"Based on years of archival research and interviews with the last surviving aides and Roosevelt family members, Nigel Hamilton offers a definitive account of FDR's masterful--and underappreciated--command of the Allied war effort. Hamilton takes readers inside FDR's White House Oval Study--his personal command center--and into the meetings where he battled with Churchill about strategy and tactics and overrode the near mutinies of his own generals and secretary of war. Time and again, FDR was proven right and his allies and generals were wrong. When the generals wanted to attack the Nazi-fortified coast of France, FDR knew the Allied forces weren't ready. When Churchill insisted his Far East colonies were loyal and would resist the Japanese, Roosevelt knew it was a fantasy. As Hamilton's account reaches its climax with the Torch landings in North Africa in late 1942, the tide of war turns in the Allies' favor and FDR's genius for psychology and military affairs is clear. This intimate, sweeping look at a great president in history's greatest conflict is must reading." -- Publisher's description.

Placentia Bay. Before the storm -- Pearl Harbor. The U.S. is attacked! ; Hitler's gamble -- Churchill in the White House. The victory plan ; Supreme command ; The President's Map Room -- Trouble with MacArthur. The fighting general -- End of an empire. Singapore ; The mockery of the world ; The battleground for civilization -- India. No hand on the wheel ; Lessons from the Pacific ; Churchill threatens to resign ; The worst case of jitters -- Midway. Doolittle's Raid ; The Battle of Midway -- Tobruk. Churchill's second coming ; The Fall of Tobruk ; No second Dunquerque ; Avoiding utter catastrophe -- Japan first. Citizen warriors ; A staggering crisis ; A rough day -- The mutiny. Stimson's bet ; A definite decision ; A failed mutiny -- Reaction in Moscow. Stalin's prayer -- An industrial miracle. A trip across America ; The President's loyal lieutenant -- The tragedy of Dieppe. A Canadian bloodbath -- The torch is lit. Something in West Africa ; Alamein ; First light ; The greatest sensation ; Armistice Day.