This book is written the way I like history to be written—while giving the overall picture, it gives us the stories of the regular people who lived the history. I very much like to know what it was like to be there (without being shot at, blown up, or being hungry and dehydrated myself). James Campbell does an excellent job of this. But I am still unconvinced that these two incidents belong together. The book centers on the invasion of Saipan and the explosion at Port Chicago, California during ammunition loading of ships bound for the Pacific theater. I understand that the build up of pressure for speed of loading at Port Chicago was due to the build up of munitions for the invasion of Saipan and that Saipan proved to be a critical piece to the victory over Japan. But to me the overall theme of the book was the treatment of African-Americans by the military during WWII. And the Saipan story did not add to that. Maybe this should have been two books. Both parts are well worth reading and there is certainly more material mentioned in the telling of both stories to fill two books.

The book that I read is an uncorrected proof. It appears the published final edition includes a map and photos (and hopefully an index) that should add much to the book.