Presidential Elections from 1940 to 2012

It's Election Day! Have you performed your civic duty? If you're still undecided, you can visit HuffPost Books for a look at how some of history's most notable authors might have voted if they were alive in 2012. Need a break from the news cycle? Check out NPR's list of "6 Book Stories That'll Cast The Election in New Light."

During the current election season, we've been turning the clock back on Washington politics to look at another important moment in American history: FDR's third presidential election. The context for this historic race is vividly rendered in Andrew Rosenheim's FEAR ITSELF, a rousing new political thriller released last month from Overlook. Andrew Rosenheim visited the Overlook office last week to tell us a bit more about his latest book. Sample the video below for an exclusive message from the author.

Would the United States have entered the Second World War if President Roosevelt had never run for a third term? Only hindsight presents Americans of the early 1940s as unequivocal supporters of World War II. While FDR strongly supported the British, his efforts to help them were repeatedly hindered by an isolationist Congress and a country mired in Depression, reluctant to undertake another costly global conflict. At a time when radical groups sprouted across America, fed by populist fears and hopes for strong leadership, organizations like the Bund, a small yet ardently pro-Nazi collective, aggressively opposed America’s entrance into the war in Europe.

In Fear Itself twenty-six year old Jimmy Nessheim, a young rookie agent in the newly-minted Chicago Field Office of the FBI and the child of German parents is the perfect candidate to take on a dangerous assignment—a mission to infiltrate the Bund’s sinister organization in order to diffuse an insidious plot aimed at sabotaging President Roosevelt’s reelection. Working to discover the true identity of the Dreiländer, a covert German agent lying dormant in the United States for more than a decade, Nessheim’s case hurtles him across the country—from New York to San Francisco to Washington DC—offering a meticulous look at the United States during the years leading up to World War II.

Praise for Fear Itself

“This top-notch historical thriller from Rosenheim, the first in a new series … will only whet readers’ appetites for more.” – Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“If you like wartime political thrillers, you’ll love Andrew Rosenheim’s gripping Fear Itself.” – Newsweek

“[A] disturbingly vivid portrait of the U.S. driven by the Great Depression, political conflicts, and concerns about looming war in Europe … Rosenheim’s picture of pre-WWII America is riveting.” – Booklist

“Fans of Le Carré, Deighton, and all the other great spy masters will thoroughly enjoy Fear Itself.” – Crimesquad.com

Publishers Weekly Interviews Andrew Rosenheim on FEAR ITSELF

Last week Andrew Rosenheim's new WWII political thriller FEAR ITSELF received a starred review from Publishers Weekly, who called it a "top-notch historical thriller" and an "intelligent page-turner." This week PW sat down with Rosenheim to talk about the background behind the book and to discuss the real life American history that inspired the story.

While America Slept: PW Talks with Andrew Rosenheim
By Lenny Picker

 

An FBI agent goes undercover inside the German-American Bund in Andrew Rosenheim’s Fear Itself, the first in a new historical series. 

How did you come to write this book?

It came out of an interest in the under-recognized Germanness of so much of American society; also a “what if” interest about what would have happened had FDR not run for a third term. And spurred by some disapproving English views of America’s comparatively late entry into World War II (I’ve lived in England for about 30 years and so have encountered that sentiment), from my own curiosity about what did take us so long.

And what did?

Much of public opinion was adamantly opposed to entering the war. This had only partly changed after Germany marched through western Europe in the spring of 1940. This isolationist sentiment meant Congress was a very real impediment to FDR’s efforts to engineer an American entry into the conflict. Even FDR, during the campaign of 1940, felt obliged to vow that he would not send young American men to fight in a foreign war.

What led him to consider a third term?

FDR felt he alone could steer America toward war—or least provide effective aid for a beleaguered Britain. He didn’t really decide to run until spring 1940, and did so reluctantly. He knew he wasn’t well; he was deeply fatigued after eight years trying to bring America out of the Depression; and he respected the convention that two terms was enough for any president. But he felt obliged to run, and we should all be glad he did. FDR’s simple courage in wanting to support England and to combat fascism isn’t recognized enough.

Do you see any commonalities between U.S. isolationism at the time and the current reluctance to get involved internationally?

A similar distrust of foreign conflicts in faraway lands, though current skepticism seems more justified, given our recent experience in Iraq and Afghanistan. There is a similar insularity, a similar feeling that the rest of the world can go hang—though this seems rather less justified in today’s very global economy and geopolitics. 

Did the book change from its original conception?

The German-American Bund plays a smaller role in the plot that ultimately emerged. The Bund was certainly extremist and ardently pro-Nazi, but it was also largely ineffectual and had withered as a potent political force by 1940. Interestingly, most Bund members were recent arrivals from Germany. German-Americans who had arrived earlier (the vast majority) were never very keen on Hitler, though they were reluctant to see their new country fight their old one.