From the Bookshelf

PREPARING YOUR FAMILY’S VISIT TO THE NATIONAL WORLD WAR II MUSEUM WITH BOOKS

As New Orleans struggles to get back to normal, people are looking for places to go and things to do. With limited options available, I suggest being a tourist in your own hometown and planning a visit to the National World War II Museum. I have two perfect books that will make your visit to the museum more meaningful and more fun.

The first is a children’s picture book, Andrew Higgins and the Boats That Landed Victory in World War II, by authors Nancy Rust and Carol Stubbs. Brock Nicol illustrated this wonderful story of the Nebraska-born boatbuilder that Dwight D. Eisenhower called ”the man who won the war for us.” This book takes kids from Higgins’ childhood (at age twelve he salvaged an old boat out of a lake and rebuilt it), to designing and building the Eureka Boat that operated in the shallow Louisiana swamps, to then creating the legendary Higgins boat. The Higgins boat delivered the Allied forces to the beaches in Normandy, and marked a turning point in the war.

After reading this book, head down to the National WWII Museum to see the Higgins boat close up and learn more about this amazing man. As you approach the museum on Howard Avenue don’t forget to look up because the street name changes for a seven-block section in the Warehouse District, leading from the National World War II Museum to Andrew Higgins Street. It’s a fitting tribute to a great patriot and a great New Orleanian.

My second book recommendation is Predicting Pearl Harbor, Billy Mitchell and the Path to War, by Ronald J. Drez. This will give the reader a solid background before visiting the National WWII Museum’s Road to Tokyo: Pacific Theater Galleries. While it’s common to say that the most predictable thing about the next war is its unpredictability, that wasn’t the case in the run-up to war with Japan. From Commodore Matthew Perry’s voyage into Japanese waters in 1853 to the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, the United States and Japan were on a collision course.

This saga is brought to vivid life using primary-source documents, memoirs, and first-hand testimonies of those who lived during that era. It was Gen. Billy Mitchell who recognized the signs and foresaw the eventual showdown between the two nations twenty-eight years before the tragedy of Pearl Harbor. At the time his spot-on predictions were dismissed out of hand. Discover one of the most exciting periods in American history through General Mitchell’s prescient reports, providing new insight into an ages-old conflict. Author, lecturer, and historian Ronald J. Drez is an alumnus of both Tulane University and the University of New Orleans. He is a decorated Vietnam veteran, having received two Bronze Stars for his service in the United States Marine Corps. Ron is also a contributor to several historical and military publications and the author of multiple books.

Scott Campbell is publisher of Pelican Publishing, a nationally recognized, local publishing company established in 1926. He also is publisher & founder of River Road Press, a local boutique house of local and regional titles.