Beverly Gage in The New Yorker: ‘A Pulitzer finalist and a professor at the University of Virginia, [William I.] Hitchcock has written several books about the Second World War, each with an emphasis on the European theatre. This time, he wants to explain why U.S. policymakers, especially F.D.R., failed to act or even to fully comprehend what was happening until it was almost too late.’

And: ‘To many Americans, early Fascism sounded less like a foreign menace than like a familiar form of anti-Communist politics.’

As well: ‘One question Hitchcock poses is why Roosevelt did not act sooner to confront the threat of Fascism or try to protect that “great and precious form of government” in places such as Spain, Austria, and France. (…) If Roosevelt really believed what he said, why did he wait so long to act on it?’

Realpolitik, my friend. The need for majorities.

(a sf 2258)