| Welcome to Bill's Book Club! Each month, Bill selects a book that he's
been reading and passes it on to you. See what others have to say about the
book, and then let everyone know what you think! |
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 Franklin and Winston: An Intimate Portrait of an Epic Friendship
by Jon Meacham
FROM THE PUBLISHER:
"Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill were the greatest leaders of "the Greatest Generation." In "Franklin and Winston," Jon Meacham explores the fascinating relationship between the two men who piloted the free world to victory in World War II.
It was a crucial friendship, and a unique one - a president and a prime minister spending enormous amounts of time together (113 days during the war) and exchanging nearly two thousand messages.
Amid cocktails, cigarettes, and cigars, they met, often secretly, in places as far-flung as Washington, Hyde Park, Casablanca, and Teheran, talking to each other of war, politics, the burden of command, their health, their wives, and their children." |
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Visit the Book Club Library to read about past book choices.
Questions for discussion on Bill's Book Club Message Boards:
1. What did you most enjoy about the book?
2. Should this book be included on high school reading lists for American history?
3. Do you see parallels between the FDR-Churchill friendship and the current friendship between President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair?
4. How might history have been different if FDR and Churchill did not have such a close personal friendship?
5. Both leaders were underestimated and faced skeptics in their own nations - yet both met central challenges of the twentieth century. Do you see any parallels between FDR and Churchill's situations, and that of President George W. Bush? Or is this comparison strained?
6. Who do you believe was the better leader - FDR or Churchill?
7. Compare FDR's response after the Pearl Harbor attacks - the immediate declaration of war in the "day of infamy" speech - with President Bush's response after the 9/11 attacks (Bush has NOT asked Congress for a formal declaration of War on Terror). Which approach do you feel is better - and why?
8. Churchill attempted (initially, in vain) to convince diplomatic appeasers - like Chamberlain - to recognize the expansionist aims of Adolf Hitler and Germany. Do you see parallels with the current debate in the U.S. between those that favor pre-emptive military action (the G.W. Bush Doctrine) to take the fight to the terrorists ... and those who favor diplomatic, international and "multi-lateral" solutions to the challenges of global terrorism?
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