The Franklin D. Roosevelt
Presidential Library and Museum
presents an author talk and signing with
Tom Shachtman author of
THE PHONY WAR, 1939-1940
Thursday, August 15, 2019 at 7:00 p.m.
Henry A. Wallace Center at the
FDR Presidential Library and Home
HYDE PARK, NY -- The Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum presents an author talk and signing with
Tom Shachtman author of
THE PHONY WAR, 1939-1940 on Thursday, August 15, 2019 at 7:00 p.m. The program will be held in the Henry A. Wallace Center at the FDR Presidential Library and Home.
This is a free public event but registration is required.
Synopsis:
As World War II began in September of 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union carved up Poland between them. After that, and prior to the invasion of France and the Low Countries by Germany in May of 1940, the war fell into an eight-month lull that became known in English as "the phony war," in French as "la drôle de guerre," and in German as "der sitzkrieg."
Rather than being a time in which nothing was happening, it was a period in which momentous changes occurred and determined the entire later course of the war. During this period Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania were overrun by the USSR and Finland was invaded; the leadership changed in France from Daladier to Reynaud and in Great Britain from Chamberlain to Churchill; President Franklin D. Roosevelt determined to run for an unprecedented third term; the secrets of the Enigma machine were uncovered; Norway was invaded almost simultaneously by the Allies and the Nazis; and a plane crash in Belgium spurred Hitler to scrap his first plan to invade the West and substitute a much more effective one.
THE PHONY WAR tells a vivid, anecdote-filled story of the bizarre interval -- the hush before the tempest -- that preceded the full-scale horrors of World War II.
Tom Shachtman is the author of many books on American and world history as well as novels, documentary films, and children's books. His works covering the Franklin D. Roosevelt era include THE DAY AMERICA CRASHED: 1929; THE PHONY WAR, 1939-1940; and TERRORS AND MARVELS: THE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY OF WORLD WAR II. His trilogy of studies of the Revolutionary War era include GENTLEMEN SCIENTISTS AND REVOLUTIONARIES; HOW THE FRENCH SAVED AMERICA; and the forthcoming THE FOUNDING FORTUNES. He has written documentaries for ABC, CBS, NBC, and PBS, most recently the two-hour ABSOLUTE ZERO AND THE CONQUEST OF COLD, for Nova and BBC, based on his book of the same name. He has lectured at the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian, the New York Public Library, Harvard, Stanford, Georgia Tech, and the Newberry Library.
Please contact Cliff Laube at (845) 486-7745 with questions about the event.
