Heads-up: some of the links in this post are Amazon affiliate links, which means if you happen to buy something, Amazon gives me a little moolah.

One of the things I decided to do while I had a bit of extra time during the COVID-19 Pandemic was to catch up on some history, in this case on the Pacific War during World War Two. There are a ton of books out there on the topic, of course, a number of which I read ages ago when I was younger, and I was looking for a fresh perspective. After poking around on Amazon and reading a lot of reviews, I settled on the Pacific War Trilogy by Ian W. Toll, and I haven’t been disappointed.

Toll gives a great account of the events leading up to the Pacific campaign in Pacific Crucible, and continues on in the second book, The Conquering Tide; the third book, Twilight of the Gods, has yet to be published, but I’ll be picking that one up when it comes out.

I’ve finished Pacific Crucible, and am about halfway through The Conquering Tide. While Toll’s books are more expensive than most regular Kindle fare (as I almost never by hard copy books anymore), if you’re interested in this topic they’re worth every penny. Toll is able to pull together not only the overall strategic picture from a variety of extremely well-researched viewpoints, but to also show the Pacific campaign through the eyes of both Allied and Japanese participants in the conflict. On top of that, he weaves in the important events on the home front of the various nations that I wasn’t even aware of from my previous readings.

The other thing about these books is that Toll’s writing is engaging and isn’t dry reading like many historical works tend to be.

So, if you’re interested in the war in the Pacific, I highly recommend you check out Ian W. Toll’s Pacific War Trilogy.