Back Door to War: The Roosevelt Foreign Policy, 1933-1941 [Hardcover]

Charles Callan Tansill (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

“A most carefully written and thoroughly documented study of American foreign relations.... It is a book destined to be the standard authority on our war years.”–New Republic

Product Details

• Hardcover: 690 pages
• Publisher: Greenwood Press Reprint; New ed of 1952 ed edition (June 19, 1975)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0837179904
• ISBN-13: 978-0837179902
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.7 x 2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,331,579 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Compelling and convincing, September 29, 2000

By 

Brad Albaugh (Olathe, KS USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Back Door to War: The Roosevelt Foreign Policy, 1933-1941 (Hardcover)

As the other reviewer has mentioned this book tries to show that the US not only knew of the impending attack by the Japanese but also pushed them in the direction leading up to the attack. Although the statement in the other reviewers comments about FDR planning the attack can be misleading it does seem that he had intimate knowledge of the attack and he desperately wanted to join WWII. The author does not debate the fact that the US's entrance into the war was critical, but that the only way the US could be convinced to join the conflict (due to its isolationism). In order to be compelled to fight the US needed to be attacked in a merciless manner. Hence his argument that the Japanese move in that direction. He also points out many facts around the attack that are convincing as well.

This is an excellent read.

25 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Volumes of details, but worth it, April 13, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Back Door to War: The Roosevelt Foreign Policy, 1933-1941 (Hardcover)

If you can make it through this encyclopedia, you will be rewarded with the truth. This book goes into great detail which is necessary to prove what most of us shudder to hear, (much less accept) namely that FDR planned the attack on Pearl Harbor. What is even more shockng is that these service men were sacrificed so that the United States could enter a war with Japan as a back door to entering a war with Germany, which was engaged with the USSR on its eastern front. Since the USSR was the great experiment (of international socialism), FDR wanted to save it from possible extinction. Read this book if you have the courage to challenge the history lessons you were probably taught in school.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Really Excellent!, April 22, 2008

By 

Michael Tozer (San Antonio, Texas United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Back Door to War: The Roosevelt Foreign Policy, 1933-1941 (Hardcover)

Charles Tansill's book on the Roosevelt Foreign Policy between 1933 and 1941 is really excellent. Author Tansill demonstrates quite convincingly his central theme: that FDR sought to include the United States in the Second World War on the side of the Soviet Union from the very beginning, and duped the Japanese into firing the first shot as a "back door" to war.

As the other reviewers have averred, these are facts not covered in most high school, or even university level history courses. And yet, facts they are. Tansill proves his premise by the usage of extensive primary material from US State Department files, current periodicals, and sound reasoning. His writing is economical, and compelling. Though a very long book of well over six hundred pages, Tansill make the long journey both enjoyable, and well worth the effort.

This is a very important, excellently crafted, and thoroughly enjoyable history. We strongly recommend it to all who would know justice and love mercy, while yet there is time.