A dozen years ago, the United States was stunned on a gorgeous September morning and freedom as we knew it was forever changed. The images and emotions of that day and the weeks that followed remain fresh in our minds. But 9/11 was not the first surprise attack on the U.S. The day that, in President Franklin Roosevelt’s words, “will live in infamy,” happened 70 years earlier, on December 7, 1941.

Pearl Harbor is in our collective distant mirror now. There are few people left who experienced those years firsthand, the events that significantly transformed both the United States and Japan. Fortunately, literature from and about that time in history is available to us. To understand who we are as a nation today and guide us in the critical decisions we must make in response to modern threats – whether real or imagined – we can turn to books that were written about the people, the times and the lessons we needed to learn when war first came to our shores. Here are some of the best:

Non-Fiction:
At Dawn We Slept: The Untold Story of Pearl Harbor – Gordon W. Prange
Day of Infamy – Walter Lord

Fiction:
Battle Cry – Leon Uris
From Here to Eternity – James Jones
Winter of the World (The Century Trilogy #2) – Ken Follett

For Children:
Baseball Saved Us – Ken Mochizuki