FORT KNOX, Ky. — Award-winning author and historian John C. McManus will discuss his latest book, Island Infernos, Nov. 17 at 6 p.m., as part of Barr Memorial Library’s Virtual Authors at Your Library series.
In Island Infernos, McManus explores the Army’s dogged pursuit of Japanese forces, island by island, throughout 1944: a year that would bring America ever closer to victory or defeat. After some two years at war, the Army in the Pacific held ground across nearly a third of the globe, from Alaska’s Aleutians to Burma and New Guinea.
The challenges ahead were enormous — supplying a vast number of troops over thousands of miles of ocean; surviving in jungles ripe with dysentery, malaria, and other tropical diseases; fighting an enemy prone to ever-more desperate and dangerous assaults. Yet the Army had proven it could fight. Now, leaders and Soldiers had to prove they could win a war. Brilliantly researched and written, Island Infernos moves seamlessly from the highest generals to the lowest foot Soldiers and in between, capturing the true essence of this horrible conflict.
McManus is an award-winning professor, author and military historian, and a leading expert on the history of the American combat experience. He is the Curators’ Distinguished Professor of U.S. Military History at Missouri University of Science and Technology and is currently in residence at the U.S. Naval Academy as the Leo A. Shifrin Chair of Naval and Military History. His critically acclaimed books on World War II include Fire and Fortitude, Deadly Sky, September Hope, and The Dead and Those About to Die.
The virtual event will feature an exclusive Q&A with the author. Those in attendance could win a copy of Island Infernos.
Those interested in joining the virtual event should email barrlibraryevents@gmail.com. For further information, contact the Library by phone at 502-624-1232 or online HERE.
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