Shattered Sword

The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway

By: Jonathan Parshall, Anthony Tully

Narrated by: Tom Perkins

Length: 24 hrs and 44 mins

Publisher's summary

Many consider the Battle of Midway to have turned the tide of the Pacific War. It is without question one of the most famous battles in history. Now, for the first time since Gordon W. Prange's best-selling Miracle at Midway, Jonathan Parshall and Anthony Tully offer a new interpretation of this great naval engagement. Unlike previous accounts, Shattered Sword makes extensive use of Japanese primary sources. It also corrects the many errors of Mitsuo Fuchida's Midway: The Battle That Doomed Japan, an uncritical reliance upon which has tainted every previous Western account. It thus forces a major, potentially controversial reevaluation of the great battle.

Parshall and Tully examine the battle in detail and effortlessly place it within the context of the Imperial Navy's doctrine and technology. With a foreword by leading World War II naval historian John Lundstrom, Shattered Sword is an indispensable part of any military buff's library.

Shattered Sword is the winner of the 2005 John Lyman Book Award for the "Best Book in U.S. Naval History" and was cited by Proceedings as one of its "Notable Naval Books" for 2005.

©2005 Jonathan Parshall and Anthony Tully (P)2019 Tantor

Critic reviews

“This incredibly detailed book provides a whole new approach to the study and interpretation of the battle.” (Ships and Shipping)

John Lyman Book Award, Best Book in U.S. Naval History, 2005

Notable Naval Books, Proceedings, 2005.

learned a lot about a battle I thought I knew.

so much interesting detail and Revelations from Japanese sources. Narrator ennunciates to much, but alright.

Analysis of the Classic Battle

Author is a bit too sanctimonious for me, He does give an excellent detailed account, but his conclusions are presented as facts instead of his opinion. A book that is really worth the time and effort.

An interesting non conventional look the Pacific

By telling the story of Midway we gain greater insight into the battle and we learn how the myth of the battle had some deception baked into it by a Japanese Naval Officer inorder to save face and from that falsehood we as Americans view the battle somewhat incorrectly.

VERY readable and Interesting

The book is especially good for providing a Japanese perspective on all the happenings of Midway. Eye opening and devastating to the classic miracle accounts.

Tough View of Midway

you will not escape this revisionist view of a battle that has achieved folklore status with a single reading or listening. The authors are to be admired for their willingness to take on what for half a century has been regarded as conventional wisdom.

Phenomenal Read

Fantastic overview of the Battle of Midway. Comprehensive in depth analysis in a scholarly presentation made it almost impossible to not become completely immersed into the story. Being a "wordy" myself, I had to rack my brain on a few obscure words too. Great listen!

Unbelievable Scholarship

The detail is truly amazing. There's no question the premise of the book is excellent. Seeing a battle from the other side's POV is always interesting. One thing, the analysis goes to the point of overkill for the interested, general reader. It's so overwhelming that it drowns out the battle. The battle itself isn't even the objective until over half way through. Granted, for a studied military historian, this is no doubt a prized account. But for someone like myself, who is very much interested in military history, but gets bogged in the details, it's too complicated. This is one book that might read easier than listening. But that is total personal preference. Regardless, Parshall and Tully have absolutely outdone themselves with their scholastic undertaking. There is not a second unaccounted for and analyzed. Hats off to this duo.

Another thing, Tom Perkins is a spectacular narrator, especially in history. However with this work, he's either too slow or too fast. However for this particular material, I found that 1.4 narration speed was just right. No complaints. Thank you for the pleasure of getting to listen.

Amazing

The introduction seemed a bit too proud of the work. The story was well organized, exciting, easy to keep up with the sequence of events. The story was from the Japanese side and sometimes I felt like I was on a Japanese ship with fire and explosions everywhere. I listened to the introduction again when I finished and will probably listen to the book again. The reader was easy to listen to.

Credits were given to sources throughout and was convincing. Just too exciting to listen to for it to be history but it is.

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Shattered Swords shatters previous historical dogma about the main events of the battle of Midway

Shattered Swords shatters previous historical dogma about the major events that have defined the battle of Midway over the past six decades with a clear laying out of the facts. It is more approximately Hornfischer – esque (Which was clearly intended) than any other non-Hornfischer Treatment of this World War II naval engagement. That’s about the highest praise, as a layman, that I could think of awarding any non-fiction author on this topic.