Five Days in Philadelphia: Wendell Wilkie, Franklin Roosevelt and the 1940 Convention That Saved the Western World - Tapa blanda

This is the rousing, fascinating story of the rowdy political convention that produced the unlikeliest of candidates and thereby had the unanticipated result of saving the world from fascism. When the Republican Party met in June 1940 in Philadelphia, to nominate its presidential candidate there were four strong contenders: the crusading young attorney and rising Republican star Tom Dewey, solid members of the Republican establishment Robert Taft and Arthur Vandenberg, and dark horse Wendell Willkie, utilities executive, favourite of the literati and only very recently even a Republican. The leading Republican candidates campaigned as isolationists. The charismatic Willkie, newcomer and up-stager, was a liberal interventionist, just as anti-Hitler as FDR. After five days of floor rallies, telegrams from across the country, multiple ballots, rousing speeches, backroom deals, terrifying international news, and most of all, the relentless chanting of "We Want Willkie" from the gallery, Wendell Willkie walked away with the nomination. The story of how this happened - and of how essential his nomination would prove in allowing FDR to come to the aid of Britain and prepare America for entry into World War II - is all told in Charles Peters' "Five Days in Philadelphia". As Peters shows, these five action-packed days and their improbable outcome were as important as the Battle of Britain in defeating the Nazis.

Charles Peters managed John F Kennedy's 1960 primary in West Virginia's largest county, then moved to Washington DC to help launch the Peace Corps and to found the Washington Monthly, which he edited for thirty-one years. His previous books include How Washington Really Works, which the New York Times called "wise, funny".