1941

Fighting the Shadow War: How Britain and America came together for Victory

By Marc Wortman
Published by Atlantic Books
RRP $39.99 in hardback
ISBN 9781786491152

Reviewed by guest reviewer Kylie Leonard

Long before the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941, the United States of America was already at war.

Through the astute and possibly constitutionally questionable leadership of President Roosevelt the USA waged a clandestine war against Nazi sympathisers, German and Japanese spies on home soil and in South America.

FDR was forced to be creative with his assistance to the Allied forces to avoid breaking the Neutrality Acts while contending with growing isolationism and anti-Semitism.

“Unsure which way to turn, a divided America stumbled, argued, and fought, while searching for its place in a world at war.”

With the appalling loss of life and huge monetary cost experienced during the Great War many in the American power structure were vehemently opposed to involving the USA in another global conflict. Others, however, saw supporting England and her allies as the only way to stop Hitler’s advance towards the US.

In 1941: Fighting the Shadow War Marc Wortman investigates the period from the start of World War 2 to the bombing of Pearl Harbour.

This is a highly entertaining and very readable book, which weaves the stories of ordinary people with the machinations of those in power. – Kylie Leonard