About this item

Officially, America entered World War II on December 8, 1941 the day after the bombing of Peal Harbor, but even before that infamous day America had been at war. Long before, Franklin D. Roosevelt had been supporting the Allies. While Americans were sympathetic to the people being crushed under the Axis powers, they were unwilling to enter a foreign war. FDR knew he had to fight against isolationism, anti-Semitism, and the scars of World War I, and win the war of public sentiment. In 1941: Fighting the Shadow War, A Divided America in a World at War, Marc Wortman explores the "complex, contentious, and portentous" journey of America's entry into World War II.FDR used all the powers at his disposal, from helping Winston Churchill and the British Navy with loans, to espionage at home and abroad, to battle with Hitler in the shadows. To gain public opinion, the largest obstacle was Charles Lindberg and his Committee for America First with its following of thousands. Wortman tracks journalist Philip Johnson and William Shirer as they report on the invasion of Poland: one a Nazi sympathizer, the other fervently anti-Nazi. Johnson and Shirer's story are threads woven throughout the book. Combining military and political history, 1941: Fighting the Shadow War, A Divided America in a World at War tells the story of how FDR led the country to war.



About the Author

Marc Wortman

Marc Wortman is the author of 1941: Fighting the Shadow War, A Divided America in a World at War; The Millionaires' Unit: The Aristocratic Flyboys Who Fought the Great War and Invented American Air Power (2006) ; and The Bonfire: The Siege and Burning of Atlanta (2009) . (Learn more at: marcwortmanbooks.com and facebook.com/marcwortmanbooks)

The Millionaires' Unit is the basis for the award-winning documentary by Humanus Films (www.millionairesunit.org) .

Recipient of Sigma Delta Chi, CASE feature writing and Daily Beast Long Reads awards, Marc has written feature articles for Vanity Fair, Smithsonian, Time/HNN, and other popular and specialized publications. He frequently contributes reviews and essays to The Daily Beast. Along the way, he was also a columnist for the New Haven Register and an editor at the Yale Alumni Magazine. He has spoken to audiences around the country and appeared on CNN, NPR, C-SPAN BookTV, CPTV, the History Channel, and many other radio and television outlets. Marc was born in St. Louis and grew up in the Washington, DC, area. Following college at Brown University, he received a doctorate from Princeton University. He lives with his family in New Haven.



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