Robert S. La Forte was chairman of the history department,
professor emeritus of history, and first archivist of the
University of North Texas. He was the author or editor of several
books and dozens of articles and entries in scholarly journals,
encyclopedias, and dictionaries. He graduated from the University
of Kansas, where he was a student of Donald R. McCoy. La Forte died
in 2014.
Ronald E. Marcello is an author, teacher, and scholar.
He is a former coordinator of the Oral History Program and
Associate Professor of History at the University of North Texas.
The author or editor of scores of guides, newsletters, reports, and
journal articles, he has lectured widely on oral history and has
conducted more than 900 interviews on various topics, including
political, military, and civil rights history. He was executive
secretary of the Oral History Association from 1976 to 1986 and its
president from 1988–1989. He graduated from Duke University, where
he studied under Robert Durden.
Based on 350 interviews conducted over a 15-year period with military rank-and-file stationed at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941--a ``day which will live in infamy''--the book conveys the shock, the indignation, the fear of the Americans caught in the Japanese surprise attack. This is unlike the myriad other WW II studies in using eye-witness accounts to show us the reactions of those on the ground trying to survive, to aid casualties, to recover pieces of bodies, to pull bloated corpses from the water in the days following the assault. LaForte and Marcello, historians at the University of North Texas, add a significant chapter to WW II history in this re-creation of the action which began at 7:55 a.m., lasted some 110 minutes, left 2403 Americans dead and 1178 injured. (Feb.)
Culled from 350 interviews conducted over 15 years, these 40 oral histories of December 7, 1941 and its immediate aftermath recount the experiences of military men and women present at Pearl Harbor and its environs. The diverse vantage points range from ships attacked at sea to Battleship Row, the Navy drydocks, the airfields, Schofield Barracks, the Tripler Army Hospital, and the suburbs of Honolulu. The authors introduce the speakers with brief biographical sketches outlining their lives before December 7th, then follow the narratives with accounts of their subsequent careers. While many studies have covered the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, this is the first to offer such a full complement of U.S. enlisted and junior officers' descriptions of the event. Highly recommended for most collections. (Photos not seen.)-- George F. Scheck, Naval Underwater Systems Ctr. Lib., Newport, R.I.
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