The idealist : Wendell Willkie's wartime quest to build one world / Samuel Zipp.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Zipp, Samuel, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Willkie, Wendell L. (Wendell Lewis), 1892-1944.

Willkie, Wendell L.

Internationalism--History--20th century.

Internationalism.

Globalization--History--20th century.

Globalization.

Peaceful change (International relations)--History--20th century.

Peaceful change (International relations).

Track two diplomacy--United States--History--20th century.

Track two diplomacy.

History.

United States--Politics and government--1933-1945.

United States.

Politics and government.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

393 pages, 24 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, maps ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Massachusetts : The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2020.

Summary:

"In August of 1942, as fascism threatened to sweep the world, Wendell Willkie, a charismatic Republican businessman who had run for president two years earlier, boarded the Gulliver and set out with Roosevelt's blessing on a journey by air around the world. As he visited the battlefront in North Africa with General Montgomery, debated a frosty de Gaulle in Lebanon, met with wavering officials in Istanbul and Tehran, almost failed to deliver a letter from FDR to Stalin in Moscow, and was seduced by a shrewdly manipulative Chiang Kai-shek in China, Willkie was struck by the insistent demands for freedom sweeping the world. It was in these distant battlegrounds that he came to understand the true nature of the global war America had only recently joined. In One World, the runaway bestseller he published on his return, Willkie warned of the dangers of "narrow nationalism" and urged his fellow citizens to embrace "equality of opportunity for every race and every nation." Willkie's celebrity at the height of the age of broadcast news--he regularly drew over 30 million listeners--meant that he could take on America Firsters and reach Americans directly in their homes. His call for a more equitable and interconnected world had an electrifying impact on the nation, but his tragic death in 1944 silenced one of America's most effective globalists, a man FDR referred to as "Private Citizen Number One." At a time when "America First" has once again become a rallying cry, Willkie's message is at once chastening and inspiring"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Taking flight: Elwood, Puerto Rico, Paris

Power and the presidency: Akron, New York, Khartoum

Egypt Is saved: London, Cairo, Alexandria

A great social laboratory: Ankara

The imperial dilemma: Beirut and Jerusalem

How East and West will meet: Baghdad

First flight: Tehran

Working with Russia: Kuibyshev, Moscow, Rzhev

The China mystique: Lanzhou, Chongqing, Xi'an

A report to the people: Yakutsk, Washington, New York

One world barnstorming: America and the world

The narrows of 1944: Kansas City, Wisconsin, Rushville.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780674737518

0674737512

OCLC:

1111390371