Dan Kurzman

In the Battle of the Atlantic's catalog of tragedies, the 1943 sinking of an American troop transport stands out as a heroic vignette witnessed by survivors. They recounted how four chaplains, after pressing their life jackets on terrified young men, went down with the ship, praying. The chaplains have been commemorated over the years in various media but never in so comprehensive a fashion as in Kurzman's book. His research of primary documents associated with each chaplain's life and religious career, and interviews of people who knew them, pays off in a narrative that not only recalls the men's personalities but also the quality of their faith in God. It was slightly different for each--an intellectual decision for Protestant minister Clark Poling; a starting point for an idealistic commitment to brotherhood and democracy for the young rabbi Alexander Goode. From the chaplains' bonding in training camp to the voyage to Greenland, their duties and sacrifice are movingly commemorated in this poignant account, which is bound to connect with spiritually minded readers.