Review of "Roosevelt & World War II," by Robert A. Divine

 Review of

Roosevelt & World War II, by Robert A. Divine

Four out of five stars

A brief synopsis of a great president

 Given that when he first took the oath of office the United States and the world was in the depths of the greatest economic crisis of all time and that Franklin Roosevelt let the Allies to victory in World War II, it is impossible to explain his achievements in a mere 98 pages. Volumes have been written about the actions of Franklin Roosevelt as the leader of the United States and its’ great industrial might. The best that can be done in a short book is to provide a reasonably accurate summary. Which is what is done here.

 As the war clouds gathered in Europe and Asia, the United States was extremely isolationist, there were few people that could be considered internationalists. Therefore, Roosevelt was extremely limited in what he could do in support of the nations that were at war with Germany and Japan. That is made clear in this short volume, in many ways Roosevelt had to walk a very narrow path as he conducted very small steps in the direction towards a war footing. While it is easy to state that he did not do enough to prepare for war, the reality is that he did all he could.

 Roosevelt has also taken a great deal of heat for his relationship with Joseph Stalin, another main point of this book. However, given how ruthless Stalin was in his dealings with other nations and his own people, it is difficult to see a path where the postwar world in Europe would have been any different. The Soviet armies were in eastern Europe and the American soldiers simply wanted to go home once the war was over in Europe.

 The conclusion of this book is the correct one. While there may have been some things that Roosevelt could have done differently, his accomplishments were likely the best that could have been done in the circumstances, before and during World War II.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Review of "The Autumn Dead," by Ed Gorman

Review of "The Forty-Minute War," by Janet and Chris Morris

Review of "Heat," by Mike Lupica