John Toland, a historian and author of such works as The Gods Of War and Adolf Hitler: The Definitive Biography, talks about the history of his Pulitzer Prize-winning book, The Rising Sun, in this 1985 interview with Don Swaim.

It’s a fictional piece of work, but he tries to make his readers feel like they are there by making it as historical as possible. For example, the horrible stories from one of his main characters are based on real stories he heard from real interviews.

“You can be proud of Americans, but they do some of the jerkiest things,” he said. “It’s appalling to hear some of the things they’ve gotten away with…War is man’s greatest natural disaster. I don’t glorify war. I horrify war. I glorify those poor bastards who had to fight it.”

To hear more, click on the link below.

Listen to the John Toland interview with Don Swaim, April 26, 1985
(36 min. 06 sec.)

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For over a decade, many of the best writers of the English language found their way onto Don Swaim's daily two-minute CBS Radio show, Book Beat. His New York-based program was derived from longer interviews, sometimes 40-minutes in length. Found exclusively here, Wired for Books proudly webcasts these conversations in their entirety using RealAudio.