This book offered some interesting alternate courses that history could have taken but in the end there was too much American back patting and chest pounding for my taste. And sentences like "One dead Marine is one too many." It is regrettable that it did not include any insights or thoughts from the Japanese side.
I find it interesting that whenever the Allied side was defending, they were valiant, when attacking, they were heroic and when Allied soldiers got killed, it was a tragedy. Somehow none of these sentiments are used for the Axis powers (who, as we all know, were inherently evil).
I don't want to sound like an apologist or something worse, but I feel that a true historian shouldn't express himself this way. I found the same thing with Anthony Beevor's "Second World War" and it bothered me to no end. I would for once like to read a history book where credit and criticisms are given where needed and the author's nationality is never felt. What's the point of reading a history book from Russia or North Korea? No point whatsoever. ( )

The secondary title is a misstatement. What the author has not done is an alternative history of World War 2. The author, who has prior military and more general historical works to his credit, has instead identified some of the key turning points of the Pacific War and invited noted experts and scholars to comment on them, especially in terms of what other outcomes were realistically possible. As is fitting for the Naval Institute Press, the emphasis is on the naval war at the theater and strategic level. Operational detail comes up only when one of the contributors wants to make a point. This is an excellent book and provides a great deal of insight into the greatest naval campaign ever fought. Two caveats – the book presumes a good bit of knowledge by the reader. This is not a good book for someone new to the topic. Second, the book is best on the first year of the war [Pearl through the first half of the Solomons Campaign]. It spends much less attention on the remaining years of the war and is quite superficial on the war’s ending. ( )