Fdr And The End Of Empire

Based upon extensive archival research in Great Britain, the United States, and the Middle East, including sources never previously utilized such as declassified intelligence records, postwar planning documents, and the personal papers of key officials, this is painstakingly researched account of the origins of American involvement in the Middle East during the Presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt. It explores the effort to challenge British and French power, and the building of new relationships with Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and the Levant states. It also reveals new and controversial discoveries about Roosevelt's views on Palestine, his relations with Middle East leaders, and his often bitter conflicts with Churchill and de Gaulle over European imperialism. Modern-day parallels make this story compelling for followers of current events, World War II, Franklin Roosevelt, the Middle East, or British imperialism.

Based upon extensive archival research in Great Britain, the United States, and the Middle East, including sources never previously utilized such as declassified intelligence records, postwar planning documents, and the personal papers of key officials, this is painstakingly researched account of the origins of American involvement in the Middle East during the Presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt. It explores the effort to challenge British and French power, and the building of new relationships with Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and the Levant states. It also reveals new and controversial discoveries about Roosevelt's views on Palestine, his relations with Middle East leaders, and his often bitter conflicts with Churchill and de Gaulle over European imperialism. Modern-day parallels make this story compelling for followers of current events, World War II, Franklin Roosevelt, the Middle East, or British imperialism.

A sweeping, brilliantly vivid history of the sudden end of the British empire and the moment when America became a world superpower. "I have not become the King's First Minister in order to preside over the liquidation of the British Empire." Winston Churchill's famous statement in November 1942, just as the tide of the Second World War was beginning to turn, pugnaciously affirmed his loyalty to the world-wide institution that he had served for most of his life. Britain fought and sacrificed on a worldwide scale to defeat Hitler and his allies-and won. Yet less than five years after Churchill's defiant speech, the British Empire effectively ended with Indian Independence in August 1947 and the end of the British Mandate in Palestine in May 1948. As the sun set on Britain's Empire, the age of America as world superpower dawned. How did this rapid change of fortune come about? Peter Clarke's book is the first to analyze the abrupt transition from Rule Britannia to Pax Americana. His swiftly paced narrative makes superb use of letters and diaries to provide vivid portraits of the figures around whom history pivoted: Churchill, Gandhi, Roosevelt, Stalin, Truman, and a host of lesser-known figures though whom Clarke brilliantly shows the human dimension of epochal events. The Last Thousand Days of the British Empire is a captivating work of popular history that shows how the events that followed the war reshaped the world as profoundly as the conflict itself.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt stands astride American history like a colossus, having pulled the nation out of the Great Depression and led it to victory in the Second World War. Elected to four terms as president, he transformed an inward-looking country into the greatest superpower the world had ever known. Only Abraham Lincoln did more to save America from destruction. But FDR is such a large figure that historians tend to take him as part of the landscape, focusing on smaller aspects of his achievements or carping about where he ought to have done things differently. Few have tried to assess the totality of FDR's life and career. Conrad Black rises to the challenge. In this magisterial biography, Black makes the case that FDR was the most important person of the twentieth century, transforming his nation and the world through his unparalleled skill as a domestic politician, war leader, strategist, and global visionary -- all of which he accomplished despite a physical infirmity that could easily have ended his public life at age thirty-nine. Black also takes on the great critics of FDR, especially those who accuse him of betraying the West at Yalta. Black opens a new chapter in our understanding of this great man, whose example is even more inspiring as a new generation embarks on its own rendezvous with destiny.

Wendell Willkie lost the 1940 presidential election but became America's most effective ambassador, embarking on a 7-week plane trip to bolster the allied cause, encountering everyone from de Gaulle and Stalin to Chiang Kai-shek. Against a wave of nationalism, Willkie promoted a message of global interconnection and peaceful engagement.

An in-depth analysis of FDR's leadership during the Second World War reveals how he assumed control over key decisions to launch a successful trial landing in North Africa to shift the war in favor of Allied forces.

Reproduction of the original: State of the Union Addresses by Franklin D. Roosevelt