NEW PALTZ — Loyd E. Lee, professor of history and chair of the department at the State University of New York at New Paltz, has just edited and published, World War II in Asia and the Pacific and the War’s Aftermath, with General Themes – A Handbook of Literature and Research. This recent edition serves as a companion to his earlier work, titled World War II in Europe, Africa, and the Americas, with General Sources – A Handbook of Literature and Research. Both volumes are published by Greenwood Publishing Group, Westport, CT.
This latest volume reevaluates the most enduring literature on basic aspects of the war in Asia and the Pacific. It also covers themes pertaining to societies at war, culture, the arts, and science and technology, as well as international relations and the postwar world. This 528-page book includes military and naval campaigns, the grand strategy, and matters of diplomacy, as well as resistance, collaboration, and prisoners of war. The volume also deals with broad topics of the “home front,” and includes chapters on gender issues, film, literature, popular culture, and propaganda.
Each chapter describes the state of knowledge on the topic, relating each bibliographic reference to the chapter’s themes and issues, and concludes with a bibliography.
The essays in the current work are certain to be of interest to scholars, college teachers, advanced students and serious amateurs seeking insight into the history of the war and its literature. In addition to older works of enduring value, the book also includes more recent original scholarship.
Like the first volume on Europe, Africa and the Americas, the Asia and Pacific edition is a broadly interdisciplinary work which also provides the first comprehensive historiographic reference on the war. The foreward is written by Carol N. Gluck.
Loyd E. Lee, a faculty member at SUNY New Paltz since 1967, is the author of numerous articles and more than half a dozen books, including The War Years: A Global History of the Second World War (Unwin-Hyman: Boston and London, 1989) and World War Two. Crucible of the Contemporary World. Commentary and Readings (M.E. Sharpe: Armonk, NY, 1991). In 1992, Lee was named a recipient of the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching. Lee earned his doctorate in history from Cornell University. He holds a bachelor’s degree in interdisciplinary studies from Ohio State University.
