First published 2022
Craig Shirley examines the pivotal month that reshaped America and the world in 1945. As Franklin Roosevelt begins his fourth presidential term, the nation anticipates victory in the global war that has claimed millions of lives. Then April arrives with a cascade of world-changing events. Roosevelt's sudden death thrusts Harry Truman into the presidency at the war's most critical juncture. Hitler takes his own life as Nazi Germany collapses. American forces uncover the horrors of concentration camps at Dachau and Auschwitz. Meanwhile, scientists race to complete the atomic bomb project that will soon devastate Hiroshima and Nagasaki, forcing Japan's surrender and ending the war. Shirley chronicles how these converging moments transformed the United States from a nation that armed the world into one that would protect it, marking America's emergence as a global superpower.
Genres: history, 20th-century, biography-memoir, american-history
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: historical-events, political-intrigue
Setting: America, Dachau, Auschwitz, Hiroshima, Nagasaki
Period: April 1945
528 pages · Hardcover · Thomas Nelson