author
Henry I. Shaw
A longtime Marine Corps historian, he turned firsthand military experience into clear, detailed accounts of some of the Pacific war’s most important campaigns. His books are valued for being direct, readable, and closely grounded in the official record.
1 Audiobook
First Offensive: The Marine Campaign for Guadalcanal
by Henry I. Shaw
About the author
Henry I. Shaw, Jr. was an American military historian and former Marine best known for writing and editing official histories of the U.S. Marine Corps in World War II. Sources from the National Park Service and U.S. Naval Institute describe him as a longtime Marine Corps historian who later became chief historian at Headquarters Marine Corps.
He studied at The Citadel, earned a history degree from Hope College, and received a master’s degree in history from Columbia University. He also served as a Marine in World War II and the Korean War, experience that helped shape the practical, campaign-level focus of his writing.
Shaw co-authored major volumes in the multi-volume History of U.S. Marine Corps Operations in World War II and wrote accessible works such as First Offensive and Tarawa. His reputation rests on making complex operations understandable without losing the human scale of the battles he described.