Three Days at the Brink: FDR's Daring Gamble to Win World War II (Three Days Series)

by Bret Baier

Other authorsCatherine Whitney (Author)

Paperback, 2020

Status

Available

Call number

940.53

Publication

William Morrow Paperbacks (2020), 448 pages

Description

November 1943: World War II teetered in the balance. The Nazis controlled nearly all of the European continent. Japan dominated the Pacific. Allied successes at Sicily and Guadalcanal had gained modest ground but at an extraordinary cost. On the Eastern Front, the Soviets had already lost millions of lives. That same month in Tehran, with the fate of the world in question, the 'Big Three,' Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin, secretly met for the first time to chart a strategy for defeating Hitler. Over three days, this trio, strange bed fellows united by their mutual responsibility as heads of the Allied powers, made essential decisions that would direct the final years of the war and its aftermath. Meanwhile, looming over the covert meeting was the possible threat of a Nazi assassination plot nicknamed 'Operation Long Jump,' heightening the already dramatic stakes.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member purpledog

I love historical novels both fiction and nonfiction, though I rarely have a chance to read nonfiction. It took me a long time to want to read nonfiction after years of forced reading in school. Therefore, I can honestly say that I am not a scholar and read now entirely for enjoyment and I enjoyed

reading Three Days at the Brink, by Bret Baier. It was a thoughtful, through and in-depth look at FDR.
Going in I thought this book would be mainly about the Tehran Conference, it was that and so much more. The first of the book covers FDR’s childhood, his rise through the political ranks and to the presidency. The remainder of the book focuses on his presidency through WWII. There was a lot of focus on how he “charmed” both Churchill and Stalin.
Though FDR was not perfect, he was an outstanding statesman. He was the right person at the right time and he was instrumental in the success of the Tehran Conference. I thought Mr. Baier made an honest attempt to present FDR as factual as possible and it made for a fascinating story.
A well written and researched book than any history buff would love to own, and it would make an excellent addition to any collector's WWII archive.
I received a free copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

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LibraryThing member DDJTJ1

I was very disappointed with THREE DAYS AT THE BRINK BY BRET BAIER. To me it seemed like a repeat of all the bio's of Roosevelt's, which is not what I wanted to read about. Over half of the book deals with the private/public live of FDR, not of the conference in Tehran.

LibraryThing member DDJTJ1

THREE DAYS AT THE BRINK BY BRET BAIER is the account leading up to Operation Overlord . FDR,Churchill and Stalin all met in Tehran to hammer out the issues of WWII. The leaders needed to come up with a way to eliminate the Nazi threat and defeat Hitler. The answer: invade France. This was not a

quick process as it involved many arguments and many debates. In the end Operation Overlord was hatched and the target, after much debate among the three; France.

As a lover of history I could not wait to get ahold of this book. I was a little disappointed at the fact that the majority of the book was a biography of FDR. That is not what I really wanted to read about, even though,in all honesty,it was very thorough. I was more wanting to read about the THREE DAYS AT THE BRINK as the title suggestion, which was not the major focus of the book in my opinion.

Mr.Baier did do one of the most complete amount of research on FDR. The good news, I learned more about FDR than I ever knew before . I did get a very in depth view on the three days in Tehran in which the Allies formed a mission to defeat Hitler & I did enjoy the book . Mr.Baier did a very good job presenting a President whom,up to now, I knew very little about. The bad news, the book only covered the time period in question too infrequent.

All in all I do recommend the book to history lovers as well as those who want a 100% in depth look at one of our most famous Presidents and his life, FDR.

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LibraryThing member tuckerresearch

Not as good as Baier's other "Three Days" books, but about an oft-unmentioned topic: the Tehran Conference. Baier tries hard to make the Tehran Conference the turning point of the Second World War, which it could be, but he tries to make it more important than the Yalta Conference, which it wasn't.

Half the book is a biographical review of F.D.R.'s life, which is good (though full-length biographies are better). You can read about the Tehran Conference in any good bio of Roosevelt, Churchill, and/or Stalin, but, this is a good recapitulation of the conference. I learned some things (or didn't remember I remembered them). Still, a pretty good book.

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