AMERICA GOES TO WAR

First in a projected five-volume series. Unlike Dolan's more traditional World War II: 1941 (1991), this takes an anecdotal approach, inviting readers to witness pivotal moments: Hitler's decision to postpone the invasion of Britain for a Russian campaign; FDR reassuring Churchill (``Hitler first, Japan second''); Rommel's retreat from Tobruk (``Tobruk is relieved, but not as relieved as I am,'' said a British commander); and, of course, Pearl Harbor. There are also more private incidents: an American mother getting a letter from her son several days after receiving news of his death, or Stalin despairingly shouting, as German armies sweep toward Moscow, ``No! All that Lenin created we have lost.'' The vignettes are chronological; readers whose grasp of history is weak can turn to the back, where maps and a chronology summarize the war's progress and where eight capsule biographies introduce major players (but not Mussolini). Though Devaney does point up individual and collective instances of Allied heroism, in general he refrains from value judgments; he also introduces some major themes: racism on both sides, Japanese economic imperatives, etc. Excellent background reading. Bibliography; index. (Nonfiction. 11-15)