The Conquerors Roosevelt, Truman and the Destruction of Hitler's Germany, 1941-1945

ANew York Timesbestseller,The Conquerorsreveals how Franklin Roosevelt's and Harry Truman's private struggles with their aides and Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin affected the unfolding of the Holocaust and the fate of vanquished Nazi Germany.With monumental fairness and balance,The Conquerorsshows how Roosevelt privately refused desperate pleas to speak out directly against the Holocaust, to save Jewish refugees and to explore the possible bombing of Auschwitz to stop the killing. The book also shows FDR's fierce will to ensure that Germany would never threaten the world again. Near the end of World War II, he abruptly endorsed the secret plan of his friend, Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau, to reduce the Germans to a primitive existence -- despite Churchill's fear that crushing postwar Germany would let the Soviets conquer the continent. The book finally shows how, after FDR's death, President Truman rebelled against Roosevelt's tough approach and adopted the Marshall Plan and other more conciliatory policies that culminated in today's democratic, united Europe.

Michael Beschloss has been called "the nation's leading Presidential historian" by Newsweek. The author of six previous books on American Presidents, he is a frequent lecturer and regular commentator on ABC News and PBS's The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. He lives with his wife and their two sons in Washington, D.C.