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.

Globalization--History--20th century.

Globalization.

Internationalism--History--20th century.

Internationalism.

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

Peaceful change (International relations).

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

Track two diplomacy.

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

United States.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (393 pages, 24 unnumbered pages of plates) : illustrations, maps

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, MA : Harvard University Press, [2020]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

“The Idealist is a powerful book, gorgeously written and consistently insightful. Samuel Zipp uses the 1942 world tour of Wendell Willkie to examine American attitudes toward internationalism, decolonization, and race in the febrile atmosphere of the world’s first truly global conflict.” —Andrew Preston, author of Sword of the Spirit, Shield of Faith A dramatic account of the plane journey undertaken by businessman-turned-maverick-internationalist Wendell Willkie to rally US allies to the war effort. Willkie’s tour of a planet shrunk by aviation and war inspired him to challenge Americans to fight a rising tide of nationalism at home. In August 1942, as the threat of fascism swept the world, a charismatic Republican presidential contender boarded the Gulliver at Mitchel Airfield for a seven-week journey around the world. Wendell Willkie covered 31,000 miles as President Roosevelt’s unofficial envoy. He visited the battlefront in North Africa with General Montgomery, debated a frosty de Gaulle in Beirut, almost failed to deliver a letter to Stalin in Moscow, and allowed himself to be seduced by Chiang Kai-shek in China. Through it all, he was struck by the insistent demands for freedom across the world. In One World, the runaway bestseller he published on his return, Willkie challenged Americans to resist the “America first” doctrine espoused by the war’s domestic opponents and warned of the dangers of “narrow nationalism.” He urged his fellow citizens to end colonialism and embrace “equality of opportunity for every race and every nation.” With his radio broadcasts regularly drawing over 30 million listeners, he was able to reach Americans directly in their homes. His call for a more equitable and interconnected world electrified the nation, until he was silenced abruptly by a series of heart attacks in 1944. With his death, America lost its most effective globalist, the man FDR referred to as “Private Citizen Number One.” At a time when “America first” is again a rallying cry, Willkie’s message is at once chastening and inspiring, a reminder that “one world” is more than a matter of supply chains and economics, and that racism and nationalism have long been intertwined.

Contents:

Frontmatter

CONTENTS

Introduction

CHAPTER 1. Taking Flight

CHAPTER 2. Power and the Presidency

CHAPTER 3. Egypt Is Saved

CHAPTER 4. A Great Social Laboratory

CHAPTER 5. The Imperial Dilemma

CHAPTER 6. How East and West Will Meet

CHAPTER 7. First Flight

CHAPTER 8. Working with Russia

CHAPTER 9. The China Mystique

CHAPTER 10. A Report to the People

CHAPTER 11. One World Barnstorming

CHAPTER 12. The Narrows of 1944

Conclusion

Notes

Acknowledgments

Index

Notes:

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 26. Mai 2020)

ISBN:

9780674245860

0674245865

9780674245884

0674245881

OCLC:

1138524616