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Title: Franklin and Winston: An Intimate Portrait of an Epic Friendship by Jon Meacham ISBN: 0-375-50500-8 Publisher: Random House Pub. Date: 14 October, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.35 (20 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Great telling of great history.
Comment: The book is a beautiful blend of a dual biography and of world history in the first half of the last century. Naturally, the protagonists are Roosevelt & Churchill, and the backdrop is World War II.
The author leads up to the outbreak of the conflict with just the right amount of background on both men, as well as with a bit of the politics of the era. Interestingly, (and actually a point that was lost on the President but not on the Prime Minister), they had briefly met as underlings during the Great War. No fast friendship was to be theirs however.
Politics and circumstance drew them together twenty years hence, and while they initially approached one another with caution and with great reserve, they were to become not only allies but truly brothers-in-arms. Their meetings were warm and their friendship made the alliance more efficient than any other of its day.
This is not to say there weren't differences; there were indeed many important ones and they not infrequently led to serious strains on their friendship. Among such issues detailed nicely in this book were Churchill's hard-line dedication to the British Empire (and all the strategic & political implications of keeping the Empire intact) and Roosevelt's reflexive, inner Politician, a personality that could be cold, hurtful and quite disingenuous.
In the end, it certainly seems that Churchill was not only the more forthright of the two, but also the more prescient. He perceived Stalin's intentions and the coming Cold War perhaps before anyone else. His warnings however made little impression on Roosevelt or on anyone else in a position to make a difference. Unlike his ally, however, Churchill would survive long enough to see the Cold War he had predicted become our reality, to see the Russians turned back from Cuba, and to receive an honorary American citizenship from President Kennedy. Knowing Churchill just a bit leaves one with the feeling that this last honor was one he most sincerely cherished.
Rating: 5
Summary: A friendship forged in war
Comment: This is an extremely informative and well-written book about the wartime friendship between Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston S. Churchill. The author makes the point that, were it not for this close bond between the two great leaders of the Western democracies, the entire history of World War II, and the subsequent peace, might have been quite different. The book shows the initial, desperate courting of the American president by the Prime Minister of an embattled nation, with the result that a very close, personal relationship sprang up between them. The author does not gloss over the imperfections of the men, particularly the way Roosevelt, later in the war, took to belittling Churchill in front of Stalin to impress the Russians. The Yalta Conference, while it does not occupy a lot of print pages, does show Roosevelt trying to cajole the Russians into his point of view, with the intention of getting them to confront the Japanese to save additional American casualties, which Churchill didn't appear to realize (possibly because he was not informed of this strategy by FDR), being more concerned with the preservation of the British Empire and its overseas possessions. There is the belief by the author that, had Roosevelt lived, he would have taken as strong a stand against Communism as Churchill, and his argument is fairly persuasive. All in all, this is a book well worth reading, as it casts an interesting light on a friendship that saved the world from tyranny.
Rating: 4
Summary: Great Leaders
Comment: Jon Meacham's book "Franklin and Winston" does something that I have seen no other book about the World War II era attempt. Meacham tells the story not of a person, or of an historical event, but instead he tells the story of one of the most important relationships that ever existed between two men.
Few relationships have ever had the importance that this particular one did. It is difficult to imagine a more critical relationship than the one between the two heads of state of countries fighting Nazi Germany in World War II. Because FDR and Churchill trusted one another and communicated well with one another America and Britain were able to avoid many pitfalls that nations which join together in temporary alliances often encounter.
Churchill and Roosevelt had many similarities and some major differences. However, both realized at the outset of World War II--after Churchill became Prime Minister of Britain--that for the good of both their nations they must work closely together to defeat Nazi Germany. This was easier said than done at times. Churchill had a number of personal habits which irritated Roosevelt. For example, Churchill was often long and rambling in his conversations. Churchill, the ultimate Anglophile, refused to see certain larger implications of World War II, such as the end of British Colonialism. Churchill sometimes would barge into Roosevelt's bedroom in the Whitehouse in the middle of the night--when he visited the President--simply to talk about some idea that had suddenly crossed his mind.
On the other hand, Roosevelt sometimes annoyed Churchill. Roosevelt insisted at both the Teheran and Yalta conferences upon meeting first with Joseph Stalin, the Soviet dictator, before talking to Churchill. This lead Churchill to feel both annoyed and less important than the other two men. Roosevelt was sometimes both secretive and non-committal, a trait Churchill found to be extremely frustrating at times.
What was impressive was the willingness of both men had to set aside differences, ignore personality quirks, reject stereotypes, and work together for the common good of both their nations. In a day when public discourse between political figures is often marked by rancor and unwillingness to compromise, it is refreshing to know that some great men can put aside personal differences to reach a larger goal.
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Title: Benjamin Franklin : An American Life by Walter Isaacson ISBN: 0684807610 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Pub. Date: 01 July, 2003 List Price(USD): $30.00 |
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Title: The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown ISBN: 0385504209 Publisher: Doubleday Pub. Date: 18 March, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: Franklin Delano Roosevelt: Champion of Freedom by Conrad Black ISBN: 1586481843 Publisher: PublicAffairs Pub. Date: November, 2003 List Price(USD): $39.95 |
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Title: An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917-1963 by Robert Dallek ISBN: 0316172383 Publisher: Little Brown & Company Pub. Date: 13 May, 2003 List Price(USD): $30.00 |
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Title: Flyboys: A True Story of Courage by James Bradley ISBN: 0316105848 Publisher: Little Brown & Company Pub. Date: 30 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
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