Publishers Weekly
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Though the title suggests that historian Winik (April 1865) has limited himself to the history of a single year, in actuality his scope is far greater. The year 1944 is not the focus but the turning point in Winik's account, which swiftly skips through the events of WWII and even stretches back to cover F.D.R. and Hitler's simultaneous ascendancies. The result, however, is far from encyclopedic. Offering only cursory accounts of the Manhattan Project, the Pacific campaign, and the effort to create the United Nations, Winik eschews many events of 1944 to look instead at what he sees as F.D.R.'s two greatest challenges that year: planning the invasion of Normandy and saving European Jews from the Third Reich. As F.D.R.'s health rapidly deteriorates, he concentrates on winning the war, but his single-minded focus comes at great cost. Winik painstakingly documents F.D.R.'s failure to help Europe's Jews, even after the extent of the Holocaust becomes clear. As critical as Winik is of F.D.R., he is even more disparaging toward the obstructionist State Department. For Winik, 1944 becomes not only the year of F.D.R.'s greatest triumph-when it became clear the Allies would prevail-but also the year he failed Europe's Jews. Agent: Michael Carlisle, Inkwell Management (Oct.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Library Journal
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Historian Winik's April 1865 is considered an essential work on the Civil War. His latest book delves into an unquestionably pivotal year in American history, concentrating on nearly every aspect of Franklin D. Roosevelt's (1882-1945) involvement in World War II, from the planning of Operation Overlord to his failing health. The number of critical events occurring simultaneously during this year is staggering, and Roosevelt's hand in the majority of them shaped the fate of nations. The pressure of these events is palpable as Winik expertly describes them in a manner that makes readers marvel at the president's negotiation savvy, guts, and sometimes good fortune. Particular attention is paid to Roosevelt's stratagems in the race to defeat Hitler while also devoting resources to rescue Jewish populations. The all but impossible victory at Normandy, the bitter reversal of the Battle of the Bulge, the heated negotiations with Winston Churchill-every day the lives of millions balanced on the decisions of an all but dying man, and Winik splendidly balances political and personal drama throughout. VERDICT A book of capital historical importance delivered in a thrilling package. Highly recommended for readers of biographies; American, presidential, World War II, European, and Jewish history; and political science. [See Prepub Alert, 3/30/15.]-Benjamin Brudner, Curry Coll. Lib., Milton, MA © Copyright 2015. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Choice
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.

Historian Winik has written a unique history of both WW II in Europe and the persecution of the Jews by the Nazis under Adolf Hitler. While many histories of the period stress the Allied war plans and detail bombing campaigns, Winik takes a singularly different approach. He combines meticulous research of major Allied conferences (Teheran, Yalta) with the buildup for Operation Overlord in 1944, and shows how Hitler created camps like Auschwitz. Winik also shows how Franklin Delano Roosevelt directed the war in 1944 by going back to the "beginnings" of the war in Europe, the development of the alliance system after Hitler's invasion of the Soviet Union, and the effect of the war on Roosevelt's health. Winik speaks with detailed frankness about Roosevelt's health during the war, showing how FDR's personal physician denied reports from other specialists about his cardiac and lung problems, downgrading "minor" heart attacks and pulmonary issues. Finally, Winik shows how FDR disregarded the Jewish refugee problem before 1940, and then recounts his refusal to accept evidence and plans (Morgenthau) by 1944 to isolate concentration camps and bomb Auschwitz directly. Winik is to be commended for serious, unique scholarship and for analyzing questions of war, diplomacy, and the Holocaust. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Graduate students/faculty. --Andrew Mark Mayer, College of Staten Island

Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

An accomplished popular historian unpacks the last full year of World War II and the excruciatingly difficult decisions facing Franklin Roosevelt. Allied military victories during 1944 assured the eventual surrender of Nazi Germany, accounting for what Winston Churchill called "the greatest outburst of joy in the history of mankind." And yet Winik (The Great Upheaval: America and the Birth of the Modern World, 1788-1800, 2007, etc.) asks whether, by focusing so wholly on winning the war, Roosevelt missed "his own Emancipation Proclamation moment," the chance to make the war about something bigger, specifically "the vast humanitarian tragedy occurring in Nazi-controlled Europe." FDR's failure to address unequivocally the Holocaust, the millions of deaths that left "a gaping, tormenting hole echoing in history," has frustrated historians for decades. More in sorrow than in anger, Winik explains this apparent moral lapse by the world's foremost humanitarian. Preoccupied with his 1944 re-election and mollifying various political constituencies, supervising the invasion of the European continent, holding together a contentious alliance, and intent on destroying Hitler, Roosevelt was also in extremely precarious health. Moreover, a sluggish, indifferent government bureaucracy, likely tinged with anti-Semitismhere, Secretary of State Cordell Hull and the War Department's John J. McCloy take a beatingeither ignored or thwarted any plan to relieve or rescue refugees or liberate prisoners in the death camps. Still, as Winik vividly demonstrates in a number of set pieces featuring escapees, underground leaders, and government advocates for relief, surely by 1944 FDR knew: about the camps, the atrocities, the desperate refugees, and, as one memo sternly warned, "the acquiescence of this government in the murder of Jews." Still, beyond the belated establishment of the War Refugee Board, the president faltered. The author's fair assessment of the evidence, detailed scene-setting, deft storytelling, and sure-handed grasp of this many-stranded narrative will inspire any reader to rethink this issue. Do we ask too much of Roosevelt or too little? A complex history rendered with great color and sympathy. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.