FDR's Ambassadors and the Diplomacy of Crisis: From the Rise of Hitler to the End of World War II
"David Mayers' FDR's Ambassadors and the Diplomacy of Crisis, marks an outstanding contribution to the scholarship on Franklin Roosevelt. Mayers provides critical new insight by focusing upon a cast of characters; the nation's wartime Ambassadors, whose relationship with the 32nd President was by nature episodic and distant." -J Simon Rofe, author of Franklin Roosevelt's Foreign Policy and Welles Mission"Despite the many shelves of books published on Franklin D. Roosevelt's diplomacy, no study has thus far examined FDR's ambassadors with the extensive research, discerning analysis, and global perspective displayed in David Mayers' significant new book. Readers will find incisive portraits and new evidence about the famous and the not so well-known diplomats who tried to carry out FDR's policies. Mayers demonstrates that while Roosevelt largely ignored the state department, he did pay attention to the reports sent by many of his ambassadors. This book is essential for understanding U.S. foreign relations in the era of Franklin Roosevelt." -Frank Costigliola, author of Roosevelt's Lost Alliances: How Personal Politics Helped Start the Cold War"Powerful presidents conceive foreign policies, but individuals working for empowered bureaucracies like the State Department often deflect and subtly shift the trajectories of those policies - particularly with FDR, whose long-term goals were consistent, but frequently ambiguously presented.  David Mayers' finely tuned, readable history explains how diplomats in the field understood and misunderstood what their bosses in Washington wanted them to do.  Mayers provides a fascinating context for the personal diplomacy that helped determine the end results." -Warren F. Kimball author of Forged in War: Churchill, Roosevelt and the Second World War"Highly recommended." -Choice'masterful study'-H-Diplo, J. Garry Clifford