Mantle of Command: FDR at War, 1941-1942

Based on years of archival research and interviews with the last surviving aides and Roosevelt family members, Nigel Hamilton offers a definitive account of FDRs masterfuland underappreciatedcommand of the Allied war effort.Hamilton takes readers inside FDRs White House Oval Studyhis personal command centerand into the meetings where he battled with Churchill about strategy and tactics and overrode the near mutinies of his own generals and secretary of war.

Time and again, FDR was proven right and his allies and generals were wrong.When the generals wanted to attack the Nazi-fortified coast of France, FDR knew the Allied forces werent ready.When Churchill insisted his Far East colonies were loyal and would resist the Japanese, Roosevelt knew it was a fantasy.As Hamiltons account reaches its climax with the Torch landings in North Africa in late 1942, the tide of war turns in the Allies favor and FDRs genius for psychology and military affairs is clear.This intimate, sweeping look at a great president in historys greatest conflict is must reading.