About this Book

"Few periods in our recent history have proved more fascinating than the later presidential terms of Franklin Roosevelt and the early presidency of his successor ...Harry Truman. For it was in these years that America and her leaders took unprecedented steps to mobilize for global war, and it was these years that gave rise to the somber architecture of the Cold War. While all men in government organized for war in the 1940s, the best men also strove to continue the great reforms begun during the earlier New Deal. Among these was Henry A. Wallace, Vice President from 1941 to 1945, then Secretary of Commerce until his resignation in 1946. In his key positions, Wallace was direct witness to the momentous and often confusing events of those years. Having distinguished himself as Secretary of Agriculture during the 1930s, he was at Roosevelt's insistence chosen as candidate for Vice President in 1940.From 1942 until 1946, he kept a meticulous diary of his activities and thoughts. The distinguished historian John Morton Blum has been given access to this diary (otherwise closed until 1975), and the result is this book. It is an almost continuous narrative of Wallace's experiences in power during four crucial years, a priceless document which illuminates our policies of wag- ing world war, our preparations for peace, our stumbling toward the Cold War, and our other struggles in the kaleidoscopic flow of history after 1945.The Wallace Diary is a window onto history and at the same time an intensely personal document. It is revealing of Roosevelt's peculiar presidential style, for Wal- lace had direct experience of Roosevelt's tendency to allow subordinates to compete chaotically for power and priorities. It is also a definitive summary of the thoughts and feelings of a great reformer. Increasingly, as the war ground on, Wallace turned his mind to the ultimate shape of the world after peace should be achieved. While others narrowed their sights to wartime needs, Wallace developed ideas for a new world order. He carried those ideas to the American people, in such famous speeches as "The Century of the Common Man" delivered as early as May 1942. And he confided his ideals to his diary, ideals of international democracy founded upon traditional American feeling and reverence for the land and its fruits, and an unyielding devotion to peace and justice. This vision, already at variance with the mainstream of American thought by 1945, became tragic anathema after Roosevelt's death. Under Truman and among the new men he brought to office, Wallace found himself almost totally alone. His resignation from the cabinet, forced by Truman, and Wallace's later ill-fated campaign for the presidency, left his reputation tarnished, yet these diaries reveal his remarkable foresight. Now, a generation later, he emerges as one of the most constructive political thinkers of his time, a generous and stalwart man whose vision can give some guidance to new and even more confusing times."--Publisher.