Redemption
MacArthur and the Campaign for the Philippines

A sweeping new history of the largest and costliest campaign waged by US armed forces during the Pacific War.

Peter R. Mansoor (Author)

9781009541190, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 14 August 2025

600 pages, 33 b/w illus. 9 maps
23.5 x 16.2 x 3.8 cm, 1.01 kg

'Peter Mansoor applies his talents as a historian and professional soldier (two tours in Iraq) to bear on Douglas MacArthur's World War II generalship. Unsparing in criticism, Mansoor's account acknowledges MacArthur's genuine talent and demanding leadership in fighting and winning the 'I Shall Return' campaign under the war's most trying conditions.' Allan R. Millet, Director, Eisenhower Center for American Studies, University of New Orleans

Redemption is a sweeping new history of the largest and costliest campaign waged by US armed forces during the Pacific War. Peter Mansoor surveys the course of the Philippines campaign, from the Japanese invasion and the Filipino guerrilla operations which contested occupation to the US Army's return to Leyte and the subsequent battles of liberation. Central to the book is a re-evaluation of the leadership of General Douglas MacArthur, one of the most controversial military commanders in US history. At times brilliant, courageous, and politically astute, MacArthur was also egotistical, publicity hungry, often ignorant of conditions at the front, and self-certain to a fault. In their return to the Philippines, MacArthur and his forces liberated millions of Filipinos and severed a critical Japanese resource lifeline. But he also achieved something much rarer – redemption on the same ground and against the same enemy that defeated him earlier in the war.

Preface
Note on the Text
1. Catastrophe
2. The Long Road Back
3. The Resistance
4. The Decision
5. Leyte Gulf
6. The Battle for Leyte
7. The Invasion of Luzon
8. The Battle of Manila
9. Clearing Luzon
10. The Central and Southern Philippines
11. Rebirth
Acknowledgements
List of Figures
List of Maps
List of Abbreviations
US Division Nicknames
A Note on Sources
Endnotes
Index.

Subject Areas: Military history [HBW]