This image is the cover for the book WWII

WWII

This “unique and fascinating” WWII memoir by the acclaimed author of From Here to Eternity and The Thin Red Line “stands out as one of the most vivid” (The Wall Street Journal).

In 1975, James Jones was chosen to write the text for an oversized coffee table book featuring visual art from World War II. The book was a best seller, praised for both its images and for Jones’s text. In subsequent decades, when it became impossible to reproduce the book with its original artwork, it fell out of print and was forgotten. But now, this edition of WWII makes Jones’s stunning text—his only extended nonfiction writing on the war—available once again.

Moving chronologically and thematically through the complex history of World War II, Jones interweaves his own vivid memories of soldiering in the Pacific—from the look on a Japanese fighter pilot’s face as he bombed Pearl Harbor, so close that Jones could see him smile and wave, to hitting the beach under fire in Guadalcanal—while always returning to resounding larger themes. While much of WWII is a tribute to the commitment of American soldiers, Jones also pulls no punches when recounting questionable strategic choices, wartime suffering, disorganization, the needless loss of life, and the brutal realization that a soldier is merely a cog in a heartless machine

James Jones

James Jones (1921–1977) was one of the most accomplished American authors of the World War II generation. He served in the U.S. Army from 1939 to 1944, and was present at the attack on Pearl Harbor as well as the battle for Guadalcanal, where he was decorated with a purple heart and bronze star. Jones’s experiences informed his epic novels From Here to Eternity and The Thin Red Line. His other works include Some Came Running, The Pistol, Go to the Widow-Maker, The Ice-Cream Headache and Other Stories, The Merry Month of May, A Touch of Danger, Whistle, and To the End of the War—a book of previously unpublished fiction.

The University of Chicago Press