David McKean

FDR, His Ambassadors, and the Rise of Adolph Hitler

Watching Darkness Fall

Looks at the life and political career of Thomas G. Corcoran, a man who began lobbying during FDR's tenure and helped shape policy during every subsequent administration up the Reagan presidency.

Washington's Ultimate Insider from Roosevelt to Reagan

Tommy the Cork

A gripping and groundbreaking account of how all but one of FDR's ambassadors in Europe misjudged Hitler and his intentions As German tanks rolled toward Paris in late May 1940, the U.S. Ambassador to France, William Bullitt, was determined to stay put, holed up in the Chateau St. Firmin in Chantilly, his country residence. Bullitt told the president that he would neither evacuate the embassy nor his chateau, an eighteenth Renaissance manse with a wine cellar of over 18,000 bottles, even though “we have only two revolvers in this entire mission with only forty bullets.” As German forces closed in on the French capital, Bullitt wrote the president, “In case I should get blown up before I see you again, I want you to know that it has been marvelous to work for you.” As the fighting raged in France, across the English Channel, Ambassador to Great Britain Joseph P. Kennedy wrote to his wife Rose, “The situation is more than critical. It means a terrible finish for the allies.” David McKean's Watching Darkness Fall will recount the rise of the Third Reich in Germany and the road to war from the perspective of four American diplomats in Europe who witnessed it firsthand: Joseph Kennedy, William Dodd, Breckinridge Long, and William Bullitt, who all served in key Western European capitals—London, Berlin, Rome, Paris, and Moscow—in the years prior to World War II. In many ways they were America’s first line of defense and they often communicated with the president directly, as Roosevelt's eyes and ears on the ground. Unfortunately, most of them underestimated the power and resolve of Adolf Hitler and Germany’s Third Reich. Watching Darkness Fall is a gripping new history of the years leading up to and the beginning of WWII in Europe told through the lives of five well-educated and mostly wealthy men all vying for the attention of the man in the Oval Office.

FDR, His Ambassadors, and the Rise of Adolf Hitler

Bart M. Szewczyk

Fostering a transatlantic renaissance to salvage the Western alliance Is the Western alliance, which brought together the United States and Europe after World War II, in an inevitable state of decline, and if so, can anything be done to repair it? There seems little doubt that fragmentation of the Western alliance was under way even before Donald Trump’s unorthodox policymaking broadened the schism. Opinions differ as to the next step, however, with some taking the current divisions as a given and advocating the creation of a new group of like-minded democracies that would exclude the United States, while others seek to exploit the rift in hopes of furthering their own nationalistic ambitions for a postliberal world. The authors outline a “transatlantic renaissance,” in which U.S. and European leaders would work together to craft a new Atlantic Charter that would restore the liberal objectives that animated the Western alliance for more than seven decades. Modernizing institutional relationships across the Atlantic should help both the United States and Europe address common challenges jointly and improve burdensharing. The world needs a vibrant and energetic West to protect fundamental values from illiberal forces, both internal and external.

America, Europe, and the Future of the West

Partners of First Resort

Neil Gaiman

A plant/human hybrid superhero called Black Orchid goes on a spiritual journey in the wake of her death, during which she reviews her life, investigates her origins, and is given the opportunity to avenge herself.

David McKean

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