Join us Wednesday, September 23 at 5:30 p.m. for a Legacy Lecture by Michael Doyle about his book Nightmare in the Pacific: The World War II Saga of Artie Shaw and His Navy Band. A book signing and reception will follow the presentation.
What happened when Artie Shaw took swing music to war?
Before Pearl Harbor, Artie Shaw was one of America’s most celebrated bandleaders. After the attack, he set celebrity aside, enlisted in the Navy, and assembled an extraordinary group of jazz musicians: seasoned stars and rising talents soon known as “Shaw’s Rangers.” Their eleven-month overseas odyssey began with a relatively comfortable engagement at an enlisted men’s club in Pearl Harbor. It soon carried them aboard a battleship to New Caledonia, the New Hebrides, and Guadalcanal, where swing music met exhaustion, military disorder, and enemy fire.
In Nightmare in the Pacific, Michael Doyle reconstructs both the band’s exhilarating performances and the mounting strain that finally broke Shaw’s formidable will. Drawing on Navy personnel files, medical records, court documents, archives, and contemporary accounts, Doyle shows what happened when a famously exacting artist entered a system he could not control, and how the band reached new musical heights after its leader was gone. Though Shaw served in the Navy, his story illuminates a wartime problem George C. Marshall considered essential to military effectiveness: sustaining morale under the pressures of service and combat. The result is a vivid meeting of military history, jazz history, and psychological drama.
How can I attend?
The event is free to the public, but reservations are required. To reserve a seat, or for more information about the event, contact [email protected] or call 540.463.7103, ext. 138.
How can I watch from home?
The presentation will also be livestreamed on the Marshall Foundation YouTube channel (https://bit.ly/2Or0E8D) simultaneously. Viewers of the stream are encouraged to write questions using the live video chat (to the lower right of the video) or via email at [email protected]. Chat will be monitored for abusive comments.
Who is Michael Doyle?
Michael Doyle is an author, journalist, and adjunct professorial lecturer at the George Washington University’s School of Media and Public Affairs. From 2017 to 2026, he reported on environmental issues for E&E News and POLITICO. He previously spent nearly three decades in the Washington bureau of McClatchy newspapers, covering legal affairs, the Supreme Court, and California issues. He is also the author of The Ministers’ War, Radical Chapters, and The Forestport Breaks. His writing has appeared in Slate, the Washington Monthly, the Yale Law Report, and other publications. He can be found at doyleauthor.com.
Related content
Read about actor James Stewart’s combat service as a B-24 pilot, director Frank Capra’s work on the Army’s Why We Fight films, and the movies, theater, music, and cartooning used to sustain soldiers’ morale during World War II.
The George C. Marshall Foundation Legacy Series is sponsored by:
Dominion Energy Charitable Foundation; Edward Jones; CornerStone Bank; Lexington Sunrise Rotary Club; Raymond James; and Mr. Ted Judt