In World War Two

In World War Two

Roosevelt and Churchill 1939-1941: The Partnership that Saved the West, by Joseph P. Lash. New York: W. W. Norton. 528 pp.

For some time, especially during the baleful years of the Vietnam War, there seemed to be little interest in, and less knowledge of, recent history. I remember an “alternate commencement” at the University of Chicago in 1968 where Noam Chomsky found a perfect analogy—America’s war against Japan in World War II and the Vietnam War.

Since there is both continuity and discontinuity in American policy, we’re fortunate to have Lash’s Roosevelt and Churchill, which presents a comprehensive record of events based on the major ingredient of the historian’s tradeâ...