Democrat and Diplomat: The Life of William E. Dodd

by Robert Dallek

Overview

Robert Dallek, a luminary in the field of political biography—author of the Pulitzer Prize finalist Nixon and Kissinger and the New York Times bestselling biography of John F. Kennedy—offers here a look at the life of William Dodd, an American diplomat stationed in Nazi Germany. An insightful historical account, Democrat and Diplomat exposes the dark underbelly of 1930s Germany and explores the terrible burden of those who realized the horror that was to come.

Dodd was the U.S. Ambassador to Germany from 1933 to 1937, arriving in Berlin with his wife and daughter just as Hitler assumed the chancellorship. An unlikely candidate for the job—and not President Roosevelt's first choice—Dodd quickly came to realize that the situation in Germany was far grimmer than was understood in America. His early optimism was soon replaced by dire reports on the treatment of Jewish citizens and his pessimism about the future of Germany and Europe. Finding unwilling listeners back in the U.S., Dodd clashed repeatedly with the State Department, as well as the Nazi government, during his time as ambassador. He eventually resigned and returned to America, despairing and in ill-health.

Dodd's story was brought into public prominence last year by Erik Larsen's New York Times bestseller The Garden of Beasts. Dallek's biography, first published in 1968 and now in paperback for the first time, tells the full story of the man and his doomed years in the darkness of pre-War Berlin.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780199931729
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	10/31/2012
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	9.10(w) x 6.10(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Robert Dallek is an Emeritus Professor at Boston University. He has won the Bancroft Prize and numerous other awards for scholarship and teaching. He is the author of many books, including Nixon and Kissinger, a Pulitzer Prize finalist, and An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917-1963.

Table of Contents

Preface to the Paperback Edition ix

Preface xiii

I A Race of Settlers and Farmers 3

II The Leipzig Adventure 12

III Scientific History 21

IV Toward a Double Life 30

V Somewhat of a Jeffersonian 42

VI The Only Thing Worth Fighting For 54

VII Public Service 71

VIII Unbroken Hope 90

IX Against the Tide 110

X Ambassador by Default 129

XI Peaceful Negotiations 148

XII War and Not Peace 176

XIII Roosevelt's Ambassador 194

XIV Four Years' Service Is Enough 216

XV Reaping the Whirlwind 240

Notes 254

Bibliographical Note 292

Index 297

Editorial Reviews

Praise for Franklin D. Roosevelt and American Foreign Policy, 1932-1945:

"A dazzling narrative...elegant...history on the grandest scale, embracing a world-wide cast of characters and all the continents....All the heroes and villains of the day before yesterday are alive again in these pages—particularly Churchill, Stalin, DeGaulle, and Chiang."—New York Times Book Review

"A book that will become a landmark in its field, indispensable to scholars and critical to our understanding of American foreign policy."—The New Republic

Acclaim for John F. Kennedy: An Unfinished Life:

"One of the most engrossing biographies I have ever read.... Nothing less than a masterpiece." —David Herbert Donald, author of Lincoln

"It's hard to believe that someone could find anything new to say about John F. Kennedy, but Dallek succeeds in this riveting and well-documented biography." —The New Yorker

"An intimate portrait indeed...unexpected and important.... This is nothing if not a profile in courage." —New York Times Book Review

From the Publisher