Rendezvous with Destiny: How Franklin D. Roosevelt and Five Extraordinary Men Took America into the War and into the World

“A fascinating and well-written account of a little-known chapter that was crucial to the course of World War II and to America’s global leadership.” —Henry A. Kissinger

In the dark days between Hitler’s invasion of Poland in September 1939 and Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, Franklin D. Roosevelt sent five remarkable men—Sumner Welles, William “Wild Bill” Donovan, Harry Hopkins, Averell Harriman, and Wendell Willkie—on dramatic and dangerous missions to Europe. The five envoys’ highly unorthodox missions took them into the middle of the war and exposed them to the leading figures of the age. Taken together, they plot the arc of America’s transformation from a divided and hesitant middle power into a global leader. Drawing on vast archival research, Rendezvous with Destiny is narrative history at its most delightful, stirring, and important.