Ian W. Toll (born 1967) is an American author and military historian, who lives in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. He is perhaps most widely known for his three-volume history on the

Pacific War The Pacific War, sometimes called the Asia–Pacific War, was the theater of World War II that was fought in Asia, the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean, and Oceania. It was geographically the largest theater of the war, including the vast ...

Education

Toll graduated from

St George's School St George's School or Saint George's School may refer to: Brunei * St. George's School, Brunei Canada * St. George's School of Montreal, Quebec * St. George's School (Vancouver), British Columbia Germany * St. George's The British Internation ...

in Middletown, Rhode Island. He then studied and received a degree in history from

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private research university in the Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789 as Georg ...

in 1989. Toll studied and received a master's degree in public policy from the Kennedy School of Government at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

in 1995.

Career

Early in his career, he was a political aide and speechwriter to U.S. Senator Paul Sarbanes and New York Lieutenant Governor Stan Lundine. Subsequently, Toll was an analyst at the

Federal Reserve Bank of New York The Federal Reserve Bank of New York is one of the 12 Federal Reserve Banks of the United States. It is responsible for the Second District of the Federal Reserve System, which encompasses the State of New York, the 12 northern counties of New ...

, and an equity research analyst at three investment banks, covering communications, software, and e-commerce stocks. Toll is the author of '' Six Frigates: The Epic History of the Founding of the US Navy''. He authored The Pacific War Trilogy, a three-volume history of the war in the Pacific. The volumes include: '' Pacific Crucible: War at Sea in the Pacific, 1941-1942'', which covers the first six months of the war beginning with the attack on Pearl Harbor and the war in the eastern Pacific with its climax at the Battle of Midway; '' The Conquering Tide: War in the Pacific Islands, 1942-1944.'', which covers the period from June 1942June 1944, covering the war in the central and southern Pacific, beginning with the Solomon Islands campaign, the following campaigns in the Gilbert and Marshall Islands, and concluding with the Mariana and Palau Islands campaigns; the final volume, '' Twilight of the Gods: War in the Western Pacific, 1944-1945'' covers the final months of the war from July 1944 to the surrender of Japan in September 1945, with the campaigns to retake the Philippines, the battle of Okinawa and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Toll has also served as a juror for the

National Endowment for the Humanities The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is an independent federal agency of the U.S. government, established by thNational Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965(), dedicated to supporting research, education, preserv ...

, a cultural ambassador for the

U.S. State Department The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other nati ...

, and a lecturer at the Naval War College.

Awards

''Six Frigates'' was the 2007 recipient of the

Samuel Eliot Morison Award for Naval Literature The Samuel Eliot Morison Award for Naval Literature is for literature about the United States Navy. The award was created in 1982 by the New York Commandery of the Naval Order of the United States, who administers and chooses the winner which is ...

and the William E. Colby Military Writers Award. ''Pacific Crucible'' received the Northern California Book Award for Nonfiction in 2012. ''The Conquering Tide'' was a

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

bestseller and was selected as the best book of 2016 by

Lionel Barber Lionel Barber (born 18 January 1955) is an English journalist. He was editor of the ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') from 2005 to 2020. Barber worked at ''The Scotsman'' and ''The Sunday Times'' before working at the ''FT'' from the mid-1980s. Bar ...

, editor of the ''

Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nik ...

''. ''Twilight of the Gods'' was a New York Times Bestseller in 2020. In 2019, Toll was awarded the Samuel Eliot Morison Award by the USS Constitution Museum.

Books

*''Six Frigates: The Epic History of the Founding of the U.S. Navy'', W. W. Norton, 2006. *'' Pacific Crucible: War at Sea in the Pacific, 1941–1942'', W. W. Norton, 2011. *'' The Conquering Tide: War in the Pacific Islands, 1942–1944'', W. W. Norton, 2015. *'' Twilight of the Gods: War in the Western Pacific, 1944-1945'', W. W. Norton, 2020.

References

External links

*
Toll discusses ''Six Frigates''
at the

Pritzker Military Museum & Library The Pritzker Military Museum & Library (formerly Pritzker Military Library) is a non-profit museum and a research library for the study of military history on Michigan Avenue in Chicago, Illinois. The institution was founded in 2003, and its spe ...

on May 10, 2007. Retrieved January 26, 2015. *
Review of ''Six Frigates''

Review of ''Pacific Crucible''Toll at National World War II MuseumToll at New York Society Library
{{DEFAULTSORT:Toll, Ian W. 1967 births Living people Harvard Kennedy School alumni American male non-fiction writers Georgetown College (Georgetown University) alumni American maritime historians St. George's School (Rhode Island) alumni