Military History Roundup

History comes to life through fact and fiction in these books about World War II, the American Revolution, and our founding documents:

KILLING THE RISING SUN: How America Vanquished World War II Japan by Bill O’Reilly & Martin Dugard
The latest book in O’Reilly & Dugard’s multimillion-selling Killing series takes readers to the bloody tropical-island battlefields of Peleliu and Iwo Jima and to the embattled Philippines, where General Douglas MacArthur has made a triumphant return and is plotting a full-scale invasion of Japan. Meanwhile, Harry Truman ascends to the presidency, only to face the most important political decision in history: whether or not to use nuclear weapons.

BORDERS by Roy Jacobsen
A brilliantly layered, sweeping novel of World War II set in the Ardennes—a forested, mountainous borderland that spans France, Germany, Belgium, and Luxembourg—about the impossible choices between familial love and national identity. “An artful deconstruction of nationalism through the prism of personal loss and reconciliation. Read Jacobsen’s novel carefully to savor its images and themes.” — Kirkus Reviews

GEORGE WASHINGTON’S SECRET SPY WAR: The Making of America’s First Spymaster by John A. Nagy
The untold story of how George Washington, a Virginia farmer, became the eighteenth century’s greatest and America’s first spymaster. “Drawing on Washington’s correspondence and diary, the late Nagy, an American Revolution specialist, follows Washington from his participation in the French and Indian Wars, where he cut his teeth in the ways of espionage, to his great deception in the American Revolution that secured colonial victory. Nagy’s fast-paced chronicle reveals a little-known side of America’s Revolutionary War hero.” — Publishers Weekly

AMERICAN TREASURES: The Secret Efforts to Save the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Gettysburg Address by Stephen Puleo
Puleo tells the dramatic, never-before-told history of America’s efforts to protect important founding documents, plus the key role played by Librarian of Congress Archibald MacLeish during WWII. “An engrossing account of the creation, consecration, and conservation of the documents that defined American democracy. Readers will take away a new appreciation for the vision and savvy of government officials in finding ways to insure such treasures would survive.”
— Library Journal