Book description
Millions looking back on the afternoon of the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt can still feel a subtle chill, a shadow of their initial disbelief. Bernard Asbell travelled thousands of miles and undertook hundreds of interviews to discover not only what happened on that fateful day, but why what happened was, for so many people, so personal an event.
He recreates the moment, when, on the second floor of the White House, Mrs Roosevelt receives the news; a tiny room at the Capitol when Harry Truman is summoned to accept the most awesome responsibility of his life; the newsrooms when the electrifying message is transmitted to the world; and the moment when Churchill, General Eisenhower, Goebbels, and the Japanese Premier hear the shocking news.
Those who loved F. D. R. will find in these pages a poignant reminder of their own anguish at the time of his death; those who opposed him will see him here, not as a pragmatist and politician, but as a warm and courageous human being.
