Storm on the Horizon: The Challenge to American Intervention, 1939-1941

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Rowman & Littlefield, 2003 - 551 pages
Between 1939-1941, from the time that Germany invaded Poland until Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, Americans engaged in a debate as intense as any in U.S. history. In Storm on the Horizon, prominent historian Justus D. Doenecke analyzes the personalities, leading action groups, and major congressional debates surrounding the decision to participate in World War II. Doenecke is the first scholar to place the anti-interventionist movement in a wider framework, by focusing on its underlying military, economic, and geopolitical assumptions. Doenecke addresses key questions such as: how did the anti-interventionists perceive the ideology, armed potential, and territorial aspirations of Germany, the British Empire, Japan, and the Soviet Union? To what degree did they envision Nazi Germany as a bulwark against the Soviet Union? What role would the U.S. play in a world increasingly composed of competing economic blocs and military alliances? Storm on the Horizon is certain to become the standard study of this tumultuous time and will require readers to reevaluate their understanding of the United States entry into World War II.

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Contents

The Many Mansions of Antiinterventionism
1
War Phony and Real
9
Early Hopes for Peace
21
A Matter of War Aims
29
American Goals An Object of Suspicion
42
Initial Engagements
59
The Fall of Western Europe
83
Protecting the Republic
100
The British Empire A Dubious Cause
201
The Soviets A Greater Enemy
210
A Pivotal Summer
226
Projections of Conflict
239
Waging Undeclared War
251
The Domestic Front
268
The Asian Cauldron
283
Toward the Pacific War
302

Military Defense of the Hemisphere
119
Economic Survival in the Americas
139
War Peace and Elections
150
LendLease and the Futile War
165
A Troubled Spring
177
Great Britain An Unfit Ally
187
Conclusion
321
Notes
327
Bibliography
499
Index
525
About the Author
549
Copyright

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About the author (2003)

Justus D. Doenecke is professor of history at the New College of University of South Florida.

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