Rating: 
Summary: Pleasing writing style, informative
Review: Beschloss writes extremely well, in a breezy, chatty, informal way that makes it seem as if he's sitting in your living room, narrating the story. He takes complicated events and reduces them to human terms and even a history novice could comprehend this plot as it unfolds. The star of the show is undoubtedly Franklin Roosevelt, the most important personage of the Big Three and arguably, the most interesting. Roosevelt's leadership during WWII is extremely difficult to criticize, because he surrounded himself with magnificent minions, led by the incomparable George C. Marshall. FDR's military meddling was minimal, his judgments on subordinates superb. Contrast his military selections (MacArthur, Ike, Halsey, Nimitz, Bradley), to Lincoln's (Hooker, Pope, Burnside, McClellan, etc.) FDR's personal charisma and tireless devotion to duty in WWII saved the day. Beschloss spends considerably less time on Truman and the well-known facts about the plain from Missouri are repeated: he knew virtually nothing about FDR's war plans in 1945, nothing about the atom bomb and his knowledge of Churchill and Stalin was minimal, to say the least. FDR kept Truman in the dark as Vice President and the two had only met together several times prior to Roosevelt's death in Warm Spring in April, 1945. A weakness of book is undoubtedly Beschloss' lengthy segments on the Morgenthau plan. Though this is important in the scheme of things, it doesn't make for interesting reading. Much stronger are his personal references to the main characters. He includes some little-known facts about FDR's dying moments, including some interesting tid-bits about his cousin, Mrs. Suckley, Eleanor and his mistress from the WWI era, Lucy Mercer. This is an excellent book, sure to please any World War II or FDR buff.
Rating:
Summary: Roosevelt and Truman
Review: The Conquerors provides an insight to the Roosevelt and Truman Administration, and some information on the meetings, such as Yalta with the Big Three. However, it covers Henry Morgenthau, Jr. too extensively--especially his relationship with FDR, Truman, and other Cabinet members. Not to mention, the Morgenthau Plan is given too much attention. In regards to FDR, Beschloss seems to want readers to understand that FDR was determined not to make the same mistakes as Wilson, George, and Clemenceau did at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919. Overall, The Conquereors is a decent book and should be read.
Rating:
Summary: where's the rest?
Review: I am a fan of Beschloss and liked this work, but I felt it was incomplete. There was much intense focus on Henry Morgenthau and his plan for Germany - which indeed was a story worth telling - but Truman's contribution was short-changed. It's almost as if Beschloss' editor was demanding the manuscript and he had to wrap up quickly, unable to devote his characteristic comprehensiveness to the entire linear spectrum covered by the title... Still, Beschloss provided excellent insight into the inner workings of FDR's foreign policy team and challenges for the post WW2 leaders...
Rating: 
Summary: Another Roosevelt book, and Truman too
Review: This reviewer has read many books about Franklin Roosevelt, but not many recently because they are too repetitious. What did I find out here that I didn't read before?- Roosevelt's last evening on earth seemed to be somewhat pleasant. Although he looked tired, after a drink he spoke with animation about his forthcoming trip to the San Francisco United Nations Conference. The following afternoon, April 12th, his next to last words were "I have a terrific pain in the back of my head." His last words as he was carried to his room were "Be careful." A statement on page 51 about the religions could be interpreted as biased or prejudiced. However, he appointed men of all major religions to high office. So in this case actions spoke louder than words.
Rating:
Summary: Rise and Fall of the Morgentau Plan
Review: THE CONQUERORS is a good case of 'you can't tell a book by its cover.' The cover features equally prominent portraits of Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman, and the subtitle is 'Roosevelt, Truman and the Destruction of Hitler's Germany, 1941-1945. What this book should have been titled is 'The Rise and Fall of the Morgentau Plan, 1944-45.' The cover picture should have either exclusively been of Roosevelt's treasury secretary, Henry Morgentau, or of Morgentau flanked by smaller pictures of a supporting cast including Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin, Henry Stimson, Cordell Hull, John McCloy and perhaps others. Truman plays a decidedly small role in this book, but I guess he and Roosevelt are more recognizable than Morgentau and the rest of the Roosevelt cabinet, thus the book cover. Roosevelt certainly is prominent in this account of Morgentau's attempt to commit the United States to a policy of reducing post-war Germany to a series of agrarian states. But I've never read a book in which Roosevelt comes off so bad. Although author Michael Beschloss acknowledges, at the end of the book, that FDR made some important decisions throughout the war, the president in this story is a doddering, confused man creeping inexorably towards death. While Beschloss tries to attribute a method of Roosevelt's apparent madness (or senility), this explanation again comes at the end of the book and is not too convincing considering FDR's portrayal as being not only sick and confused, but vacillating and untrustworthy. Similarly, Morgentau is essentially the protagonist in this story, but Beschloss ultimately rejects his vision of a diminished Germany at the end of the book. Morgentau is portrayed as something like a tragic figure, but he also comes across as whiney, vindictive and sycophantic. These elements come together as a book that is almost as confused as Beschloss version of FDR. In a sense, the book is too short. There is no reason for the story to end in 1945 and not a few years later, after the Marshall Plan was implemented. The book then could have had an arc beginning with consideration of the Morgentau Plan, revealing why that approach was rejected, and concluding with why the Marshall Plan worked. Instead, what's left is part of the story, crammed between a questionably relevant anecdote about an assassination attempt against Hitler, and a highly compressed history of the first four years of post-war German history. Flawed though THE CONQUERORS is, it is fast paced and to some extent compelling. But these stylistic strengths serve as a hint at what this book could have been, something better than it actually is.
Rating: 
Summary: A most interesting history book
Review: In this fascinating book, author Michael Bescloss lays out the debates and machinations within the American government, and between the Allied powers, over how Germany would be handled in the aftermath of the Second World War. Beginning with the July 20, 1944, attempt on Hitler's life, the author shows how various people battled for their plans, ranging from Henry Morgenthau's plans for a demilitarized, deindustrialized multiple German states, to Henry Stimson's plans to revitalize Germany. Along the way, the author gives some fascinating insights into Roosevelt's leadership style, and the completely different style of his successor, Harry Truman. I must admit that I found this to have been one of the most interesting history books that I have read in a long time. For quite a while now, I thought that I had a good grasp on World War Two, but Michael Bescloss has shown me that there is quite a lot I do not understand. I really enjoyed reading this book, and highly recommend it to everyone interested in World War Two.
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Summary: I, Morgenthau
Review: A better and more accurate title to this book would have been, "I got access to Henry Morgenthau's papers and transcripts of meetings, and you didn't!" The Conquerors is not about Roosevelt or Truman or how the United States went about forming a democratic Germany. Beschloss instead writes about the endless infighting between Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau, a political hack with very little understanding of economics, history, diplomacy, . . ., and the War Department, in the form of the more serious Stimson. Well, the book is indirectly about Roosevelt, the craftiest president we'll ever see--sorry Bill--who excelled at keeping his cabinet just informed enough to be useful to him. Best quote in the book is from Secretary of State Cordell Hull, when he tells Morgenthau that Roosevelt never lets him do anything important in foreign policy: "I am not told what is going on, that's done on a higher level." Morgenthau never realizes that one of the reasons he was allowed to float his "Morgenthau Plan", which called for a subsistence level post-war Germany economy, was so that Roosevelt could appear to please Stalin, who held even harsher views, and also to signal to the Marshall that the US would not sign a separate peace treaty with the German Reich. Of course, Morgenthau and Hull were not singled out for special treatment; Roosevelt used just about everybody as he shifted favors to keep his New Deal coalition together. Beschloss writes appreciatively at the end of the book on how great Roosevelt was in spite of his penchant for not stating his policy intentions to his cabinet, a tactic which served his ultimate goal: destroying Nazi Germany and winning the War.
Rating:
Summary: Michael Beschloss at his best!
Review: As a presidential historian who regularly makes appearances on PBS and other network television, Michael Beschloss is certainly qualified to offer his perspective on the presidencies of FDR and Harry Truman. "The Conquerors" is easily readable as scholarly works go and the author has definitely established his research. The difficult dilemma of what to do with defeated Nazi Germany is discussed from the view of the decision makers. How did the two presidents arrive at their final conclusions? The book brings out the many factors that entered into the post-war policy making process, including the fear of another future war and the re-emergence of Nazi ideology. The book makes use of a plethora of primary sources, among them letters and correspondence that I believe are unveiled for the first time in this book. Readers are met with a deluge of information on Henry Morgenthau who played prominent role in the process. In summary, this is a highly intriguing read, not in the same league as "John Adams", but well worth the time and effort. Check it out.
Rating:
Summary: Best book I have read this year
Review: Beschloss is to be commended for an unbelievable work of research, balance, fairness and writing style. Conquerors makes you feel as if you're reading an exciting tale and it has lots of new information that I never knew before. He uses Roosevelt's Secretary of the Treasury as a fulcrum to show us all sorts of new sides of Harry S. Truman and Franklin D. Roosevelt. Despite all the books previously written on World War II, this is an exciting new story that no one should miss. I loved reading it.
Rating: 
Summary: THE CONQUERORS
Review: A VERY DISAPPOINTING AND FOR THE MOST PART BORING BOOK. THE BOOK IS NOT REALLY ABOUT FDR AND PRESIDENT TRUMAN AS THE TITLE SUGGESTS, BUT RATHER IS ABOUT HENRY MORGENTHAU, THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY, A LITTLE MOUSEY MAN I HAD LITTLE INTEREST IN. SORRY, BUT I WAS GLAD WHEN I WAS FINISHED AND COULD GO ON TO READ SOMETHING BETTER. GEORGE
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