"Watching Darkness Fall" by David McKean offers a riveting and meticulously researched account of the crucial years leading up to World War II, viewed through the lens of four American ambassadors stationed in Europe: Joseph Kennedy, William Dodd, Breckinridge Long, and William Bullitt. These men, serving in London, Berlin, Rome, Paris, and Moscow, were FDR's eyes and ears on the ground, yet most failed to grasp the imminent threat posed by Adolf Hitler and the Third Reich.

McKean skillfully narrates the diplomatic intricacies and the often flawed perceptions of these key figures, highlighting their personal ambitions, biases, and the political landscape of the time. The book is a deep dive into the interwar period, shedding light on the complex dynamics within the FDR administration and the broader international community.

However, "Watching Darkness Fall" can feel dense at times, packed with detailed descriptions and a wealth of historical data that might overwhelm readers not already familiar with the period. Despite this, the book remains accessible, offering a balanced perspective that will appeal to both history enthusiasts and general readers.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for providing an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I find the actions taken by the Allies before during and after WWII fascinating. The world was still rebounding from one world war when Germany under Hitler decides thay should rule the world and now is the time. So many changes were a result of the war, not all of them for the better.

Watching Darkness Fall gives another unique perspective of the United States policies prior to the bombing of Pearl Harbor. As statesmen adamantly maintain their resistance to the war, it was clear to most that the US would be drawn into action. David McKean's research into the period before the US joined WWII is a gift to readers. His book joins by substantial collection of WWII books. 5 easy stars.

Watching Darkness Fall offers a gripping account that also answers an important question: how did someone as abjectly evil as Adolf Hitler rise to power? This book is written from the perspective of FDR and his ambassadors. It pairs well with Erik Larson's In the Garden of Beasts.

I appreciate the publisher allowing me to read this book. I found the subject matter really interesting. The book was well written and easy to understand. I highly recommend this book.

There definitely is a place for this book among WW2 history enthusiasts. For me personally it was a lot of information to take in. While I enjoyed learning and reading this, at times it felt like I was studying for a history test. I just felt it took me longer to get this book read based on the information.

I voluntarily reviewed a copy of this book provided by NetGalley

This was interesting, but as a person that has studied the time period and people discussed in this book, I didn't learn much more than I already knew.
It is well-written, achieves the thesis, and will appeal to both novices and experts.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the dARC of this work in exchange for my honest review.

*I don't know how this review didn't post ages ago.

I don’t know much about FDR. It was a good read and I didn’t feel it lagged anywhere. The book mostly centers around FDRs ambassadors to Germany, Britain, France and Italy and relates their experiences in each of those countries during the build up to World War II. Starting with America’s isolationist policy to the war up to Pearl Harbor and FDRs sudden death. Very informative and well written.

WATCHING DARKNESS FALL

I thought this book was fabulous. I had just finished reading Erik Larson’s “In the Garden of Beasts” featuring Ambassador Dodd, and by some chance of luck came across David McKean’s new book. The story of four WWII ambassadors?? Jackpot!

Watching Darkness Fall covers the time period from FDR’s election in 1932, with a focus on four of his European ambassadors, to the US entering into WWII in 1941.

Breckinridge Long - Rome
William Bullitt - Moscow and Paris
Joseph Kennedy - London
William Dodd - Berlin

Also covered in detail were other important advisors to FDR, including Cordell Hull, Sumner Wells, Harry Hopkins, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Missy LeHand.

In the days of radio, telephones attached to the wall, and postal mail, foreign ambassadors played a major communications role in molding the decisions of our government, serving as the eyes and ears to the President. With the rise of Fascism and approaching war in Europe, Roosevelt had to act as a political juggler, analyzing the wildly varying reports from his ambassadors while soothing egos and making policy decisions. All while trying to keep American isolationists reassured, at least temporarily. You get a good sense of the complexities of the decisions involved, the many perspectives and the competing agendas.

What makes this book so special is the amount of detailed description that you receive about each person through the stories told by the author, some quite personal. You get a really good feel for each person’s strengths and weaknesses, ambitions, and idiosyncrasies. In a sense it felt to me a bit like the political WWII male version of “Mean Girls On Steroids”. Completely fascinating.

If you’re interested in the inter-workings of the FDR administration leading up to World War II, this is an excellent source of information. I found this book to be totally enjoyable. I looked forward to getting back to reading it, was never bored and found it quite thrilling. Definitely a little dry and not salacious, but amazing nonetheless. It was also very clear that a great deal of research and hard work went into writing this book.

I also listed to the audiobook read by Tom Perkins, which added to the enjoyment.

Author David McKean is the former US Ambassador to Luxembourg and the former director of Policy Planning at the US State Department. The book includes an index, bibliography, and footnotes. I would like to thank NetGalley, David McKean, and St. Martin’s Press for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Watching Darkness Fall focuses on the diplomatic run-up to World War II in the 1930s. Meticulous, gripping, and steeped in palpable authenticity, David McKean’s saga zeroes in on a segment of the story not often covered in detail: the activities of four U.S. ambassadors in key European capitals, including the notable hot spots of Berlin, Paris, and Moscow.

McKean’s book gives us an engaging picture of diplomatic Washington’s reaction — or absence thereof — in the face of Hitler’s calculating maneuvers with Mussolini in Italy and Stalin in the Soviet Union, of the Führer’s fulminations against German Jews, and ultimately with his aggressive territorial strikes on Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, and France.

McKean takes up the tale around 1933 and closes with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, all the while pushing the saga forward with verve and gusto. The result: a fast-paced, deftly written, exhaustively researched tale that spools out like a month-by-month recounting of the public activities and inner lives of each of his ambassadors. McKean draws liberally on diplomatic cables, private letters to the president, news reports, and memoirs and diary entries, crafting full-bodied portrayals not just of his diplomats but of FDR and his circle as well.

The ambassadors, save one or two, are probably not familiar figures: Breckinridge Long (Italy, appointed in 1933), William E. Dodd (Germany, 1933), William Bullitt (Soviet Union, 1933, and then France in 1936), and Joseph P. Kennedy (Great Britain, 1938). Bullitt and Long were scions of wealth, and Dodd a lifelong academic. Kennedy was something of an odd duck in the group, a brash, self-made millionaire, Irish Catholic, and father of a future president.

Only Dodd, a somewhat quirky ex-University of Chicago professor and committed Nazi hater, seemed to grasp the international threat represented by Hitler and his cronies. What’s more, Dodd thought little of the abilities of his fellow ambassadors Bullitt and Long, both of whom struck him as dumbly oblivious to the coming upheaval in Europe and what it meant for America.

Ambassador Dodd’s assessment of his colleagues was not off-base. Consider Long’s view on Hitler’s move to subjugate Austria: “[Hitler] desires an extension of German influence to the east and southeast, but that does not mean military or political control or domination or annexation.”

In fairness, it should be said that most of the diplomatic corps and even the general public were decidedly blasé about the looming threat from a new, rearmed Germany. Isolationist sentiment was widespread. Take national hero and avowed Nazi admirer Charles Lindbergh, who regularly anointed his isolationist cant with his special sauce of overt racism:

“If we enter fighting for democracy abroad, we may end up losing it at home… [It is…] not a question [of] banding together to defend the white race from invasion.”

But Joe Kennedy was perhaps the most vociferous proponent of appeasement among the ambassador corps. The bold self-promoter represented something of an affront to the patrician sensibilities of both the first family and the Department of State. Even the tolerant Eleanor Roosevelt found him gauche (“that awful Kennedy”). Still, to the political operatives around FDR, Kennedy’s Catholicism — not to mention his expansive clutch of smiling, Irish-eyed offspring — made him a domestic political asset, a putative key to securing a vital national voting bloc.

Kennedy’s ethnic and religious affiliations tickled the president. Despite FDR’s lack of personal enthusiasm for Kennedy, he thought it a grand joke to foist the outspoken ex-distiller (bootlegger?) — an Irishman and Catholic to boot — on the staid Court of St. James, a bastion of militant Anglicanism recently entangled in Ireland’s struggle for independence.

To call Kennedy an appeaser is certainly an understatement. In a private letter penned in the late 1930s, he wrote, “An unemployed man with a hungry family is the same fellow whether the swastika or some other flag floats over his head.”

The attack on Pearl Harbor, of course, upended attitudes like the senior Kennedy’s overnight. This tectonic shift, though, is beyond the scope of Watching Darkness Fall. Still, it’s intriguing to contemplate it in the response of Ambassador Kennedy’s second son to Soviet ships, missile-laden, steaming toward Cuba some two decades later.

The only ambassador I really knew anything about before reading this was Dodd because of Beasts in the Garden. Therefore I found this extremely informative but not overwhelming. The depth of research is impressive.

Most books on the runup to WWII would focus on the actions of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, making the former president the center of the story and treating everyone else as secondary players. Author David McKean has chosen to take a look at history through the eyes and actions of the men around FDR.

“Watching Darkness Fall” takes on the journeys of four US Ambassadors (William Bullitt, William Dodd, Joseph Kennedy, and Breckenridge Long), all assigned to work in different European countries. The book takes us beyond newspaper reporting into the very thoughts of the men who were representing America. One would think that the possibility of war – one that could draw the United States into an active fighting role – would draw these men closer and cause them to possess the same goals. The reality is that every person has inner goals that will influence what they do and say, even if those goals conflict with the direction of the country or its leader. Mr. McKean allows us to see everything, both their strong points and their dirty laundry. Other notables are also featured here, including Secretary of State Cordell Howe, Secretary of Commerce Harry Hopkins, and Under Secretary of State Sumner Welles.

The author presents a lively narrative, filled with facts and insights that are sure to attract even those who are not fans of history. Inside knowledge is shared concerning the efforts of these men, some struggling to keep America on an isolationist course while others believed Hitler to be evil and argued for war. Taking historical figures who are usually bit characters and allowing them center stage is a marvelous way to present history. Five stars.

My thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for a complimentary electronic copy of this book.

This chronicle of President Roosevelt and 4 diplomats representing America during the uprising of Hitler is a very instructive and in-depth study of how personalities can view the same subject differently.
It is full of references and diary excerpts from the parties involved and ultimately describes how the USA wound up ( reluctantly ) in a war abroad.
I enjoyed reading and felt as if I were right there in each place along with the diplomat or the president.

"Watching Darkness Fall" was an interesting book. I was unfamiliar with FDR's European ambassadors and State Department officials, as well as the role Harry Hopkins played in foreign affairs, so I learned a lot from the book. The ambassadors were pretty diverse in their opinions about European leaders and world affairs -- some isolationists, some internationalists, some optimists, some defeatists, some who admired the autocratic leaders (Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin) and agreed with some of their policies, some who were appalled by Hitler and his ilk, etc. I was surprised to learn that Dodd, the US Ambassador to Germany, was the only government official who really recognized early on the evil that was Hitler and the need to stop him before he became too powerful/influential. The personal animosities between various officials and the machinations by various officials as they jockeyed for power and influence made for interesting reading. The author highlights various missed opportunities to take actions to potentially alter the course of history, or where mistakes were made in decision-making due to incomplete or inaccurate information or biases. He also explains how FDRs domestic agenda and the political situation in Congress and nationally influenced FDR's actions, or largely inactions, on foreign policy matters. If you are interested in WWII, FDR, foreign policy, Europe, diplomacy, or related issues, this might be a good book for you.

I received a copy of the e-book via NetGalley in exchange for a review.

FDR, His Ambassadors and the Rise of Adolph Hitler

“Watching Darkness Fall” is of considerable interest for those fascinated in history especially in the Roosevelt era. The account provides us with a broad-ranging study of the role of ambassadors in delivering information about the rise of Europe’s regimes from 1933 to 1941.

Mr. McKean delivers a biography of four American diplomats as they struggle to handle the rise of fascism. The information taken from diaries, letters and records reveals that the President counted on his ambassadors in France, Germany, Great Britain and Italy to collect information needed to make proper decisions. All but one of FDR’s ambassadors misjudged Hitler and his intentions.

From the perspective of Joseph Kennedy, William Dodd, Breckinridge Long and William Bullitt who witnessed the rise of the Third Reich firsthand often communicated with the president to inform him. McKean argues that although Roosevelt was more interested in domestic concerns at the time he was also very skeptical of his emissaries’ correspondence. Eventually Roosevelt intelligence channels led him away from being cautious over international involvement to the certainty that his country would be facing a European war. Then Pearl Harbor happened and all changed.

This account covers a lot and is so loaded with facts and people it can be overwhelming at times, I know I was and needed to put it aside multiple times and concentrate on something lighter. Although, this book is a long read and a tedious one the vivid depiction of the individuals will make the reader (me) want to pursuit and not abandoned it in order to broaden knowledge, we learn a lot: not only of FDR but also the diplomatic dance before America plunged into the war and what transpired during the event all the way to FDR collapse and death and beyond his tenure. I could say more but this is one of those books that should be read and appreciated individually.

No doubt, “Watching Darkness Fall” is an interesting book for all. Historical buffs will love it and rookies will have their interest piqued.....and some will pass on it, definitely not for everyone.

All but one of FDR's ambassadors in Europe misjudged Hitler and his intentions. Joseph Kennedy, William Dodd, Breckinridge Long, and William Bullitt, served in key Western European capitals—London, Berlin, Rome, Paris, and Moscow—in the years prior to World War II. They were more intent on protecting their position, showing off their power and enforcing isolationism than in seeing the truth about the situation. Even FDR refused to follow his instincts and help Europe. The results included the death of thousands of Jews and other devastation.
David McKean's Watching Darkness Fall recounts the story of the ambassadors, the president and the country in the decades before and during the war. The book is loaded with facts and is fairly easy but long to read. The author does throw the ambassadors under the bus and points out the practice of appointing ambassadors who focus on their own interests rather than on the interests of humanity. I wish current ambassadors could read this book.

I received this as an ARC through Netgalley. While I knew a bit about the US Ambassador to Germany, Dodd, from Beasts in the Garden and some other historical works, I did not know anything about the ambassadors to the other foreign countries before and during WWII. Watching Darkness Fall depicted the struggles in Europe and America during this tumultuous time period in history wonderfully. Where I learned the most was JFK's father being the Ambassador to England. This was an extremely informative read, but doesn't overwhelm you with so much that you feel lost.

FDR’s Ambassadors Watched Hitler’s Rise to Power

Roosevelt’s Inauguration coincided with Hitler’s rise to power in Germany. Roosevelt was committed to getting the economy back on track and trying to stay out of the coming storm in Europe. Hoping that international trade would help the struggling economy he appointed ambassadors to Europe who would be his eyes and ears.

The four most influential ambassadors were William Bullitt first stationed in the Soviet Union and later in France. Breckinridge Long, a long time friend, was sent to Italy where he came to admire Mussolini. William Dodd, professor of history, was sent to Germany. He became appalled at what he saw happening in the country. The fourth ambassador was Joseph P. Kennedy to whom FDR owed political favors. Kennedy would settle for nothing less than and ambassadorship and was sent to England. His sympathies were on the side of Hitler which made his reporting to Roosevelt rather biased.

The book relies on the papers of the four ambassadors as well as documents from members of the administration. The four men saw the world through their own eyes which often resulted in biased reporting to Roosevelt. This is an insightful look at what was happening in Europe during Hitler’s rise to power and the lead up to WWII. I found the book fascinating. It was easy to read and caught me up in the drama of that time.

I received the book from St. Martin’s Press for this review.

On the same day that the Times wrote an article detailing Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s inauguration there was a smaller article on Hitler’s success in persuading von Hindenburg to dissolve Germany’s parliament and call for new elections, a first step in his rise to power. Roosevelt’s priority was America’s ailing economy, believing that international trade and relationships would help in the recovery. His appointments of ambassadors to the European countries gave him an opportunity to receive first hand information on the political situation, but of the four men assigned to the major capitals three of them failed to realize the dangers presented by Hitler’s and Mussolini’s rise to power.

David McKean uses the personal correspondence and reports of William Dodd (Berlin), Breckinridge Long (Italy), William Bullitt (Russia and later France) and Joseph Kennedy (London) as well as sources from the State Department and the White House to explain how these men failed to see what was happening around them. With the exception of Dodd, these men were wealthy and influential. As ambassador to Germany Dodd developed a hatred of the Nazis and was witness to the threat that they posed. After being recalled he was encouraged by Roosevelt to speak up about what he witnessed to make people aware of that threat.

McKean looks at the pacts signed and the maneuvering of European leaders in an effort to halt Germany’s expansion. While America’s intention was to not be drawn into the conflicts, Roosevelt was aware that America needed to prepare in the event of a war. As agreement after agreement fell apart, Hitler moved forward with his plans, igniting WWII. McKean’s account of events is clearly set forward and beautifully written, making Watching Darkness Fall a must read for those who enjoy historical non-fiction. I would like to thank NetGalley and St. Martin Press for providing this book for my review.

4.5

I picked this book because most of the history and memoirs and journals I've read about WW II don't contain much about ambassadors--they pop up now and then uttering oracular (or absurd, or placating, or false) platitudes, then vanish back into the world of silk hats and cocktail parties, or so it often seems.

McKean, an ambassador himself, sets the scene with an account of FDR's campaign and inauguration, giving me the sense that he very much was taken by the FDR charisma. That pretty much set the tone of this work for me; though there are academic works written in so breezy and engaging a style that they can read like novels, and there are journalistic pieces that are so scrupulously researched, and written in so detached a manner that they would pass a peer review by a table of academic specialists, I got the sense that I was reading an article in Foreign Affairs, or one of the magazines for readers who are not academics, who might not have read much history after college, but who are curious about the subject.

And I enjoyed it. It's a fast read, with vivid depictions of the individuals, FDR always at the center pulling the strings; the first three quarters of the book cover FDR's first three terms from the POV of foreign affairs, with brief references to ongoing events for perspective. We learn of the diplomatic jockeying before America entered the war, the diplomatic stage during the events that pulled the US into the war, and the last portion covers up to FDR's collapse and death in office.

I did get the sense that McKean had decided what he thought about the four men (holding his nose as he wrote about Joe Kennedy), and found the data to support his view, but that's okay by me--if I want an academic treatment of any of them, I know where I can find the data.

What I got was a readable look at this period through the lens of a state department lifer, with ambassadors on center stage.

Gripping behind the scenes portrait of the US governments response to the decent into chaos that was the time before WWII. We see through the eyes of FDR and his ambassadors in Europe as Hitler rises in power and the atrocities against the Jews rack up. It was so disturbing how even these world leaders and champions of democracy slipped into the banality of evil along with the rest of the world. They redeem themselves in the end, but don’t delude yourself into thinking it was all altruistic. Fascinating.

Thank you to St Martin’s Press and Netgalley for my free copy. These opinions are my own.