Stepping Stones to Nowhere: The Aleutian Islands, Alaska, and American Military Strategy, 1867-1945 - Softcover

Galen Perras (author)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1591148367 ISBN 13: 9781591148364

Publisher: Naval Institute Press, 2003

Synopsis

The barren and bleak Aleutian Islands were a mostly forgotten extension of the Northwest Territory until World War II. Purchased in 1867 through the efforts of Secretary of State William H. Seward, American ownership of Alaska and the Aleutian chain were perceived as a means to project American dominance in the Pacific. In 1942 the Japanese landed on Kiska and Attu islands in an unsuccessful attempt to draw the U.S. carrier fleet away from Midway Island. They continued their occupation until driven out in 1943 by some of the most bloody fighting of the war. In this major contribution to a little-studied field author Galen Perras draws on material from Australia, Canada, Great Britain, and the United States to examine the military strategy and impact of flawed decision-making on the Aleutian conflict. This well-researched history is an impressive addition to the annals of the Pacific war.

About this title

Review

Recommended. (Choice, Vol. 41, No. 03)

In this insightful, stimulating, and extraordinarily well-researched new book, Galen Roger Perras explores the dimensions of the long-vanished Mercator Projection world before the 1940s, when the northernmost reaches of the planet, and in particular the Aleutian Islands, were still a strategic dead end. Perras look in detail at the evolution of the Aleutian Chain and Alaska in US military thinking during the critical years of the 1930s and 1940s. This book is a wonderful reminder that in war, as in the rest of life, a compelling idea need not have any basis in reality to shape the world in which we live. (Terence M. Cole, University of Alaska Fairbanks The International History Review)

This interesting, important, and largely untold story gets the attention it deserves in this carefully detailed book. (Allan Smith University of Toronto Quarterly, Winter 2004/05)

The result is a comprehensive study which, rather than portraying the Aleutian campaign merely as a quixotic and ultimately inconsequential operation, explores the competing opinions and interests that led to the battles of Attu and Kiska. Stepping Stones to Nowhere succeeds in placing American activities in Alaska and the Aleutians during the Second World War, often dismissed as trivial in the historiography, into a broader context than has hitherto been recognized. (FDP Canadian Military History, Book Review Supplement, Summer 2005)

Review

The result is a comprehensive study which, rather than portraying the Aleutian campaign merely as a quixotic and ultimately inconsequential operation, explores the competing opinions and interests that led to the battles of Attu and Kiska. Stepping Stones to Nowhere succeeds in placing American activities in Alaska and the Aleutians during the Second World War, often dismissed as trivial in the historiography, into a broader context than has hitherto been recognized. -- FDP * Canadian Military History, Book Review Supplement, Summer 2005 * This interesting, important, and largely untold story gets the attention it deserves in this carefully detailed book. -- Allan Smith * University of Toronto Quarterly, Winter 2004/05 * In this insightful, stimulating, and extraordinarily well-researched new book, Galen Roger Perras explores the dimensions of the long-vanished Mercator Projection world before the 1940s, when the northernmost reaches of the planet, and in particular the Aleutian Islands, were still a strategic dead end. Perras look in detail at the evolution of the Aleutian Chain and Alaska in US military thinking during the critical years of the 1930s and 1940s. This book is a wonderful reminder that in war, as in the rest of life, a compelling idea need not have any basis in reality to shape the world in which we live. -- Terence M. Cole, University of Alaska Fairbanks * The International History Review * Recommended. * Choice, Vol. 41, No. 03 *

Edition details

• Publisher: Naval Institute Press
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1591148367
• ISBN 13: 9781591148364
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 277