Fleet Admiral William Daniel Leahy (1875-1959) served as the most senior US military officer on active duty during World War II. As Chief of Naval Operations (1937-1939), he oversaw the US Navy’s preparations for war. After retiring from the Navy, he was appointed governor of Puerto Rico in 1939 by his close friend President Franklin D. Roosevelt, before serving as US Ambassador to France (1940–42) in Vichy where he had limited success keeping the Vichy government free of German control. Leahy was recalled to active duty as personal Chief of Staff to FDR in 1942 and chaired the Joint Chiefs of Staff throughout World War II. He continued as personal Chief of Staff under President Harry S. Truman until his retirement in 1949. “This is probably the definitive biography of Admiral Leahy... Adams has worked hard on this book: it is well written, well researched and comprehensive.” — James Leutze, The American Historical Review “[A] workmanlike and overdue biography of a naval officer too long relegated to the shadows... Biographer Adams reminds us that the reticent admiral was a truly unique figure... The author relates that Leahy once told an aide that when asked about him the aide should, ‘Tell him anything so long as it’s the truth.’ Professor Adams has heeded that admonition and while the result isn’t racy, it is certainly sound.” — Richard S. Cloward, Naval War College Review “Henry Adams has produced an excellent and much needed chronicle of a man generally ignored during most of his active life by the mass media. In addition, the book is enjoyable to read.” — Burton Wright, Armed Forces & Society

Victory Without Peace concentrates on the U.S. Navy in European and Near Eastern waters during the post-World War I era. As participants in the Versailles peace negotiations, the Navy was charged with executing the naval terms of the Armistice as well as preserving stability and peace. U.S. warships were deploying into the Near East, Baltic, Adriatic, and Northern Europe, while simultaneously withdrawing its demobilized forces from European waters. This signifies the first time the U.S. Navy contributed to peacetime efforts, setting a precedent continues today. Conversely, Congressional appropriations handicapped this deployment by demobilization, general naval policy and postwar personnel, and operating funds reductions. Though reluctant to allocate postwar assets into seemingly unimportant European and Near Eastern waters, the Navy was pressured by the State Department and the American Relief Administration's leader, Herbert Hoover, to deploy necessary forces. Most of these were withdrawn by 1924 and the European Station assumed the traditional policy of showing the flag.

Examines the rapidly changing role of diplomacy.

“Straightforward, relaxed memoirs by the prodigiously industrious and learned Harvard diplomatic historian and head of the Research and Analysis Section of OSS... Fine reading for anyone interested in academic life and in the connections between scholarship and policy in foreign affairs.” — Gaddis Smith, Foreign Affairs “William L. Langer intended this autobiography as an exemplary tale of how a poor boy from an immigrant family made good in America... Langer’s autobiography provides clues to his patriotic identification with the establishment and to the prodigious energy and intelligence that produced his historical works.” — Dorothy Ross, The American Historical Review “[T]his informal, modest, and understated volume will please and inform both those who knew the author personally and those who knew him only through his publications... As a historian, Langer defies categorization... he explored new areas and new techniques for research — regional studies, demography, disease, and psychoanalysis. His autobiography is neither a full description nor critical appraisal of the profession, but it should convey to a younger generation the historian’s search for truth, his pride in craftsmanship, and his sense of social responsibility.” — Richard W. Leopold, The Journal of American History

The untold story of how intelligence shaped US perceptions and policy towards France during the early Cold War.

With a new preface by the author Controversial in nature, this book demonstrates that the United States did not need to use the atomic bomb against Japan. Alperovitz criticizes one of the most hotly debated precursory events to the Cold War, an event that was largely responsible for the evolution of post-World War II American politics and culture.

With over 5,200 entries, this volume remains one of the most extensive annotated bibliographies on the USA’s fight against Japan in the Second World War. Including books, articles, and de-classified documents up to the end of 1987, the book is organized into six categories: Part 1 presents reference works, including encyclopedias, pictorial accounts, military histories, East Asian histories, hisotoriographies. Part 2 covers diplomatic-political aspects of the war against Japan. Part 3 contains sources on the economic and legal aspects of the war against Japan. Part 4 presents sources on the military apsects of the war – embracing land, air and sea forces. Religious aspects of the war are covered in Part 5 and Part 6 deals with the social and cultural aspects, including substantial sections on the treatment of Japanese minorities in the USA, Hawaii, Canada and Peru.