Imagine you could eavesdrop on a dinner party with three of the
most fascinating historical figures of all time. In this landmark book,
a gifted Harvard historian puts you in the room with Churchill, Stalin,
and Roosevelt as they meet at a climactic turning point in the war to
hash out the terms of the peace.
The ink wasn't dry when the
recriminations began. The conservatives who hated Roosevelt's New Deal
accused him of selling out. Was he too sick? Did he give too much in
exchange for Stalin's promise to join the war against Japan? Could he
have done better in Eastern Europe? Both Left and Right would blame
Yalta for beginning the Cold War.
Plokhy's conclusions, based
on unprecedented archival research, are surprising. He goes against
conventional wisdom—cemented during the Cold War—and argues that an
ailing Roosevelt did better than we think. Much has been made of FDR's
handling of the Depression; here we see him as wartime chief. Yalta
is authoritative, original, vividly–written narrative history.