About this ebook
“[Joseph Lash] has written an excellent account, full of shrewd personal and political insights and based on a real command of the sources and an ability to organize his material into a continuously interesting narrative. Much of the story is familiar, but Mr. Lash has added some telling new details from the archives at Hyde Park and in the British Public Record Office...” — The New York Times
“[A] rich account of a remarkable collaboration during the pre-Pearl Harbor years of WW II... Throughout Lash examines with candor and admiration how FDR manipulated Congress, the bureaucracy, and public opinion, working with Churchill on the phrasing and timing of steps toward American entry into the war.” — Kirkus
“Joseph Lash has once again demonstrated his gift for blending diligent historical research with the human drama of an extraordinary relationship. His chronicle of Roosevelt and Churchill is absorbing and exciting; it will also be an invaluable document for any future exploration of the struggle for democratic survival in this century.” — James A. Wechsler, Editorial Page Editor, New York Post
“A splendid work — incisive in its analysis, compelling in its narrative, sensitive in its judgments. It is quite worthy of its protagonists — and what more can one possibly say?” — Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.
“[A] perceptive, well organized and well-written exploration both of his two main characters and of a large supporting cast... The book is... a pleasure [...] to read.” — History
“The publication of Lash’s book is an important event in the historiography of World War II... Lash has accomplished an impressive historical synthesis.” — Reviews in American History
“There is much to praise in this volume, a book which undoubtedly will be widely read... Lash is a first-rate writer and researcher.” — Political Science Quarterly
“[A] fascinating book.” — The Virginia Quarterly Review
“The major strands of this story have long been familiar, but the author adds many revealing and colorful details... he writes superbly.” — Foreign Affairs
“This is a beautifully written book which captures the spirit of the two leaders and is well worth the time spent reading it. Lash offers some thoughtful insights into the personalities of both Churchill and Roosevelt as well as some perceptive comments on their relationship. His picture is clear; Roosevelt and Churchill, for all of their faults, were the great men which the times demanded.” — The American Historical Review
About the author
Joseph P. Lash (1909-1987) was a radical student leader, an Air Force weatherman, a journalist, and a biographer. He was the oldest of five children born to Jewish immigrants from Ukraine who ran a modest neighborhood grocery store and a kosher household on New York's Upper East Side. Small and scrawny, he managed to survive on the tough streets as a member of a gang which adopted him as their “Professor.” His father died in the 1918 Spanish Flu epidemic, and then 9-year-old Lash refused to drop out of school to run the store. He graduated from City College of New York in 1931, and from Columbia University with a Master's degree in philosophy and literature in 1932.
As America sank into Depression, Lash became a leader in the increasingly radical student protest movement, first as an officer of the Socialist youth organization Student League for International Democracy, and from 1936 to 1939 as executive secretary of the American Student Union, a coalition of radical youth groups. Subpoenaed to testify before the predecessor of the House Un-American Activities Committee, Lash and other leaders gathered were joined at New York’s Penn Station by First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt who rode to Washington with them and invited them to lunch at the White House. By the end of the visit she and Lash had formed a lifelong friendship.
From 1940 until 1942, Lash was general secretary of the International Student Service, a progressive student-aid group. He was later a founder, with Mrs. Roosevelt and others, of Americans for Democratic Action and served as an officer for two years. He was also active in liberal Democratic politics. Mr. Lash was drafted during World War II, serving as a sergeant and later second lieutenant in the United States Army Air Force in the Pacific as a weatherman.
In 1950, after two years working as an assistant to the Roosevelts’ son Elliott, Lash joined The New York Post, then known for its liberal editorial positions. He worked for a time as a general assignment reporter and became its United Nations correspondent, a position he held for 10 years. From 1960 until 1966, he was assistant editor of the editorial page.
After Eleanor Roosevelt died in 1962, Lash published Eleanor Roosevelt: A Friend’s Memoir and Franklin Roosevelt, Jr. invited him to write a biography with access to all of Mrs. Roosevelt’s papers. The result was Eleanor and Franklin, which won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award in 1972, and Eleanor, The Years Alone. Lash published six more books over the next sixteen years, including Roosevelt and Churchill, Helen and Teacher, and Dealers and Dreamers.
