The Lost Peace: Leadership in a Time of Horror and Hope, 1945-1953 Horror Book Review

In a striking reinterpretation of the postwar years, Robert Dallek examines what drove the leaders of the most powerful and populous nations around the globe - Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, Josef Stalin, Charles De Gaulle, and Harry S. Truman - to rely on traditional power politics despite the catastrophic violence their nations had endured. The decisions of these men, for better and often worse, had profound consequences for decades to come, influencing relations and conflicts with China, Korea, and in the Middle East. “The Lost Peace” is a penetrating look at the misjudgments that caused enormous strife and suffering during this critical period, from the closing months of World War II through the early years of the Cold War. Dallek has written a cautionary tale that considers what might have been done differently to avoid the difficulties that strong and weak nations around the globe encountered in the mid-20th century.  Provocative, illuminating, and based on a lifetime of research, “The Lost Peace” also offers extraordinary lessons for today’s leaders who might learn from the mistakes that were made in the years leading up to the Cold War and engage in a more successful era of international cooperation.