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Andrews, Lena S. The Professionals: The True Story of the Women Who Won World War II. Mariner: HarperCollins. May 2023. 400p. ISBN 9780063088337. $29.99. HISTORY/ WORLD WAR II

From CIA military analyst Andrews, this history highlights the contributions of the 400,000 women who served in uniform during World War II: advising generals, flying planes, laying cables, and translating, communicating, and transmitting top-secret intelligence. And some of them died for their efforts. Andrews argues that the war can’t be understood without them. With a 100,000-copy first printing.

Drummond, Steve. The Watchdog: How the Truman Committee Battled Corruption and Helped Win World War Two. Hanover Square: Harlequin. May 2023. 320p. ISBN 9781335449504. $28.99. HISTORY/WORLD WAR II

Anticipating the entry of the United States into World War II, President Franklin D. Roosevelt saw that he needed to transform the U.S. economy and put Washington newcomer Harry S. Truman in charge of a bipartisan committee tasked with getting corporations and the Pentagon in line. NPR executive producer Drummond draws on oral histories, personal letters, newspaper archives, and interviews to chronicle the committee’s efforts. With a 75,000-copy first printing.

Eyre, Makana. Sing, Memory: The Remarkable Story of the Man Who Saved the Music of the Nazi Camps. Norton. May 2023. 352p. ISBN 9780393531862. $32.50. HISTORY/HOLOCAUST

After SS guards broke up a rehearsal by a secret Jewish choir at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, choir director Rosebery d’Arguto asked fellow musician Aleksander Kulisiewicz to help preserve the camp’s musical heritage. Polish nationalist Kulisiewicz was not Jewish, but with the aid of an eidetic memory, he preserved the songs and poems of dozens of prisoners around him. Paris-based U.S. journalist Eyre drew on archival research to tell Kulisiewicz’s story.

McManus, John C. To the End of the Earth: The US Army and the Downfall of Japan, 1945. Dutton Caliber. May 2023. 448p. ISBN 9780593186886. $35. HISTORY/WORLD WAR II

Following Fire and Fortitude, winner of the Gilder Lehrman Prize for Military History, and the multi-starred Island Infernos, military historian McManus wraps up his trilogy on the U.S. Army in the Pacific during World War II. (Not the U.S. Navy, which has received more coverage.) He also limns the ambitions of Gen. Douglas MacArthur and the complications he faced during the U.S. occupation of Japan.

Nelson, Craig. V Is for Victory. Scribner. May 2023. 480p. ISBN 9781982122911. $28. HISTORY/WORLD WAR II

The New York Times best-selling author of Rocket Men, Nelson explains how President Franklin D. Roosevelt prepared the U.S. government, businesses, and a skeptical, Depression-worn public for the country’s entry into World War II. That meant diverting raw materials to the war effort, persuading top industrialists to repurpose their factories, and readying citizens for shortages and battle fatalities.

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