19 Weeks

The whirl of events during the spring and summer of 1940 is boggling to contemplate: the astonishing collapse of France, the evacuation of Dunkirk, secret moves for peace, the Battle of Britain, air raids on London, the battle over isolationism in America. While Britain steeled itself for a German invasion, America argued over how to respond to the gathering storm in Europe. In December 1941, Germany and Japan would declare war on the United States, forcing the nation to join the Allied cause. But it was the extraordinary decisions made between May and September of 1940 that signaled America's willingness to emerge from its entrenched isolationism. Those nineteen weeks were, Moss shows, the crucible in which America's interventionist role in the world was forged and which ensured the decline and eventual disappearance of the British Empire. Roosevelt's battle for the hearts and minds of Americans was to have far-reaching consequences that still color the way we live today. Nineteen Weeks recounts the epic tale of these two nations, each confronting the great crush of history. Moss examines this period from the viewpoints of the leaders and policymakers, but also through the intimate experiences of ordinary citizens. A moving, prescient examination of two countries struggling with war, Nineteen Weeks opens important questions about the decline of the British Empire and the rise of America's dominant role in global politics.