Then and Now

I thought I knew a lot about World War Two until earlier this week. But then I started reading “Hitler’s American Gamble: Pearl Harbor and Germany’s March to Global War,” by Brendan Simms and Charlie Laderman.

This book concentrates on the five days from December 7-11, 1941, covering the time from Japan’s surprise attack on the U.S. fleet at Hawaii until Adolf Hitler’s declaration of war on the U.S.

The authors use the voluminous official papers, letters and other evidence generated by the key actors (FDR, Churchill, Mussolini, de Gaulle, Stalin, Hitler, and many more) to provide a gripping minute-by-minute global narrative of that crucial time period in world history.

They also enrich that narrative immeasurably by including diary entries from ordinary people caught up in the tragedy on all sides.

What emerges in a most vivid fashion is how deeply divided U.S. society was about whether to get into the war as Hitler’s Nazis were ravaging Europe and beyond. (By contrast, hitting back against Japan was an easily achieved bipartisan consensus.) The book also documents how anti-Semitism pervaded the isolationist wings of both political parties, including pro-Nazi sentiments, fascist sympathies and authoritarian impulses.

Does any of that sound vaguely familiar?

Although it was not my intent when I started the book to find something that could help explain America’s current political dilemmas, that indeed is what happened. That the book also is a real page-turner was a major bonus.

Having finished it now, I’m reminded that to better comprehend the present moment, it’s always best to look more carefully at our past.

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