Churchill’s Americans will take a close-up look at the persons, policies, and events involved in the creation of a new alliance—U.S. support of Britain—and the resulting “undeclared war,” in the early months of the next year. Franklin Roosevelt sent two special representatives to London in 1941 — first, Harry Hopkins, and then Averell Harriman. Neither of these two Americans was a politician, nor were they very much like each other: Hopkins, a social worker, had served the New Deal as director of the famous WPA and had been converted by FDR into a sort of alter ego; Harriman, a vastly wealthy financier and entrepreneur, had given FDR much-needed support from the business side.

Created and directed by President Roosevelt, this alliance would be something unique and, as the book will show, would be misunderstood, both then and also through all the following years. Among those who did not understand at the time were high officials of both the British and the U.S. governments; since that time, historians have generally failed to grasp FDR’s purposes.