This compilation of essays examines international and domestic controversies and provides a historical perspective for contemporary policy discussions. Four chapters discuss the assessment of blame for the attack on Pearl Harbor, the justification for the internment of Japanese Americans, the necessity and morality of using the atomic bomb, and whether the war deserves its nostalgic "good war" image. The first three chapters combine both contemporaneous and retrospective essays. In contrast, all of the readings in the final chapter, which discusses how the U.S. should have responded to the Holocaust, the conduct of the war, and the war's contribution to the military-industrial complex, are taken from recent scholarly works. The list for further reading includes both primary and secondary sources and periodical articles as well as Web sites. Six of the readings (on Japanese internment, the atomic bomb, and analysis of the effects of the war) are duplicated from the 1997 edition, which focuses more on domestic issues. However, even casual researchers or readers will not be able to miss how much the 1940s debates on the missed intelligence clues of Pearl Harbor, the treatment of a visible ethnic minority, and the importance of morality in how a democracy conducts a war mirror our current national discussion about the war on terrorism.