From Munich to Pearl Harbor: Roosevelt's America and the Origins of the Second World War (American Ways Series) [Hardcover]

David Reynolds (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 10, 2001 | ISBN-10: 1566633893 | ISBN-13: 978-1566633895

Four years before Pearl Harbor, the United States had turned in on itself, mired in the Great Depression and fearing entanglement in another European war. Four years after Pearl Harbor, it accounted for half the world's economic output and boasted a navy and air force second to none. The period from 1938 to 1941, David Reynolds argues in his brilliant new book, was a turning point in modern American history. Drawing upon his own research and the latest scholarship, Mr. Reynolds shows how Franklin Roosevelt led Americans into a new global perspective on foreign policy, one based on geopolitics and ideology. FDR insisted that in an age of airpower, U.S. security required allies far beyond the Western Hemisphere, and that in an era of dictatorships, American values could and should transform the world. Months before Pearl Harbor, he had popularized the term "second world war." Mr. Reynolds, in his succinct overview of American foreign policy from Munich to Pearl Harbor, shows how the president used his new perspective in responding to international shocks—the fall of France, Hitler's invasion of Russia, Japan's drive into Southeast Asia. But one of the signal accomplishments of From Munich to Pearl Harbor is also to explain how the main features of America's cold war posture (following World War II) were established in the years before the war—a new globalism, a bipolar worldview, the foundations of the military-industrial complex, and the origins of the "imperial presidency." New in the American Ways Series.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Cambridge University fellow Reynolds (One World Divisible: A Global History Since 1945) provides a succinct, accurate account of FDR's rhetoric and policy decisions that positioned America for war in the days between Chamberlain's disastrous 1938 Munich agreement and the attack by the Japanese on Pearl Harbor in 1941. Despite its brevity, this workmanlike book catalogues FDR's efforts to "educate" America's overwhelmingly isolationist electorate to the need for the U.S. to play a high-profile role in evolving world events. At the same time, it gives a fair Cliffs Notes-style summary of FDR's work to support anti-Axis governments up until the time American sentiment swung around to favor intervention, adopting the Lend-Lease bill to re-arm Britain and loosening the constraints of the Neutrality Act. Reynolds posits that America's eventual role in the war set the stage for the nation to become a leader in the postwar confrontation with world Communism. Serious scholars will quibble with at least one aspect of Reynolds's approach. While stating that his book "is rooted" in his "own primary research, particularly in the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library (Hyde Park, N.Y.), and in the National Archives and Library of Congress," Reynolds does not favor readers with detailed source notes and instead provides a bibliographical essay focused entirely on published sources, not one of which is linked directly (through footnotes or otherwise) to any of the numerous quotations in the book.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

How did an insular, perhaps even "isolationist," U.S. move with apparent smoothness and willingness to the role of global defender of world stability and democratic values? Reynolds, a fellow of Christ's College, Cambridge University, credits the views and policies of FDR that evolved in the 1930s. Roosevelt, who had once doubted the wisdom of American intervention in World War I, viewed the creation of totalitarian regimes as a global phenomenon that required a global response, because these regimes threatened American values and security. The result was an increasingly assertive American foreign policy in both Europe and the Pacific Rim in the late 1930s. Furthermore, Reynolds asserts, the attitudes and policies that evolved then, particularly a bipolar worldview, which saw an ongoing conflict between totalitarianism and freedom, led inevitably to the cold war. Reynolds may neglect the reactive aspects of our foreign policy while overemphasizing the ideological elements. Still, his thesis is both interesting and credible, and it is bound to stimulate further debate. Jay Freeman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Ivan R. Dee (July 10, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1566633893
• ISBN-13: 978-1566633895
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,684,429 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An insightful look at how FDR edged us into World War II., March 31, 2003

By 

Kevin M Quigg (Gettysburg, Pennsylvania United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: From Munich to Pearl Harbor: Roosevelt's America and the Origins of the Second World War (American Ways Series) (Paperback)

For those people who thought Pearl Harbor brought us into the Second World War, Reynolds argues that FDR's actions were bringing us closer to an alliance with Churchill's Great Britain and Stalin's USSR. Pearl Harbor was the last action which convinced the American public that war was necessary. Before that, Reynolds argues that the isolationist mood in the U.S. was high and oppossed to more involvement in Europe. Roosevelt helped as much as possible through the destroyer deal and lend lease to help Great Britain and the USSR. If it hadn't been for Pearl Harbor, NAZI Germany may have overwhelmed the USSR and Great Britain. In this thesis, he also argues that signal intelligence was missed which resulted in Pearl Harbor, but there was no conspiracy.
Reynolds book is somewhat dry, but the details show how FDR worked to get us into the good war. He led the USA into public opinion about the reasons why the country should support the Soviet Union and Great Britain.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Resource Material, February 22, 2008

By 

D. Bisges "closet reader" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: From Munich to Pearl Harbor: Roosevelt's America and the Origins of the Second World War (American Ways Series) (Paperback)

I had to read this book as part of a foreign relations class I'm taking. It did a great job of presenting the historical context without getting too dull or bogged down with details. In addition, I really liked how well it portrayed FDR as a person, rather than just as a political figure. You get more insight into his personality, personal beliefs, and ideals with this book than with most other historical accounts I've come accross. If you're more interested in the social and political aspects of war than the details of battles and treaties, you'll probably really like this book.