LUNCH WITH BOOKS: Date that Will Live: The Pearl Harbor Attack, 7 December 1941

December 07, 2021
12:00pm - 1:00pm

Led by WVU history professor James F. Siekmeier, we will revisit the attack by the Empire of Japan on the US Naval base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the day that has lived in infamy for 80 years.

In our present day, people remember where they were when they heard about the 11 September 2001 attacks on New York and the Pentagon. For a previous generation, people never forgot where they were when they heard about the 7 December 1941 Japanese attack on the U.S. naval station in the U.S. colony of Hawaii. This presentation will focus on the history of United States-Japanese relations in the lead-up to the 7 December 1941 Pearl Harbor attack. It will also discuss the reasons behind the attack, and the long-term significance of the attack.

In addition to being in-person in the Library auditorium, this program will be available to watch live on Facebook Live, on YouTube, and on the OCPL website's LWB Livestream page. Log into your Facebook or YouTube account during the program to leave questions for Professor Siekmeier in the comments box. He will answer them during the live broadcast.

PRESENTER BIO: James Siekmeier received his PhD in History from Cornell in 1993, specializing in the history of U.S. foreign relations towards Latin America. He has taught at colleges and universities in Washington, D.C., New York, Iowa, Texas, and in Bolivia, on two Fulbright Grants (where he taught courses on North American history in Spanish). He has published The Bolivian Revolution and the United States, 1952-Present (Penn State University Press, 2011) as well Latin American Nationalism: Identity in Globalizing World (Bloomsbury, 2017). Currently, he is an Associate Professor of History at West Virginia University. Currently, he is working on a book on U.S. anti-drug efforts in South America in the 1960s through the 1990s.

FEATURED BOOK: At Dawn We Slept: The Untold Story of Pearl Harbor, by Gordon W. Prange ; Donald M. Goldstein and Katherine V. Dillon (McGraw-Hill, 1981)
[ Reserve copy from the Library  |  Listen to the audiobook through WVDeli  ]

At 7:53 a.m., December 7, 1941, America's national consciousness and confidence were rocked as the first wave of Japanese warplanes took aim at the U.S. Naval fleet stationed at Pearl Harbor. As intense and absorbing as a suspense novel, At Dawn We Slept is the unparalleled and exhaustive account of the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor. It is widely regarded as the definitive assessment of the events surrounding one of the most daring and brilliant naval operations of all time. Through extensive research and interviews with American and Japanese leaders, Gordon W. Prange has written a remarkable historical account of the assault that-sixty years later-America cannot forget.

➤ View all the materials about Pearl Harbor available at the Library
➤ View all the ebooks and audiobooks about Pearl Harbor available through WVDeli with your OCPL library card
➤ View all the ebooks and audiobooks about Pearl Harbor available through Hoopla with your OCPL library card

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Lunch With Books Livestream starts at noon on Facebook and YouTube.

Subscribe to the Lunch With Books Youtube channel or like us on the Lunch With Books Facebook page or to receive notifications of our upcoming LWB broadcasts. To receive emails about our upcoming programs, visit our News page, click the "Subscribe" button to sign-up for our news blasts or download our free OCPL Connect app from your smartphone's app store.

"Lunch With Books" is the library’s flagship program for adult patrons. These lunchtime programs feature authors, poets, musicians, historians, and more every Tuesday at noon. Bring lunch (to your computer), feed your brain!