Franklin and Winston

Reviews

“Colorful anecdotes . . . populate virtually every page of Franklin and Winston, Jon Meacham’s beautifully written and superbly researched dual biography. . . . Though the basic story line of Franklin and Winston is familiar, this is not recycled history. Meacham, in fact, conducted original interviews with the few living staffers who saw both leaders in action and unearthed fascinating revelations from the papers of Churchill’s wartime daughter-in-law and later grande dame of the Democratic Leadership Council, Pamela Churchill Harriman. He also draws sprightly vignettes of the 113 days Roosevelt and Churchill spent together swapping strategies over cocktails and cigars.”—Los Angeles Times Book Review

“Meacham’s engaging account argues that personal bonds between leaders are crucial to international politics.”—The New Yorker

“[Meacham] uses several previously unavailable sources, including the World War II papers of Pamela Churchill Harriman, then married to Churchill’s son, Randolph, and he interviewed a number of those still living who spent time in the two men’s company. Written with grace and conviction, his portrait of this epic friendship focuses on the elements of character and fortitude that bonded these two leaders together, and ‘proves it does matter who is in power at critical points.’” —The New York Times Book Review

“Jon Meacham paints a powerful portrait of the enormous friendship between World War II allies Roosevelt and Churchill.”—Vanity Fair

“A masterful portrayal of what was often a deeply (and, I think, necessarily) imperfect friendship. . . . Meacham does a marvelous job showing how the Churchill-Roosevelt relationship developed.”—The New York Sun

“[Meacham] seems the likely successor to David McCullough. . . . He has produced one of the finest historical books of modern times. Like McCullough, he knows how to make history come alive.”—Deseret Morning News (Salt Lake City)

“This is at once an important, insightful, and highly entertaining portrait of two men at the peak of their powers who, through their genius, common will, and uncommon friendship, saved the world. Jon Meacham’s Franklin and Winston takes its place in the front ranks of all that has been written about these two great men.”—Tom Brokaw, author of The Greatest Generation

“Franklin and Winston is a sensitive, perceptive, and absorbing portrait of the friendship that saved the democratic world in the greatest war in history.”—Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., author of The Age of Roosevelt

“Jon Meacham has done groundbreaking work by focusing on the World War II alliance between Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill as a friendship. Using important new sources, he has brought us a shrewd, original, sensitive, and fascinating look at the many-layered relationship between these two towering human beings, as well as their friends, families, aides, and allies. The book reveals the emotional undercurrents that linked FDR and Churchill—and sometimes estranged them—and teases out which of the ties between them were heartfelt and which were based on raw mutual political need. Meacham triumphantly shows how lucky we are that Roosevelt and Churchill were in power together during some of the most threatening moments of the twentieth century.”—Michael Beschloss, author of The Conquerors: Roosevelt, Truman and the Destruction of Hitler’s Germany, 1941–1945

“The relationship between FDR and Churchill was the most important political friendship of the twentieth century, not only determining the outcome of World War II but also setting a pattern that has endured ever since. Jon Meacham brings it to vivid life, shedding new insights into its strange and poignant complexity, and why its legacy has helped shape the modern world.”—Richard Holbrooke, author of To End a War Expand reviews