Vendor
	Mohrbooks Literary Agency Sebastian Ritscher
Original language
English
Categories
Politics & government

ROAD TO SURRENDER

Evan Thomas

Three Men and the Countdown to the End of World War II

A riveting, immersive account of the agonizing decision to use nuclear weapons against Japan - a crucial turning point in World War II and geopolitical history, told with immediacy and written by the New York Times bestselling author of FIRST, BEING NIXON, IKE'S BLUFF, SEA OF THUNDER, and others.

ROAD TO SURRENDER is an intense and vivid account about the final days leading to America's decision in August 1945 to drop the atomic bomb, and the decision of Japan to surrender. Told through the stories of three men - Henry Stimson, the American Secretary of War, who had overall responsibility for decisions about the atom bomb; General Carl "Tooey" Spaatz, head of strategic bombing in the Pacific, who was in charge of the planes that dropped the bombs; and Japanese Foreign Minister, Shigenori Togo, who was the only one in Emperor Hirohito's Court and Supreme War Council who believed, even before the bombs were dropped, that Japan should surrender.

Thomas was given access to unpublished diary entries of Shignori Togo by his grandsons, as well as private papers of Gen. Spaatz, including letters and diaries. These documents aided Thomas in bringing the events to life on the page and the book will surprise you with its intensity as the motivations and emotions of these three people who played key roles in a pivotal point in history.

Evan Thomas is the author of ten books, including the New York Times bestsellers JOHN PAUL JONES, SEA OF THUNDER, and FIRST: SANDRA DAY O'CONNOR. Thomas was a writer, correspondent, and editor for thirty-three years at Time and Newsweek, including ten years as Newsweek's Washington bureau chief. He appears regularly on many TV and radio talk shows. Thomas has taught at Harvard and Princeton.

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Book Published 2023-06-06 by Random House

Comments

This dramatic, you-are-there masterpiece provides a convincing explanation of one of the great moral questions of 20th century history: was America right to drop the atom bomb on Japan at the end of World War II? With remarkable reporting and access to new documents - as well as his own solid insights - Thomas describes the agonizing decisions through the eyes and minds and hearts of the men involved on both sides. This is an indispensable book for those who want to understand the moral issues surrounding the use of great power.

A terrifying, heartbreaking account of three men under unimaginable pressure. This is history that crackles with journalistic immediacy. I challenge you not to read this book in a single sitting.

UK & C: Elliot & Thompson

In this meticulously crafted and vivid account, Evan Thomas tells the gripping and terrifying story of the last days of the Second World War in the Pacific. Writing with insight and understanding, he recreates for us those critical moments when, for better or worse, the decisions, from the dropping of the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki to the Japanese surrender, were made.

Nobody does this better than Evan Thomas. With an unerring eye for detail and a deft touch with the dramatic, he tells one of the most important stories of all time with power and grace. Paced like a thriller, replete with fresh historical insight, and driven by new research, Thomas's book explains how America came to deploy the deadliest weapons ever created. The result is an indispensable portrait of power, anxiety, and moral ambiguity.

In this mesmerizing account of the final weeks of World War II, Evan Thomas provides a haunting, deeply human look at the mental and physical torment of American and Japanese leaders as they confronted the catastrophic reality of the atomic bomb.

'We have discovered the most terrible bomb in the history of the world,' President Truman wrote in his diary fifteen days before the Enola Gay reduced Hiroshima to - as Evan Thomas describes it - 'the inside of an emptied ashtray.' The ideal guide to those fraught weeks, Thomas takes us behind the scenes and into the minds of the key players, in both the US and Japan. The result is a taut, thrilling narrative, rich, compassionate, and superbly nuanced.