The Allies: Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin, and the Unlikely Alliance That Won World War II

Military historian (The Generals) and fiction writer Groom (Forrest Gump) presents an accessible work about the "Big Three" of World War II: Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Joseph Stalin. According to the author, who cites well-regarded secondary sources throughout this readable history, it was the brutal international conflict that led to this triumvirate rather than the compatibility of their personalities. After recounting the early lives of the leaders, he offers a traditional overview of the Allies' strategies to victory. Stalin, without ever visiting a battlefront, assigned himself the rank of field marshal while common soldiers waged war. Groom argues that time has nuanced the motivations and actions of Roosevelt and Churchill as being more practical than idealistic, while substantiating Stalin's ruthlessness. All, however, shared a sense of their own indispensability, especially when detailing the events of the 1943 Tehran Conference and 1945 Yalta Conference.