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E-book
Author Pyle, Kenneth B., author.

Title Hiroshima and the historians : debating America's most controversial decision / Kenneth B. Pyle
Published Cambridge ; New York, NY : Cambridge University Press, 2024

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Description 1 online resource (xii, 272 pages) : illustrations
Contents 1. The historian's craft -- 2. The Hiroshima decision -- 3. Participants and their first draft of history -- 4. The revisionists -- 5. Historians and moral judgments -- 6. Military historians -- 7. Gauging Japanese responsibility -- 8. The wider perspective -- 9. Controversy as a way of life
Summary The decision to use atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki has been considered the most important - and perhaps most controversial - event in twentieth-century history. It ushered in many of the major developments of our time: the end of World War II, the beginning of the atomic age, the establishment of the American world order, and the start of the Cold War arms race. Kenneth B. Pyle illuminates both the complexities of the event itself and the debates among historians that continue today, as they wrestle with the moral issues of the decision, its necessity and its alternatives. While producing no final resolution to the controversy, historians have nevertheless advanced and deepened our understanding of this event. This accessible and thought-provoking analysis is a case study in the intricate nature of the historian's craft and a reminder of the value of historians in a free society
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes Description based on online resource; title from digital title page (viewed on March 28, 2025)
Subject World War, 1939-1945 -- Historiography.
Atomic bomb -- United States -- History
History -- Philosophy.
Nagasaki-shi (Japan) -- History -- Bombardment, 1945 -- Historiography
Hiroshima-shi (Japan) -- History -- Bombardment, 1945 -- Historiography
Form Electronic book
ISBN 9781009477482
100947748X