Uniting America
Channel: US National Archives
Date: 2022-12-07

Uniting America: How FDR and Henry Stimson Brought Democrats and Republicans Together to Win World War II


In Uniting America, author Peter Shinkle tells the story of a crucial bipartisan alliance in United States history. As Adolf Hitler’s Nazi armies threatened Europe, Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt urged a divided America to mobilize to defend democracy and freedom. On June 20, 1940, FDR shocked the country by announcing that two prominent Republicans would take posts in his cabinet. Henry Stimson, former President Herbert Hoover’s secretary of state, became secretary of war, and Frank Knox, the Republican vice-presidential candidate in 1936, became secretary of the navy. This alliance stands as a historic example of united leadership in a nation scarred by political division. Uniting America is the first book to paint a full portrait of this extraordinary collaboration, tracing it back to its origins in 1933. Author Peter Shinkle reveals the true extent of bipartisanship during the war.