by Jon Meacham
First published 2003
Jon Meacham examines the personal bond between Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill during World War II. The two leaders spent 113 days together and exchanged nearly 2,000 messages while steering the Allied victory. Meacham traces their relationship from cocktail meetings in Washington and Hyde Park to secret conferences in Casablanca and Tehran. Both men were sons of privilege who became master politicians, yet both faced critics at home who dismissed them as arrogant. Churchill actively courted the more elusive Roosevelt, always uncertain of his standing in the American president's affections. Roosevelt preferred keeping people off balance, including his wife Eleanor and his closest aides. The author draws on previously unpublished letters from Lucy Mercer Rutherfurd, Roosevelt's secret love, and papers from Pamela Churchill Harriman. He also conducted interviews with survivors who witnessed the two leaders together. The book reveals how Hitler initially brought them together, though they later drifted apart as the war progressed. Meacham shows how their families became entangled in global events while the two men navigated conflicting national interests to build their victorious partnership.
Genres: history, 20th-century, political-science, non-fiction, biography-memoir, american-history
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: power-dynamics, unlikely-allies
Setting: Washington, Hyde Park, Casablanca, Tehran
Period: World War II
636 pages · Unknown Binding · Random House