The Big Three: Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin in Peace and War - Hardcover

Edmonds, Robin

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0241129400 ISBN 13: 9780241129401

Publisher: Hamish Hamilton, 1991

Synopsis

This is an absorbing story of success and failure on a grand scale, of three men who changed their nations and the map of the world in our time. Drawing on fresh evidence from Soviet and Western sources, Edmonds explores the rifts that separated them and the strains that led to a cold war of threat and ocunterthreat. Photos.

About this title

From Publishers Weekly:

This study of the summit meetings of the Allied war of 1939-45 is the most comprehensive to date. The book also presents the deepest perspective, for Edmonds starts by showing the individual relationships of Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin to Germany when Hitler took power, and the different ways they reacted as Britain, the Soviet Union and the United States were pulled into war. Drawing on fresh evidence from Soviet and Western sources, Edmonds analyzes each meeting between the Big Three in pairs, and as a trio at Teheran and Yalta, as well as preparatory conferences between their ministers. There are no dramatic revelations here, but Edmonds, former head of the American department of British Foreign Office, enables us to listen closely to far-reaching talks on the scope and timing of military operations and postwar territorial settlement. Perhaps the most interesting discussions occurred at Teheran (Nov.-Dec. 1943), which was the occasion of the first meeting of Roosevelt and Stalin, and also the last time Churchill was able to confer with them on equal terms. Edmonds makes clear that the British prime minister had to fight hard at Teheran to maintain his position. Photos.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal:

This is yet another attempt to discover the origins of the Cold War in the wartime relationship of Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin. It is not a tripartite biography, nor does Edmonds adhere to the "great man" theory of history. Still, he is correct in placing his focus on the personalities of "the big three." Their actions were equally constrained by their respective national matrixes and the dynamics of their personal relationship. He begins his narrative with Hitler's rise to power, thus allowing him to consider the philosophical baggage each man brought to the wartime conference table. Edmonds has consulted previously unavailable Soviet documents, and in that sense performs a valuable historical service. Though narrow in its scope, this is nonetheless an important historical work.
- J.K. Sweeney, South Dakota State Univ., Brookings
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Hamish Hamilton
• Publication date: 1991
• ISBN 10: 0241129400
• ISBN 13: 9780241129401
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 512