On Dec. 7, 1941, radios buzzed with the news that several hundred Japanese planes attacked a U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, killing more than 2,400 Americans as well as damaging or destroying eight Navy battleships and more than 100 planes. Though it would be some time before people learned the full scope of the damage, within days a once-distant war in Europe and the Pacific became a central part of life in the United States, affecting politics, business, media, and entertainment. In his new book, December 1941: 31 Days That Changed America and Saved the World, Craig Shirley offers a day-by-day chronicle of the full month and recounts Pearl Harbor's political, economic, and cultural implications as they happen. Shirley, the…