Reddit reviews Those Angry Days: Roosevelt, Lindbergh, and America's Fight Over World War II, 1939-1941

You should read a very good, very enjoyable book called Those Angry Days by Lynne Olson

Our not entering the war fast enough to suit Britain is a complicated issue, based in part on the fact that we loaned the money for most of Britain's expenses in WWI, lost over 50,000 of our boys, got nothing out of it, then Britain defaulted on their loan, the entire European continent went into a deep famine, and Americans rationed their own food in order to save to millions from starvation. This after watching France and Britain basically offering a peace treaty that humiliated Germany with its terms and as Wilson himself said, virtually guaranteed a second world war.

America was sick of Europe by that point. They never wanted involvement in world war one, which they rightly saw as a power struggle between two dying empires, and imperialist war.

It's much more complicated then 'we were isolationist'.

Edited to add: Oh, and the whole 'lying a nation into war' thing? America didn't pioneer that you know. Britain had lobbyist in DC and travelling lobbyists going around our country speaking to civic groups, who used falsified maps, and outright lies to stir up a pro-war sentiment. Didn't go down too well.

Edited to add: Terri Gross interviews Lynne Olson on this subject

a lot of my research has been driven by the need for an amazingly snappy erudite and scathing retort to the many 'factoids' brits have thrown my way, specifically about lend/lease, war loans, etc.

i squirrel away all sorts of trivia about britain. like it was legal to sell your wife until around WWI in britain. like the last pagan human sacrifice in the UK was somewhere in devon during the early part of victoria's reign - that's another fact i can't repeat with any authority until i figure out where i read it. like most of britain didn't have indoor facilities until after WWII.

it's like a mission in life at this point.

another interesting book, about america's hesitation to enter WWII, is Lynn Olson'sThose Angry Days: Roosevelt, Lindbergh, and America's Fight Over World War II, 1939-1941 She's a very engaging writer.

>Spanning the years 1939 to 1941, Those Angry Days vividly re-creates the rancorous internal squabbles that gripped the United States in the period leading up to Pearl Harbor. After Germany vanquished most of Europe, America found itself torn between its traditional isolationism and the urgent need to come to the aid of Britain, the only country still battling Hitler. The conflict over intervention was, as FDR noted, “a dirty fight,” rife with chicanery and intrigue, and Those Angry Days recounts every bruising detail. In Washington, a group of high-ranking military officers, including the Air Force chief of staff, worked to sabotage FDR’s pro-British policies. Roosevelt, meanwhile, authorized FBI wiretaps of Lindbergh and other opponents of intervention. At the same time, a covert British operation, approved by the president, spied on antiwar groups, dug up dirt on congressional isolationists, and planted propaganda in U.S. newspapers.

NPR interview with the author: http://www.npr.org/2014/01/03/259385391/angry-days-shows-an-america-torn-over-entering-world-war-ii

Also NPR interview with the author of Savage Continent: http://www.npr.org/2013/07/24/204538728/after-wwii-europe-was-a-savage-continent-of-devastation

I think I'm going to r/AskHistorians for sources on the Marshall Plan and how it was spent in the UK. I've been meaning to pin down that info for a while now. british sources say that the nhs was never anything but funded by taxes starting in 1948. but britain was bankrupt in 1948. they say it didn't require building hospitals and clinics. but yeah it did. there weren't clinics in the countryside before the nhs and a lot of them seem date from that time.
and american sources say something different. and there's enough contradictory information coming from decent but disparate sources for me to be concerned that i'm putting out the truth.