philippines, General MacArthur liberated POWs held since 1942 and declared victory at Manila in February 1945, only to face a month of “some of the most vicious urban fighting of the entire Second World War.” Controversy raged among military generals and the American public about whether the appalling casualties at Iwo Jima were justified, but the island’s airfields were needed to launch aerial bombing campaigns against mainland Japan, including the March 1945 firebombing of Tokyo. Toll describes the invasion of Okinawa as a “Pacific Verdun,” documents Allied efforts to negotiate peace, details the error-prone mission to bomb Nagasaki, and paints a poignant picture of the surrender ceremony aboard the USS Missouri. Written with flair and chock-full of stories both familiar and fresh, this monumental history fires on all cylinders. WWII aficionados will be enthralled. (July)
Richard Snow
"In his masterly narrative, Ian W. Toll brings clarity and a stinging immediacy to America’s long, bitter climb up the island ladder that led to Japan. With deft, incisive character sketches, Toll summons the leaders back to contentious life: arguing about what to do, making mistakes, bringing triumph out of disaster—and sometimes the reverse. This is maritime history at its best and most accessible."
Alex Kershaw
"No one has told the story of World War II in the Pacific, from beginning to bitter end, better than Ian W. Toll. This final volume concludes a brilliant trilogy. Elegant and supremely readable—don’t miss the finest military history of 2020."
Wall Street Journal - Jonathan W. Jordan
"Toll weaves a brilliant final act depicting one of humanity’s epic tragedies. This book and its predecessors set a high bar for historians of the Pacific War."
Mark Perry
"Toll’s expertly navigated narrative includes a number of new insights…It is exhaustive and authoritative and it shows the Navy in World War II as it really was, warts and all."
Air Mail - Evan Thomas
"[A] magnificent saga of the last year of the Pacific War…every bit as captivating as his first two [volumes]—Pacific Crucible and The Conquering Tide."
Nathaniel Philbrick
"I’ve been a fan of Ian W. Toll’s since his first book, Six Frigates, but this concluding volume of his Pacific War Trilogy has taken him to another level altogether. Twilight of the Gods grabs you from the beginning and doesn’t let go until the very end—an epic masterpiece of military history."
New York Journal of Books - Jerry Lenaburg
"Using meticulous research, including previously untapped primary sources, and a brisk narrative that combines strategic, operational, and personal perspectives, [Toll] presents a very balanced look at the critical decisions and actions on both sides that concluded the war."
Library Journal
08/01/2020
It took nine years from publishing volume one to this volume, but Toll's trilogy of the Pacific Theater during World War II is complete. After Pacific Crucible (2011) and The Conquering Tide (2015), Toll begins this tale of 1944–45 at a crucial meeting in Honolulu between President Roosevelt and the major players of the military: Admiral Chester W. Nimitz and General Douglas MacArthur. It was here they decided the final push toward victory against Japan. Toll uses this as the jumping-off point to cover the entirety of the remainder of American actions in the Pacific, from Allied troops withstanding kamikazes to the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. The author can get bogged down in minute details and his own dislike of MacArthur, but he effectively uses primary documents, official reports, journals, and autobiographies to cover events from multiple viewpoints. This is helpful as it provides a personal take on harsh battles and horrific conditions for the combatants. VERDICT Fans of Toll's previous volumes will enjoy this book. World War II experts may find this work redundant, since it uses previously published materials. However, casual enthusiasts will appreciate as it compiles those works thoroughly.—Jason L. Steagall, Arapahoe Libs., Centennial, Colorado
Kirkus Reviews
★ 2020-03-29
The final volume in Toll’s fine Pacific War Trilogy.
The author begins with the July 1944 Honolulu meeting of the key American figures. He rocks no boats in his evaluations of Franklin Roosevelt (canny if slippery politico), Adm. Chester Nimitz (brilliant but colorless technocrat), and Gen. Douglas MacArthur (military genius with a massive ego). At the meeting, American officials reached a decision to invade Japan by way of the Philippines rather than Formosa. By 1944, Japanese leaders knew that victory was impossible but also believed that they were unconquerable. Once Americans, whom they considered technically advanced but soft, realized that every Japanese soldier, civilian, and child would fight to the death, they would lose heart and agree to a compromise peace. “There was a difference between defeat and surrender,” writes the author, a meticulous historian, “between losing an overseas empire and seeing the homeland overrun by a barbarian army.” Ironically, the first part of the Japanese strategy worked. Convinced that the Japanese preferred death to surrender, American military leaders did not quail but simply proceeded with that in mind. There is no shortage of accounts of the brutal island-hopping invasions (Peleliu in September, the Philippines in October, Iwo Jima in February 1945, Okinawa in April), but Toll’s take second place to none. Accompanying the Philippine invasion was the Battle of Leyte Gulf, the largest naval battle in world history. The most effective submarines of the war were not Hitler’s but America’s, which crippled Japan’s economy and sank a torrent of warships. Toll’s account of the coup de grace, the atomic bomb, barely mentions the debate over its use because that began after the war. At the time, a few administration figures protested but did not make a big fuss, and it turned out to require two bombs and the Soviet invasion before Japan decided to surrender.
A conventional but richly rewarding history of the last war that turned out well for the U.S. (32 photos; 20 maps)
