David Roll at Next Meeting

The next meeting of the NJ World War II Book Club will be on Tuesday March 18, 2014 at 7 PM, as usual at the Millburn Library 200 Glen Avenue Millburn, NJ.

Our speaker will be David L. Roll who will talk about his just released and highly acclaimed book The Hopkins Touch. In The Hopkins Touch, David Roll shows how Harry Hopkins, an Iowa-born social worker who had been an integral part of the New Deal's implementation, became the linchpin in FDR's, and America's relationships with Churchill and Stalin, and spoke with an authority second only to the president's.

 In 1940, gaunt, nearly spectral, and malnourished following an operation to remove part of his stomach, the newly widowed Hopkins accepted the president's invitation to move into the White House. Hopkins thereafter remained Roosevelt's closest advisor, speechwriter, sounding board, and friend nearly to the end.

 Between 1940 and 1945, with incomparable skill and indefatigable determination, Hopkins organized the Lend-Lease program and steered the president to prepare the public for war with Germany. He became FDR's problem-solver and fixer, helping to smooth over crises. Beloved by some, such as Churchill, who believed that Hopkins "always went to the root of the matter" and trusted by most, including the paranoid Stalin, there were nevertheless those who resented the influence of "the White House Rasputin."

 To be with us David is traveling from Washington, D.C. and will be introduced by Dr. Steven Lomazow, one of our members, who is a Trustee of the Board of the FDR Library and who arranged for this event.