Time of War

William H. Whyte is most often remembered by the public as the author of The Organization Man, the 1956 best-selling examination of modern American society. Urbanologists remember him as a student of urban behavior and designer of living spaces. He was both, of course, but first he was a Marine, a fact he paid homage to when he said on the jacket of The Organization Man that he "was educated at Princeton and in the United States Marine Corps at Guadalcanal."

"Whyte joins the long list of Guadalcanal memoirists that began with John Hersey (Into the Valley, 1943) and Richard Tregaskis (Guadalcanal Diary, 1943) and has continued to Martin Clemens (Alone on Guadalcanal, CH, Sep'98). Beyond casually mentioning that rear-echelon troops occasionally shot Japanese prisoners and describing the Japanese tank attack near the Matanikau River, this book does not shed much new historical light on the Guadalcanal campaign itself. Nevertheless, it is important because of Whyte's insight into the psyche of the generation that fought WW II and then became leaders in the 1950s. Whyte, a former editor of Fortune, is most remembered for his provocative book The Organization Man (1956), in which he criticized the enervating effect that large bureaucratic organizations had on their employees. Yet, A Time of War also reveals him to be a proud admirer of the Marine Corps, a large military bureaucracy. Despite the dangers of combat, Whyte considered his time on Guadalcanal to be "the most exciting four months of his life." The book is extremely well written and helps to re-create the courage, idealism, and naivete (naivete) of the WW II generation. It is highly recommended for general or academic readers interested in the Second World War or the intellectual history of the 1950s." -Choice "An outstanding description of the United States Marine Corps' first offensive in the Pacific from a highly literate and witty participant." -MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History and World War II