Forged in War: Churchill, Roosevelt and the Second World War - Hardcover

"My dear Churchill, It is because you and I occupied similar positions in the World War that I want you to know how glad I am that you are back again in the Admiralty..." wrote Franklin D. Roosevelt to Winston Churchill in September 1939, opening what would become one of modern history's most significant partnerships. Though only five and a half years long, it was to be the most crucial wartime alliance of the twentieth century.

In this authoritative and entertaining book, Warren Kimball draws extensively on his intimate knowledge of Churchill and Roosevelt's correspondence (nearly 2,000 letters, memoranda and messages which Kimball edited in three definitive volumes) to paint an unforgettable portrait of their partnership. It shows beyond all doubt both how critical their combined leadership was to the eventual Allied victory and how it laid the groundwork for the peace that followed – a peace in which both, for very different reasons, would be denied a role.

Kimball argues that Churchill and Roosevelt's alliance was partly a matter of common purpose, and partly derived from their shared historical experience, their common belief in representative democracy, civic duty, the rights and freedoms of individuals. He shows how their real mutual friendship and respect prevented the Anglo-American alliance from becoming a mere utilitarian coalition and how it held firm no matter how threatened by mistakes of judgement, disagreements about the way forward or about how the post-war world should look.

It is, however, the public roles of Churchill and Roosevelt, as much as their private lives, for which they are remembered. This book is also therefore an account of the crucial events of the Second World War, a history of the diplomacy, politics and strategy that lay behind the Allied war effort and an examination of the impact and limitations of effective leadership.

Warren Kimball is Robert Treat Professor of History at Rutgers University. He edited the acclaimed three-volume collection 'Churchill and Roosevelt: The Complete Correspondence' and is the author of numerous books including 'The Juggler: Franklin Roosevelt as Wartime Statesman'. He is a visiting Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.
He lives in Somerset, New Jersey.

"It was a fateful friendship, destined to save Western Civilisation. It was as if they had been made by the gods for exactly that purpose. Their partnership was marked by high aspirations and low skulduggery, total commitment and petty manipulations. There is a richness to their story unmatched in history. Warren Kimball catches it all in this magnificent new analysis. His book is a marvellous guide through the maze of World War II diplomacy, politics and strategy and I recommend it without reservation or hesitation."
STEPHEN E. AMBROSE

"Warren Kimball has studied the Churchill-Roosevelt relationship more carefully than anyone else; and his splendid new book gives a compelling account, as penetrating as it is lively, of the partnership that saved the world."
ARTHUR M. SCHLESINGER, Jr.