For the first time the history of the days leading up to the attack on Pearl Harbor are illuminated fully, discussing the missteps and intelligence of the United States leading up the attack.. Highly recommend for academic and public institutions.

OK, I'm now on permanent watch for any and all future books by Steve Twomey.

_Countdown_ is one of the best history books I've ever read, and I read a lot. Twomey has the touch of the best suspense-fiction writers. He reports day-by-day and sometimes hour-by-hour the events leading to the attack, following the admirals, generals, politicians, and diplomats whose actions and decisions--and lack thereof--made the raid possible.. We get individual, detailed portraits--mini biographies--of the leading figures, which personalize the history and allow us to know the people. We can see their tragic mistakes and understand their thinking.,

This is NOT a history of the attack itself, which is covered cursorily. But that's not the point of the book. Now if Twomey would only follow _Countdown_ with a blow-by-blow account of the attack itself, following a number of key participants, victims, and witnesses, as he does in _Countdown_, then he will indeed be the master of the Pearl Harbor story.

I received a free Kindle copy of this book courtesy of Net Galley and Simon and Schuster, the publisher. It was with the understanding that I would post a review on Net Galley, Goodreads, Amazon and my history book review blog. I also posted it to my Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Google Plus pages.

I requested this book as I am an avid reader of United States history and have a particular interest in World War II. This is the first book by Steve Twomey that I have read.

I have read a great deal about World War II and Pearl Harbor. There is not a great deal of new material here, but the author presents it in an engaging style and it is very well researched. What again captured my attention was the inability of the American government and military to effectively communicate the results they had from breaking the Japanese code to those located on Pearl Harbor. While more could have been done in surveillance even without the code broken information, the bulk of the blame lies with those in Washington, D.C. It has always caused me to wonder whether the lack of effective communication was on purpose to engage us in World War II earlier than many anticipated.

I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the events leading up to our participation in World War II or looking for a slightly different look at the events.

I found this book to have some very interesting information about not only the 12 days before the attack but also going back to a year before, and what Pearl was like. It was not the home of the Pacific Fleet, and that when they did move the Fleet from California to Hawaii Kimmel was not the commander. That commander got replaced by Kimmel less than a year before because he was critical of Washington moving the Fleet, but lacking the resources it needed for sustaining a viable force. Everything was still coming from the west coast, and the families of the sailors were still in California. Kimmel complained but in a less focal way to Washington, and was more upset with the amount of ships and equipment being sent to the Atlantic depleting his Pacific Fleet while still being told to protect Pearl, Guam, Wake Island, Philippines, and other Islands. One thing that Kimmel did do was practice, and train which actually did help the day of the attack. The author takes you through what was happening in Washington, and how they were reading information, but I felt not giving Pearl all of the facts. They were also leading him to believe that an attack at Pearl would not happen and to send ships and planes to other Islands. The book also gives you the Japanese side as well. You are given a lot of information and though the author does say it I still believe that Kimmel, and Short were set up to take the fall just the way everything happened and then the men of the investigation picked by Roosevelt. You also see that at least a year before we were already delivering 3,184 aircraft, light and heavy bombers, and fighter and patrol planes to British. That when Kimmel asked for PBY’S for patrol he was given none. Out of 376 built 97 went the Royal air force, 21 to Canadian, 18 to Dutch, 16 to Australian, the rest went to the U.S. Atlantic Fleet. Also what is not really talked about is the bombing by the British by carrier planes in 1940 in the Gulf of Taranto in Italy, in depth less than Pearl and the British used wooden fins on the torpedoes. This information was never given to Kimmel or the previous Commander, and in another book about Pearl Harbor their question is why not? So you see still after all of these years there are still questions. The book itself is good and makes you think that if just one thing was different that morning it may have not have been so bad. Overall a good book.

As history reminds us, we should never underestimate our opponent.