Prange conducted interviews and collected accounts from diaries, articles, and correspondence with many of the key participants in the battle, both Japanese and American, as well as completed extensive research on the causes, planning, build-up to, and execution and consequences of the attack. While teaching at the University of Maryland, Prange published many books and articles on a variety of historical topics, but he is probably best known for his research on the Decemattack on Pearl Harbor by Japanese forces during World War II. Prange (JMay 15, 1980) was an historian and history professor at the University of Maryland from 1937 until his death in 1980. When middle school students can access and enjoy a “college” book, you know it has merit.Īn enjoyable read for both the academic and armchair historian.Dr. Since then, I’ve reread it several times and have actually used excepts while teaching middle school history. I first read At Dawn We Slept as an undergraduate student back in the late 1980s. What we see is that events don’t just happen – they are the results of either action or, in this case, inaction motivated by wishful thinking. Prange clearly illustrates how and why American military and civilian leaders ignored information collected by our own intelligence sources. These interviews allowed him to reconstruct the Pearl Harbor attack from the planning stages to execution.īu fusing the first hand Japanese accounts with American source material, Dr. While acting as Chief Historian in General Douglas MacArthur’s staff, Doctor Prange interviewed Japanese military officers, enlisted men, and civilians. Despite being 36 years old, this book details all the major contributors and factors that led America into war with Japan. Gordon Prange’s At Dawn We Slept must be considered one of the definitive works regarding the events leading up to the attack on Pearl Harbor.
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