Rising Sun, Falling Skies

[warspite1]

This book is all about "The disastrous Java Sea Campaign of World War II" - has anyone got this book? If so, any thoughts?

[spence]

Which one is the title? "Rising Sun, Falling Skies" or "The Disastrous Java Sea Campaign of World War II". Don't have either but the topic sorta sounds interesting.

[oldman45]

Amazon

It appears it can only be pre-ordered but the write up sure looks interesting.

[warspite1]

ORIGINAL: oldman45

Amazon

It appears it can only be pre-ordered but the write up sure looks interesting.

warspite1

Is that a USA page? The book is definitely out already in the UK - no need to pre-order.

To Spence - the actual title is Rising Sun, Falling Skies.

[wdolson]

Scheduled publication date on Amazon US is March 25, 2014, so only a few days.

Bill

[warspite1]

Well I took a chance and purchased it anyway. Let's hope its good!

[LargeSlowTarget]

400+ pages and the "look-inside" at Amazon is promising - although the author is not a historian but an attorney [;)]. The prologue sounded convincing enough for me to order it.

[wdolson]

Good quality historical research doesn't take a history degree. I've read some very well done histories written by non-historians.

The book does look interesting and it is a subject that has not been well covered in English.

Bill

[LargeSlowTarget]

Of course. And there are horrible histories written by historians as well. Just a tongue-in-cheek remark for some forumites belonging to this er, honorable profession.


Oh, just remember that your better half is an attorney - I retract the statement!

[wdolson]

While there are excellent and terrible writers of any profession, I think on average engineers tend to be worse than lawyers. Most lawyers (at least in the US) had to get through some sort of undergrad program that required them to write before going to law school. Their poor writing post grad school is usually bad habits.

My SO taught legal writing (she's an attorney). She would kick back any paper written in legalese. Her opinion is that if someone without a legal education can't read it, it shouldn't have been written. She's in the minority among attorneys though.

Engineers don't have any kind of rigorous training in writing and quite a few don't pick up the skill. It was one of the reasons I went to engineering school, English was my worst subject by a wide margin. I'm a much better writer today than I was in my 20s. Mostly because I've probably written about 50 books worth of internet posts in the last 20 years. [:D]

I've been told I'm a good writer... for an engineer.

Bill

[John 3rd]

Ordered it.

[msieving1]

ORIGINAL: LargeSlowTarget

400+ pages and the "look-inside" at Amazon is promising - although the author is not a historian but an attorney [;)]. The prologue sounded convincing enough for me to order it.

I think it's probably pretty hard to make a living writing military history. Seems like most military history writers have a day job.

[JeffroK]

Blimey, Warrpite's had a paint job !!!!
The RN will be in mutiny being painted up like the pongoes!

Hopefully a good book, due to the closeness to home and the RAN involvement we got a good "overall" coverage. It will be interesting to see what the extra coverage reveals. Probably Order, Counterorder, Disorder.

[czert2]

well and how about book named just rising sun ? book of alternate history in which midway was won by japanese

[dr.hal]

Given the heavy Dutch participation at this point in the war, are there any Dutch works that provide detailed accounts? I don't know of any, but would be interested in knowing.

[warspite1]

I will be really interested in some of your thoughts on this. Opening chapter and the author is really laying into Hirohito.

[wdolson]

ORIGINAL: dr.hal

Given the heavy Dutch participation at this point in the war, are there any Dutch works that provide detailed accounts? I don't know of any, but would be interested in knowing.

I recall doing some research on the war in the DEI a few years back and there were a number of books written in Dutch on the market.

Bill

[John 3rd]

ORIGINAL: msieving1

ORIGINAL: LargeSlowTarget

400+ pages and the "look-inside" at Amazon is promising - although the author is not a historian but an attorney [;)]. The prologue sounded convincing enough for me to order it.

I think it's probably pretty hard to make a living writing military history. Seems like most military history writers have a day job.

My History Advisor at UNC wrote a 'tourism' book of various WWII locations in Europe and I remember it taking 3-4 years of research, trips, and writing (helped edit 4-5 chapters) only to average getting about $1,500-2,000 a year off the royalties. He did the work out of love for the topic and interest in helping non-military historian tourists but it really did not pay!

Probably should name the work: The March to Victory by Stephen Powers.

[Rising-Sun]

Look interesting, over 500 pages. Hope it has some photos and details in it too.

[oldman45]

I went to a symposium about 20 years ago, David Chandler was one of the speakers. First question asked of the panel was "what advice would each of them give an up and coming history major?" All of them said change majors, there is no money in history unless you like to write books and you're lucky enough to get published.