Rating: 
Summary: Interesting Read but title should be 'Morgenthaus Follies'
Review: An interesting discussion of how US policy towards postwar Germany was developed. I do think the title should be changed since the bulk of the book centers on Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau. His mood swings are covered in great detail as he tries to advance his vengeful plan to turn Germany into an agrarian postwar state. It does present an interesting view into how Roosevelt operated but it did leave me thinking what qualifications Morgenthau had to be Treasury Secretary other than being Roosevelt's next door neighbor at Hyde Park. Truman gets about 25 pages and, in very difficult circumstances, acquits himself very well considering that his predecessor did not see fit to include him in any way prior to his death.
Rating:
Summary: Narrowly focused, well-written
Review: I thought "The Conquerers" was a very interesting look at a particularly discrete period in history. Although I've read a fair bit about this period, Mr. Beschloss still taught me a great deal about the extent of FDR's infirmity at the end of his life and the involvement of Henry Morganthau, Jr., in the discussions about post-war Germany. Mr. Beschloss writes well, and the book is easy reading. My only criticism (and it's a minor one) is that Mr. Beschloss uses too many footnotes for text (I have no problem with using footnotes for citation and attribution and, in this post-Ambrose, post-Kearns Goodwin day, any good historian should be particularly diligent about attribution). Including too much substance in the footnotes, though, distracts the reader. As Judge Abner Mikva famously wrote in a law review article in 1986, "If footnotes were a rational form of communication, Darwinian evolution would have resulted in our eyes being set on a vertical plain rather than on an inefficient horizontal plain."
Rating: 
Summary: Popular History
Review: An easy read. Written to be a best seller, not a history. The book is more about Morgenthau than either FDR or HST. A comparison of the sections on Truman (the resignation of Morgenthau is a good example) with "Truman" by David McCulough shows the slant. But Beschloss' main reference in Morgenthau III.On a par with History Channel. Still, a money maker for the author. Not unlike Ambrose's more recent works. GFH
Rating: 
Summary: The story of how our world was saved--magnificent!
Review: One way of looking at a book is how important the subject was. And this book shows how we were saved from the danger of having to fight Germany again.
The credit goes to Presidents Roosevelt and Truman and this history shows how they managed to do that. I now understand what these people were like in private and how they dealt with people like Churchill and Joseph Stalin. The Conquerors brought all that to life for me.
And another thing that a history book should do is show how certain things and people were more important than we realized. That is obviously why the author tells us who Henry Morgenthau was and why he had such influence on Franklin Roosevelt, his closest friend, when he tried to fight the Holocaust and get Roosevelt to make sure that postwar Germany did not grow another Hitler and wage another war.
Sometimes some people get unsettled when they read a book like this one that shatters old cliches in other books published before. I now see that Morgenthau should have been a much more important character in earlier biographies and histories of FDR and HST and World War Two.
This is a book that I am proud to own and have been talking to all my friends about since reading it.
Rating: 
Summary: very limiting.
Review: THis book takes a higly detailed look at a very limited era. It is a difficult read full of minutia about a period no one really cares too much about. The devot history lover will find it more interesting to read about Richard Nixon and his Senate follies rather than this rah-rah US propogranda.
Rating:
Summary: The Devil Is In The Details
Review: Beschloss presents a detailed view of the inner workings of the Roosevelt administration, especially the roles of Morganthau, Stimson and Welles. The details of the Morganthau Plan have been public for decades so I don't understand why he devoted so much space to it. Beschloss is critical of FDR's lack of public condemnation of the Nazi's Final Solution and implies that bombing the extermination camps may have stemmed the tide of mass murder of Jews and other "undesirable" people. Even if the Allies had sufficient aircraft and crews in 1943 (we didn't) and could reach the camps with enough aircraft to inflict substantial damage (improbable), what good would it do to kill the poor inmates ourselves? The Germans were very resourceful in relocating other industries to prevent bombing; they would have also taken steps to shelter the death camps. Had Beschloss furnished and evaluated the technical details of our potential to bomb the camps, that may have been a useful road to travel. As it is, the subject is left as a brainstorm idea that has not been developed. As to "blowing the whistle" on the camps, it may very well have encouraged the Nazi brutes to double their efforts. By 1943, the extermination of every Jew in Europe was Hitler's #1 priority; even at the cost of diverting vital resources from the war effort. Threats of retribution would have been laughed off as propaganda. On the positive side, the portrayal of events in Quebec, Yalta and Potsdam was fascinating and he did a great job humanizing FDR, Churchill, Stalin and Truman as well as their subbordinates.
Rating:
Summary: Difficult Decisions Proved to be Successful
Review: I have not read any of the other reviews because I didn't want to be influenced by someone else's thinking. I wanted to read the book because this is what was taking place in the world when I was an infant. Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin having to decide what to do with post-war Germany as they met at Yalta. Truman, Churchill, and Stalin meeting at Postdam, Germany, to decide the same. Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau wanting to punish Germany to an extent that would likely anger the Germans to the extent that the Treaty of Versailles following WWI led to the rise of Adolph Hitler. Had Roosevelt and Truman not insisted that Germany never again threaten the world, the country might be more dangerous today. Monuments to World War II Germans are found in Germany today, but not to Hitler or any of his cronies. The author brings out the personalities of Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin, Truman, and other members of Roosevelt's cabinet to illustrate their strengths, weaknesses, and insecurities. Roosevelt's controversial decision not to publicly acknowledge the Nazi murder of the Jews is debated. Perhaps, it is suggested, that Roosevelt wanted the world to feel the main issue in WWII was to win the war against Nazism, not to favor any special interest group. Also, because it may have prolonged the war since any bombing of the death camps would divert planes from other targets. Roosevelt must have assumed he would live through his fourth term since Truman was thrust into the presidency as a neophyte and had to hurridly learn on the job. He distinguished himself well. He had to make the controversial decision to drop the atomic bombs on Japan which saved thousands of lives of American soldiers when Japan surrendered. A lot was going on when I came into this world and this book provided me with a greater insight of what was taking place.
Rating:
Summary: The Battle over Germany's Future
Review: A subject which is not so commonly explored in the history of WWII is the struggle to decide the future of Germany in order to avoid yet another war. This is thr subject of historian Michael Beschloss's latest work. The title is a little misleading in that it does not focus solely or even primarily on Roosevelt and Truman. Rather Beschloss, in a manner similar to David Halberstam and Stephen Ambrose takes a narrative, expositional and non-scholarly linear approach to the subject. One character who plays a major role in this book is Henry Morgenthau, Roosevelt's Jewish Treasury secretary. Sickened by what he learns of German atrocities, Morgenthau is convinved to promote a plan that calls for Germany to be turned into a series of agricultural cantons with all its industry destroyed. Secretary of State Cordell Hull and Secretary of War Henry Stimson are opposed to the plan and work to undermine it. Roosevelt is seen as an increasingly distant figure. His method of playing one aid off another while keeping his true thoughts to himself ultimately undermines his successor Truman, who upon taking office knows nothing of Roosevelt's thinking and is forced to improvise, Churchill is reduced to irrelevance, his ideas largely ignored by FDR. I do not fully agree with Beschloss's thesis. As far as I can see, no comprehensive plan for the fate of Germany was ever agreed upon. During the earlier years of the war, through June 1944, Roosevelt was overly concerned with keeping Stalin happy for important reasons. He was afraid Stalin would make a separate peace with Hitler. He failed to foresee the break down of the alliance and the need to check the Soviets. As it turned out, none of the plans worked out as well as the reality. No one foresaw the permanent division of Germany or that Conrad Adenaur would turn West Germany firmly towards the orbit of the United States and away from reunion with the East,thereby destroying forever the old style German nationalism. Beschloss spends a lot of time chronicling the various plans that were proposed and not enough on why none of those plans ever came to pass. The book makes for easy reading and you do not have to know much history of this era to enjoy it. I learned a lot about some figures such as Morgenthau of whom I knew little. I would recommend it but do not take it as gospel.
Rating:
Summary: I agree--one of the best I've ever read
Review: I loved this history! I've read a great many volumes on Presidents and on the Second World War and this reads like a thrilling new story that I hadn't ever known about or read about. There are new facets of Franklin D. and Harry S. that are amazing to me and I didn't know that F.D.R. and Churchill disagreed about so many things that pertained to Adolph Hitler. Henry Morgenthau Jr.'s role was also a new experience for me. He was important in this drama and I think that the author gives him his due importance without overstating his importance in this period. I would give this book five stars.
Rating: 
Summary: The Conquerors
Review: The title is pretty decieving. Read only if you want to know what role Henry Morbenthau, Roosevelt's Secretary of the Treasury played in planning for post-war Germany. Morganthau actually sought the post of Secretary of Agriculture. Would have been better of him, the USA and the book if he had gotten it.
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