Citizens of London: The Americans Who Stood with Britain in Its Darkest, Finest Hour by Lynne OlsonMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
John Gilbert "Gil" Winant, former Governor of New Hampshire, served as US Ambassador to the United Kingdom during most of World War II. Depressed by career disappointments, a failed marriage, and heavy debts, he committed suicide in 1947. That summary of a dedicated public servant is expanded to a life examined in Olson's book which also shines a light on W. Averell Harriman, son of railroad baron E. H. Harriman and President Franklin D. Roosevelt's special envoy to Europe and U.S. Ambassador to Britain. For Winant, shoulder-to-shoulder during air raids in the streets with Brits, WWII was an opportunity to show America at its best when America was largely absent. Wealthy playboy businessman Averell found the position all about him, leading to aggrandizement and career advancement. Churchill and FDR get examined, too, but also is Edward R. Murrow, the American broadcast journalist who first came to prominence with a series of radio broadcasts for CBS during World War II, which were followed by millions of listeners in the United States. Murrow flew in bombers, mixed with the British and with on April 12, 1945 with Bill Shadel was a first reporter at the Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany. He met emaciated survivors including Petr Zenkl, dying acquaintances, and "bodies stacked up like cordwood" in the crematorium. This is a different look at WWII more focused on British-American relations through the eyes of these principals than on battles and generals. This highlights the immense distance, not just in miles, that separated the UK and USA at the start of the War and even through the Battle of Britain, unprepared both nations were for war, and how eventual success required cooperation between the not only those two but the Allies of World War II, called the United Nations.
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