Winik, Jay

Examines the year 1944 and the decisions faced by Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

The year 1944 was perhaps the most important year in the 20th century. American president Franklin Delano Roosevelt was at the pinnacle of his wartime leadership and his campaign for reelection, the planning of Operation Overlord (D-Day) with Britain's Winston Churchill and Russia's Joseph Stalin was in progress, Paris was liberated from Nazi Germany, the Battle of the Bulge took place, and numerous conferences on peace-time were starting. But millions of lives were still at stake as Roosevelt became fully aware of the true scope of the Final Solution -- the death of all Jews by the Nazis. Roosevelt's rapidly deteriorating health was a closely guarded secret as he was forced to make momentous decisions : was winning the war the best way to rescue the Jews? -- or was the actual bombing of the death camps the solution?.

It is an era that redefined history. As the 1790s began, a fragile America teetered on the brink, Russia was a vast imperial power, and France plunged into revolution. But in contrast to the way conventional histories tell it, none of these events occurred in isolation. Here, historian Winik shows how their fates combined to change the course of civilization. Here is a savage world war, the toppling of a great dynasty, and an America struggling to survive at home and abroad. Here, too, is the first modern holy war between Islam and a resurgent Christian empire. And what a cast of characters: Washington and Jefferson, Louis XVI and Robespierre, Catherine the Great, John Adams, Napoleon, and Selim III. With powerful echoes for the international chaos that confronts the globe today, we see an arc of revolutionary fervor stretching from Philadelphia and Paris to St. Petersburg and Cairo--with fateful results.--From publisher description.

Traces the events which occurred in the final days of the Civil War and discusses how these events changed the history of the United States.