‘Dr. Bill’ Whitehurst weighs in on an ugly China-Japan war New and recent
G. William Whitehurst — who as “Dr. Bill” taught for 50 years at ODU and served for 18 as the U.S. congressman for Virginia Beach and Norfolk — has a new book.
It is “The China Incident: Igniting the Second Sino-Japanese War” (McFarland, 352 pp.). In it, the retired teacher of history and political science relates the events and contexts of Japan’s invasion of China in 1937 and FDR’s response. (Whitehurst, a Norfolk resident, includes some personal tales from World War II, when, he noted in an email, he “flew as a machine gunner with a Navy torpedo squadron.”)
The war brought the infamous “rape of Nanking” by Japanese forces and demonstrated Japan’s growing threat worldwide.
We’ll have a full review of the book in a few weeks. But Whitehurst’s crisp, lively and yet understated writing, informed by research and experience, were clear even in an initial look. With a simple question, “Where was Private Shimura?,” he details how a very brief and normal absence was spun into a rationale for war; an ethos of wartime brutality he traces in part to the elitism and arrogance of samurai culture.
Michelle Obama’s hit book, “Becoming,”
is due in paperback March 2, and in a hardback edition for young readers. (Publishers Lunch)
A GameStop book:
Ben Mezrich’s “The Antisocial Network,” about the recent, frenzied share trading by small investors vs. hedge funds, has been bought by Grand Central Publishing. (Wall Street Journal)
“A Very Stable Genius” has been updated to reflect Donald Trump’s final year as president. Authors Philip Rucker and Carol Leonnig of The Washington Post will give a talk at 5 p.m. Feb. 28, on Zoom via D.C.’s Politics and Prose Bookstore. Tickets: free to $25.99. Register at www.politics-prose.com.
Don’t buy it: The Authors Guild and other groups have asked the Justice Department to prevent publishing giant Penguin Random House from buying Simon & Schuster. The letter also calls on DOJ “to proactively restructure the entire U.S market for books in ways that also deal with the danger posed by Amazon.” (Publishers Weekly)
Awards: National Jewish Book Award honorees include, book of the year, Rabbi Jonathan Sacks’ “Morality: Restoring the Common Good in Divided Times” and, to Colum McCann’s “Apeirogon,” the
J.J. Greenberg Memorial
Award in Fiction. ... A National Outdoor Book Award, in the outdoor literature category, to Ed Power for “Dragons in the Snow: Avalanche Detectives and the Race to Beat Death in the Mountains.” Power, a former Pilot editor and executive, lives in northern Utah.
Obituary notes. Chiles T.A. Larson,
whose books included “Virginia’s Past Today” and “Barboursville Vineyards: Crafting Great Wines Inspired by Spirits of the Past,” died
Jan. 22. Over the years he was a photographer for entities including The Pilot, for which he also passionately reviewed books. A longtime Williamsburg resident, he was 92. ... Lucy Herman, an enthusiastic reader who taught in Norfolk’s public schools during integration and wrote an account, “A Turning Point: School Integration,” died Jan. 29. The social-justice advocate and resident of Virginia Beach was 95. Two good people.
From local authors: David Hodge of Newport News, “Behind ‘The Wall,’” a memoir of his time behind bars and his advice for living afterward. He argues against trying to make a living off drugs, and calls church a foundation for youths and for adults returning to society. (Dorrance, 120 pp.) … Also, Yorktown’s James Curtis, a 26-year Army veteran, “Love on Fire,” poetry (Dorrance, 54 pp.).