Publishers Weekly
08/26/2019
This highly readable but historically muddled work from conservative journalist Baier combines a serviceable biography of Franklin Delano Roosevelt with a crisply paced but superficial diplomatic history of WWII. The key point, Baier asserts, was in late 1943, when an uneasy coalition of Allied leaders met in the Iranian capital of Tehran. Roosevelt, British prime minister Winston Churchill, and the U.S.S.R.’s Marshal Josef Stalin agreed the Western Allies would launch a direct invasion of Nazi-occupied Europe in late 1944, opening the “second front” that Stalin insisted would ease pressure on the Red Army and defeat Hitler. The author tries to have it both ways: he contends initially that Roosevelt was the principal architect of a united Allied policy who willed the eventual invasion of Nazi-occupied France into action and served as “the lead strategist for the future” because of his strength of personality, but in the conclusion claims that, “faced with his moment of truth, FDR blinked.” The theatrical depiction of Roosevelt’s courtship, flattery, and “apparent seduction” of Stalin during the three-day meeting, coupled with his apparent abrupt coolness toward Churchill, overstates the president’s impact and underestimates the Soviet leader’s resolve to prevent any future invasion of his country. The dramatic tone of this history is compelling, but shaky scholarship won’t impress readers of history. (Oct.)
From the Publisher
In his monumental new book about one of history’s most epic events, Bret Baier has outdone himself yet again. I could not put this extraordinary book down. Three Days at the Brink is a masterpiece: elegantly written, brilliantly conceived, and impeccably researched. This book not only sparkles but is destined to be a classic!” — JAY WINIK, New York Times bestselling author of 1944 and April 1865
“Riveting. With characteristic intellectual verve and brilliant analysis, Bret Baier allows readers to freshly understand how the Tehran Conference shaped world history. Essential reading by a first-rate storyteller!” — DOUGLAS BRINKLEY, professor of history at Rice Unviersity and author of American Moonshot and Rightful Heritage: Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Land of America
“In this brisk, readable and compelling book, Bret Baier takes us into a crucial period of World War II and calls our attention to an important hinge of world history.” — MICHAEL BESCHLOSS, New York Times bestselling author of Presidents of War
“In the past three years, Bret Baier, perhaps America’s top newscaster, has become one of America’s best historians as well. Three Days at the Brink is a fascinating narrative that doubles as a political portrait of FDR and a history of the momentous Tehran conference. Must reading.” — DAVID EISENHOWER, Director, the University of Pennsylvania’s Institute for Public Service, and author of Eisenhower: At War, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in History
“An exciting, moment by moment account of the Tehran Conference and its aftermath. Well-researched and highly readable.” — SELWA “LUCKY” ROOSEVELT, former Chief of Protocol for the Reagan Administration
“Fascinating and intriguing. Three Days at the Brink is a compelling account of FDR’s political life and career. This book, along with Bret Baier’s two prior works, distinguishes him as not only a renowned journalist but a superb storyteller and historian. Americans can learn much from Bret Baier and his latest gem.” — MARK R. LEVIN, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Unfreedom of the Press
“A fascinating story, dramatically written. … Baier recreates [the Tehran Conference] vividly.” — Booklist
“Highly readable. ... Dramatic. ... Compelling.” — Publishers Weekly
"Important. ... [Baier has] the writer's gift of narrative, and the reporter's attention to factual detail. ... A well-told, highly readable, and accurate account of the involvement of our nation in one of those crucial moments that determine the course of world history." — Washington Times
Washington Times
"Important. ... [Baier has] the writer's gift of narrative, and the reporter's attention to factual detail. ... A well-told, highly readable, and accurate account of the involvement of our nation in one of those crucial moments that determine the course of world history."
DOUGLAS BRINKLEY
Riveting. With characteristic intellectual verve and brilliant analysis, Bret Baier allows readers to freshly understand how the Tehran Conference shaped world history. Essential reading by a first-rate storyteller!
DAVID EISENHOWER
In the past three years, Bret Baier, perhaps America’s top newscaster, has become one of America’s best historians as well. Three Days at the Brink is a fascinating narrative that doubles as a political portrait of FDR and a history of the momentous Tehran conference. Must reading.
SELWA “LUCKY” ROOSEVELT
An exciting, moment by moment account of the Tehran Conference and its aftermath. Well-researched and highly readable.
MARK R. LEVIN
Fascinating and intriguing. Three Days at the Brink is a compelling account of FDR’s political life and career. This book, along with Bret Baier’s two prior works, distinguishes him as not only a renowned journalist but a superb storyteller and historian. Americans can learn much from Bret Baier and his latest gem.
MICHAEL BESCHLOSS
In this brisk, readable and compelling book, Bret Baier takes us into a crucial period of World War II and calls our attention to an important hinge of world history.
Booklist
A fascinating story, dramatically written. … Baier recreates [the Tehran Conference] vividly.
JAY WINIK
In his monumental new book about one of history’s most epic events, Bret Baier has outdone himself yet again. I could not put this extraordinary book down. Three Days at the Brink is a masterpiece: elegantly written, brilliantly conceived, and impeccably researched. This book not only sparkles but is destined to be a classic!
Booklist
A fascinating story, dramatically written. … Baier recreates [the Tehran Conference] vividly.
SELWA "LUCKY" ROOSEVELT
An exciting, moment by moment account of the Tehran Conference and its aftermath. Well-researched and highly readable.
Kirkus Reviews
2019-09-01
The third in a presidential trilogy by the Fox News host spotlights another telling moment of executive leadership—in Franklin D. Roosevelt's case, the decision, made in November 1943, to embark on an invasion of Normandy.
Admitting he is not a historian, Baier (Three Days in Moscow: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of the Soviet Empire, 2018, etc.) takes on one of the most written-about personas in history, offering his "personal journalist's spin on the great events of Roosevelt's day." Essentially, he delivers a highly admiring biography that breaks no new ground, using the three days at Tehran, "that vital conference," as the apotheosis of his leadership—when he took a chance on Joseph Stalin, whose country's might was deemed necessary to turn the tide of war against the Nazis. Baier builds the narrative with a spirited account of FDR's life, the details of which are well known. Though his mother coddled him, she was also dedicated to his intellectual and emotional growth. As the author writes, awkwardly, "as was the case with so many presidents, Franklin Roosevelt's mother was the wind beneath his expansive wings." FDR's rise in politics was temporarily slowed by polio, but even that could not defeat his spirit. "It strengthened him," writes Baier, "as if he had been waiting all his life for a challenge large enough for his ambitions." Within this "crucible," FDR became a vital leader just in time to help lead the faltering nation out of the Depression. By the time FDR forged his partnership with Churchill, Roosevelt was at the top of his game, a war president who had supreme confidence in his persuasive abilities. Meeting Stalin for the first time face to face had been a hard-won charm offensive, and agreeing to stay in the Soviet Embassy compound (knowing it was bugged) confounded the British even as it disarmed the Soviets. The campaign to hammer out the cross-channel invasion had begun.
A condensation of the historical record that will appeal most to Baier's fans.
