PEARL HARBOR CHRISTMAS A World at War, December 1941

Starting with the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and continuing through the creation of the United Nations at the start of 1942, Stanley Weintraub tracks the first days of U.S. involvement in WWII. Narrated by Malcolm Hilgartner, the account has the urgency of news bulletins as it juxtaposes battles and diplomatic efforts with holiday preparations. He gives figures such as Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt appropriates tones of gravitas in a historic meeting. Bringing alive a last Christmas of plenty before wartime deprivations hit the U.S. public foreshadows the dramatic effects of WWII. The book reveals December 1941 as a key month in U.S. history. J.A.S. © AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine [Published: DECEMBER 2011]