Preeminent military historian, Ian Toll, has recently announced the release date of his hotly anticipated conclusion to his Pacific War trilogy, Twilight of the Gods: War in the Western Pacific, 1944-1945. The book, expected out July 21, 2020, recounts the final and bloody last year of World War II in the Pacific. In a masterful retelling, Toll merges the narratives of combat in the air, sea, and on the beaches, as well as behind the curtain of power in Washington and Tokyo. Combining beautiful prose with the gritty and bloody realities of the island hopping strategy, Toll’s third and final volume has been eagerly awaited by scholars and military history aficionados alike. Coming on the heels of Pacific Crucible: War at Sea in the Pacific, 1941-1942 and The Conquering Tide: War in the Pacific Islands, 1942-1944, Twilight of the Gods picks up where the latter left off – following the largest naval battle of WWII, Leyte Gulf, to the brutal land campaigns on Iwo Jima and Okinawa, and finally, to the fiery conclusion that was Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Ian Toll’s trilogy is arguably one of the best histories to come out on the Pacific War, with Lionel Barber of the Financial Times calling The Conquering Tide, “military history at its best.” The grand finale is sure to be as gripping as ever.
