From the acclaimed author of Citizens of London comes
the definitive account of the debate over American
intervention in World War II—a bitter, sometimes violent
clash of personalities and ideas that divided the nation and
ultimately determined the fate of the free world.
At the center of this controversy stood the two
most famous men in America: President Franklin D. Roosevelt,
who championed the interventionist cause, and aviator
Charles Lindbergh, who as unofficial leader and spokesman
for America’s isolationists emerged as the president’s most
formidable adversary. Their contest of wills personified the
divisions within the country at large, and Lynne Olson makes
masterly use of their dramatic personal stories to create a
poignant and riveting narrative. While FDR, buffeted by
political pressures on all sides, struggled to marshal
public support for aid to Winston Churchill’s Britain,
Lindbergh saw his heroic reputation besmirched—and his
marriage thrown into turmoil—by allegations that he was a
Nazi sympathizer.
Spanning the years 1939 to
1941, Those Angry Days vividly re-creates the
rancorous internal squabbles that gripped the United States
in the period leading up to Pearl Harbor. After Germany
vanquished most of Europe, America found itself torn between
its traditional isolationism and the urgent need to come to
the aid of Britain, the only country still battling Hitler.
The conflict over intervention was, as FDR noted, “a dirty
fight,” rife with chicanery and intrigue, and Those Angry
Days recounts every bruising detail. In Washington, a
group of high-ranking military officers, including the Air
Force chief of staff, worked to sabotage FDR’s pro-British
policies. Roosevelt, meanwhile, authorized FBI wiretaps of
Lindbergh and other opponents of intervention. At the same
time, a covert British operation, approved by the president,
spied on antiwar groups, dug up dirt on congressional
isolationists, and planted propaganda in U.S.
newspapers.
The stakes could not have been
higher. The combatants were larger than life. With the
immediacy of a great novel, Those Angry Days
brilliantly recalls a time fraught with danger when the
future of democracy and America’s role in the world hung in
the balance. Advance praise for Those Angry
Days “With this
stirring book, Lynne Olson confirms her status as our era’s
foremost chronicler of World War II politics and diplomacy.
Those Angry Days tells the extraordinary tale of
America’s internal debate about whether and how to stop
Hitler. Filled with fascinating anecdotes and surprising
twists, the text raises moral and practical questions that
we still struggle with today. Compelling for students of
history and casual readers alike.”—Madeleine K. Albright,
former U.S. Secretary of State
“Lynne Olson
has done it again. Those Angry Days is a riveting
account of the political tensions and cast of historic
figures engaged in an epic battle over the role of the
United States in the early years of World War II. It’s all
here: FDR, Lindbergh, Churchill, Hitler, war in Europe and
the Pacific. The stakes could not have been higher and the
outcome was never certain. Modern leaders and citizens alike
can learn so much from Those Angry Days.”—Tom Brokaw,
author of The Greatest Generation
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