Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty; general readers.

Choice

Sewall Menzel elucidates President Roosevelt's policy of preemption of a Nazi atomic weapons capability. Washington's absolute determination to achieve this end led to the Pearl Harbor attack by Japan. The policy's cost was probably higher than it should have been; Washington's studies and deliberate loyalty to the President were the cause. Nevertheless, this book is critical to understanding America's entry into World War II.

Tobias R. Philbin, Independent Scholar, USA

Outstanding work with elaborate detail! Extremely well-sourced investigation of President Roosevelt's baiting strategy to bring America into a direct confrontation with Adolf Hitler. Those interested in the study of World War II shouldn't miss reading this amazing piece of historical analysis.

Alejandro Alvarado Bremer, Associate Professor of Journalism, Florida International University, USA

Professor Sewall Menzel tells the little-known back story of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, which propelled a reluctant America into a war with Imperial Japan and Nazi Germany. In September 1939, Albert Einstein warned President Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) that Hitler's Nazi scientists were hard at work on developing an atomic bomb. This crucial information compelled FDR to launch the top-secret Manhattan Project to develop an American atomic bomb first. He also realized that it was imperative to mobilize America to enter the war against Germany, and their Japanese ally, and so he devised a strategy to provoke the Japanese to attack Pearl Harbor. This well-written and thoroughly researched book constitutes an important contribution to an understanding of World War II, and to foreign policy decision-making.

Edward W. Schwerin, Professor of Political Science, Florida Atlantic University, USA