Cautious Crusade Franklin D. Roosevelt, American Public Opinion, and the War against Nazi Germany

by Casey, Steven

• ISBN13: 9780195139600
• ISBN10: 0195139607
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-11-15
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

America's struggle against Nazism is one of the few aspects of World War II that has escaped controversy. Historians agree that it was a widely popular war, different from the subsequent conflicts in Korea and Vietnam because of the absence of partisan sniping, ebbing morale, or calls for a negotiated peace. In this provocative book, Steven Casey challenges conventional wisdom about America's participation in World War II. Drawing on the numerous opinion polls and surveys conducted by the U.S. government, he traces the development of elite and mass attitudes toward Germany, from the early days of the war up to its conclusion. Casey persuasively argues that the president and the public rarely saw eye to eye on the nature of the enemy, the threat it posed, or the best methods for countering it. He describes the extensive propaganda campaign that Roosevelt designed to build support for the war effort, and shows that Roosevelt had to take public opinion into account when formulating a host of policies, from the Allied bombing campaign to the Morgenthau plan to pastoralize the Third Reich. By examining the previously unrecognized relationship between public opinion and policy making during World War II, Casey's groundbreaking book sheds new light on a crucial era in American history.

Author Biography

Steven Casey is Lecturer in International History at the London School of Economics.

Table of Contents

Abbreviations	xi
Cast of Characters	xiii
Introduction: Franklin D. Roosevelt, American Public Opinion, and Foreign Policy	xvii
The Setting: FDR, American Public Opinion, and Nazi Germany before Pearl Harbor	3	(43)
America's Phony War: December 1941 to November 1942	46	(34)
Planning Germany's Defeat: December 1941 to November 1943	80	(29)
The Politics of Unconditional Surrender: November 1942 to June 1944	109	(21)
Hardening Thoughts, Unchanging Rhetoric: March 1943 to June 1944	130	(32)
Planning Germany's Future: June 1944 to April 1945	162	(49)
Conclusion and Aftermath: April 1945-December 1947	211	(16)
Notes	227	(44)
Bibliography	271	(24)
Index	295