Storm on the Horizon: The Challenge to American Intervention, 1939-1941 [Hardcover]

Justus D. Doenecke (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 074250784X | ISBN-13: 978-0742507845 | Publication Date: December 22, 2000 | Edition: 1St Edition

Between 1939-1941, from the time that Germany invaded Poland until Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, Americans engaged in a debate as intense as any in U.S. history. In Storm on the Horizon, prominent historian Justus D. Doenecke analyzes the personalities, leading action groups, and major congressional debates surrounding the decision to participate in World War II. Doenecke is the first scholar to place the anti-interventionist movement in a wider framework, by focusing on its underlying military, economic, and geopolitical assumptions. Doenecke addresses key questions such as: how did the anti-interventionists perceive the ideology, armed potential, and territorial aspirations of Germany, the British Empire, Japan, and the Soviet Union? To what degree did they envision Nazi Germany as a bulwark against the Soviet Union? What role would the U.S. play in a world increasingly composed of competing economic blocs and military alliances? Storm on the Horizon is certain to become the standard study of this tumultuous time and will require readers to reevaluate their understanding of the United States entry into World War II.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Storm on the Horizon is the most objective, comprehensive, and authoritative account of isolationism in the great debate before Pearl Harbor. In view of today's controversy about 'unilateralism,' there is all the more reason to take a fresh look at the unilateralists of 1939–1941. (Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. )

This exhaustive, penetrating study should demonstrate once and for all that FDR's foreign policy opponents prior to Pearl Harbor were not simply 'illustrious dunderheads' or ostriches blind to international dangers. As prophetic critics of both the imperial presidency and unrestrained globalism, Doenecke's noninterventionists may have lost the 'great debate' over U.S. entry into World War II, but they still speak to subsequent generations as alternative voices from a usable American past. (J. Garry Clifford )

Professor Doenecke's new book, Storm on the Horizon, is by far the most inclusive work on pre-war isolationism ever written. Meticulously researched, easily read, and most informative, it is bound to become the standard study of this subject. (Hans L. Trefousse )

As Storm on the Horizon amply demonstrates, Justus Doenecke knows more about the so-called isolationists of the pre-World War II era than any other living historian. This comprehensive and even-handed book on opposition to American intervention should remain the standard account for generations. (Leo P. Ribuffo )

Eloquently argued and exhaustively documented, Storm on the Horizon traces the principles and practices of the non-interventionists from 1939 to the Pearl Harbor attack. While war ended their opposition, Justus Doenecke, as no scholar before him, demonstrates the logic and resolve of their lost crusade. (Irwin F. Gellman )

In this extraordinarily well-researched and comprehensive study, Professor Justus Doenecke examines the intellectual underpinnings of the American anti-interventionist movement of 1939–1941. Although much has been written about the bitter isolationist/interventionist controversy before America's entry into World War II, no one has ever systematically analyzed the anti-interventionists' mindset, motivating ideology, and prejudices. . . . Justus Doenecke fills this gap. (Nash, George H. )

Doenecke, a respected historian of the U.S. tradition of isolationism, provides an exhaustive record of the most important episode in that tradition--1939-1941. This important work should spur fresh and much needed debate over that entry into war and the larger anti-interventionist tradition in recent American history. (LaFeber, Walter )

Justus Doenecke's study of ideological dimensions of anti-interventionist opposition to American entry into World War II is exhaustively researched, broadly conceived, clearly organized, well-written, and balanced in its analyses. It is a superb scholarly accomplishment. (Wayne S. Cole )

Like Doenecke's previous books, this work demonstrates solid scholarship. (Library Journal )

Thanks to Doenecke's meticulous research, Storm on the Horizon is likely to become the standard work on the noninterventionist movement of 1939–1941. More importantly, it is to be hoped that it will reopen scholarly discussion about a vein of American opinion that has been too quickly dismissed. (John Moser H-Diplo Reviews )

This book should be read by serious students of U.S. political and diplomatic history of the 1930s and '40s. Recommended for graduate students, faculty, and all research libraries. (Choice Magazine )

A compelling and informative history of how America became entangled in Europe's political and military struggles prior to the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor. Doenecke combines painstaking and meticulous historical research with perceptive insights and an ability to engage the reader's total attention. Storm on the Horizon is particularly recommended reading for students of 20th Century American history, World War II, and the role of the Roosevelt administration in dealing with American isolationist sentiments. (The Bookwatch )

Storm on the Horizon is marked by Doenecke's unsurpassed familiarity with the relevant archives and by his rare and refreshing objectivity. . . . Also indicative of the richness of the book are the frequent fascinating tidbits Doenecke serves up. . . . Storm On the Horizon is a work of outstanding scholarship. Sudents of the greatest anitwar movement in American history, revisionists and nonrevisionists alike, are permanently in Justus Doenecke's debt. (Ralph Raico The Independent Review )

Storm on the Horizon shows extraordinarily wide and deep research. (Intelligence And National Security )

The book is thoroughly researched, exhaustively documented, and even-handed in its approach. (The Journal Of American History )

A treasure of source material. (John D. Chappell American Historical Review )

A raconteur of non-interventionist lore, Doenecke unearths a staggering number of sources, and sufficient biographies, stories, and vignettes to make one wonder if he ever sleeps. Doenecke's major contribution is placing the debate on U.S. intervention within an unfolding, day-by-day context. (Geoffrey S. Smith International History Review )

For years, Justus Doenecke has challenged negative conclusions about the anti-interventionists. Storm on the Horizon is his latest and most comprehensive work on these individuals. It is also his most impressive such effort, the first major and full study of the anti-interventionists since Wayne Cole's 1983 Roosevelt and the Isolationists, and a worthy recipient of the Herbert Hoover Book Award of the Hoover Presidential Library Association for 2000. (Mark A. Stoler Diplomatic History )

About the Author

Justus D. Doenecke is professor of history at the New College of University of South Florida.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 551 pages
• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers; 1St Edition edition (December 22, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 074250784X
• ISBN-13: 978-0742507845
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,591,512 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Vital history of a much maligned group of people, April 29, 2002

By 

Andrew S. Rogers (Stamford, Connecticut) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Storm on the Horizon: The Challenge to American Intervention, 1939-1941 (Hardcover)

These days, 'isolationist' is one of the A-bombs of political invective. Along with 'anti-Semite' and one or two other smear words, to label someone an 'isolationist' is to paint him in colors that will never entirely wash away. To be an 'isolationist,' an 'America-Firster,' is to be xenophobic, head-in-the-sand, economically illiterate, and politically a reactionary mossback, a shirker of America's undoubted responsibilities to the rest of the world, and probably a crypto- (or not so crypto-) fascist.

That many on the Right as well as the Left unquestioningly use the term in just this way reflects not only on the sorry state, and narrow limits, of 'acceptable' political debate, but also the way American history has been cheapened and distorted for political purposes. That's what makes Justus Doenecke's impressive history all the more important.

With intricate and painstaking documentation, Doenecke shatters the latter-day myth of who the 'isolationists' (Doenecke prefers the less loaded term 'anti-interventionists') were, and what they stood for. As the clock ticks down to Pearl Harbor, we see the incredible diversity of the anti-interventionist bloc, who agreed on keeping America out of the war, but on little else. Learned and articulate people from every part of the political spectrum opposed intervention. Some anti-interventionists were outright pacifists who opposed any military spending, while others were '100% for arming to the teeth for defense of this country' (as the New York Daily News described Thomas E. Dewey, quoted on page 158). Some denied National Socialist Germany posed any threat to America, while others feared an invasion, via South America or Canada, was imminent. Many were strongly anti-Nazi, while others seemed to believe the longer-term threat to peace came from Imperial Britain. Some wholeheartedly supported the 'bases for destroyers' deal with the UK, but others vehemently opposed it. Some few were indeed anti-Semitic, but most were not, and a few opposed aid to Poland in 1939 explicitly because of Poland's own history of anti-Semitism. And so on.

After Pearl Harbor, anti-interventionists remained divided -- on FDR's degree of culpability, for example. But they were virtually unanimous in calling for an immediate declaration of war against Japan. The time for anti-interventionism had ended, and the America First Committee dissolved itself within days (declaring, as it did, that 'Our principles were right. Had they been followed, war could have been avoided.').

In short, the one-dimensional caricature of 'isolationists' we're treated to today has little basis in reality.

Doenecke's research is truly impressive. When I first opened this book, I was surprised at how small the type was. But then I realized that literally the final third or so of the text is all endnotes, references, and bibliography, and that was what I had opened to. The author of several histories of anti-interventionism before and after the Second World War, Doenecke's familiarity with the relevant sources is unsurpassed.

But Doenecke's not just a skilled researcher. He's also a fine writer. His narrative is fast-paced and engrossing. Most usefully, while he's recounting the on-the-one-hand/on-the-other-hand positions the anti-interventionists took, he doesn't comment on which position turned out to be historically 'right.' Only in the excellent Conclusion does he weigh the merits of the different arguments, and the anti-interventionist position generally.

As with any group of diverse and opinionated humans, there's good and bad, right and wrong, in what the anti-interventionists said, and what they stood for. It's hard to dispute, though, that there's much we can learn from the principled stand these men and women took. As Doenecke notes, for example, they had a healthy skepticism of Presidential power, were keenly aware of geopolitical reality (including the threat posed by the Soviet Union), power politics, and of how engagement in wars abroad inevitably swells the size and power of the State at home.

In these days of a new war, when some commentators explicitly call for America to embrace its alleged role as Global Empire, this book is exceptionally important reading. As important as grasping 'Why We Fight' is an understanding of why, sixty-plus years ago, so many people tried so hard to keep America from having to do so.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Meticulous historical research and perceptive insights, June 6, 2001

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Storm on the Horizon: The Challenge to American Intervention, 1939-1941 (Hardcover)

In Storm On The Horizon: The Challenge To American Intervention 1939-1941 is a compelling and informative history of how America became entangled in Europe's political and military struggles prior to the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor which resulted in a formal declaration of war and overt participation as a combatant. Justus Doenecke (Professor of History at new College of the University of South Florida, Sarasota) combines painstaking and meticulous historical research with perceptive insights and an ability to engage the reader's total attention. Storm On The Horizon is particularly recommended reading for students of 20th Century American history, World War II, and the role of the Roosevelt administration in dealing with American isolationist sentiments.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Surveying the confusion., February 16, 2003

By 

Larry Jewell (West Lafayette, IN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Storm on the Horizon: The Challenge to American Intervention, 1939-1941 (Hardcover)

This book is useful on two levels. Firstly, the reader has a chance to survey the confused and disjoined efforts of anti-interventionists in their struggle to stop US invovlement in WWII, an effort doomed to failure because the US wasn't the only party to that decision.

Secondly, the bibliography the author provides is a valuable update to his 1987 work, "Anti-Intevention: A Bibliographical Introduction to Isolationism and Pacifism from World War I to the Early Cold War."

An honest heir to Wayne Cole, Mr. Doenecke is the leading (almost the only) writer on isolationism and anti-inteventionism working today. If you haven't read this book you're not up-to-date on the debate.

Larry W. Jewell
Gradute student,
History Dept.
Purdue University