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Bloody Ridge: The Battle that Saved Guadalcanal. By Michael S. Smith. Novato, Calif.: Presidio Press, 2000. ISBN 0-89141-718-4. Maps. Photographs. Notes. Index. Pp. x, 264. $24.95.
Michael S. Smith's Bloody Ridge is a flawed work, but still a useful contribution to scholarship on the Pacific theater of World War II. Its weakness begins with a lack of focus. The title itself is misleading, since only two of the book's ten chapters actually deal with the two-day battle. In reality, this is the story of the first seven weeks of the ground battle on the island, with equal attention and detail lavished on engagements that preceded and followed Bloody Ridge. The author rarely explains how these other events are related to Bloody Ridge, and the book even seems to end in...