This is about a group of American men who supported the people of England during WWII before the rest of America declared war. This book originally focuses on John Gilbert Winant, Edward R. Murrow, and Averell Harriman but it does also discuss other Americans in London. I really enjoyed reading about these men and their efforts to help England and to alert the people of America to what the British were facing. While I understand that it was important to talk about how affairs were commonplace in London during the war, I could have done without some of the portions dedicated to mentioning how Winston Churchill's daughter-in-law, Pamela, basically slept with every important British and American man to be found in London. It is fine to talk about once but to keep going back to it became a bit annoying. Besides that, this was a really interesting (and towards the end it seemed even emotional) look at London during the war and at the Americans who spent the war there.

Citizens of London, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

1) I love you because by taking a look at something other than the battles and the big names, you lulled me in to reading and caring about the war. I've always avoided reading about WWII because so many of the books are about specific battles or are about one mighty man. I find them confusing, which makes me bored, which then makes me mad because I don't want to be bored by something that should be of great import. I learned more about various battles from this book (like what the 'bulge' was in the Battle of the Bulge) than from everything I've read until now.

2) I love you because you shared with me a viewpoint I'd never seen before. FDR as rather mean and petty, Churchill as emotional, Eisenhower as a great conciliator. All that I knew of FDR was limited to the New Deal, his multiple reelections, and the photo of Graham Jackson playing the accordion at Warm Springs. It's always the case that authors can bring a particular agenda to their writing, and perhaps Lynne Olson doesn't like FDR. Even if that's the case, I enjoyed being presented with the possibility of seeing these men in a different light.

3) I love you because you brought me Gil Winant. The American ambassador to England was tremendously loved and respected by Britons, while we Americans forgot him. Learning about the important role he played in the war has been a real gift.

I was very pleased with this one, and found all of the various players in this remarkable and interesting to read. The book flows nicely, with hardly a pause and keeps the reader engaged in this chronicle of standing up to overwhelming opposition and deciding to fight on anyway. Very much recommended!

For the longer review please go here:
http://www.epinions.com/review/Book_Citizens_of_London_The_Americans_Who_Stood_With_Britain_in_Its_Darkest_Finest_Hour_Lynne_Olson/content_559636385412

As interesting as a non fiction book may be, it still takes me a while to get through it. I finally finished Citizens of London months after I started.

Citizens of London was a very readable account a small group of Americans who tried to rally their country to help the ailing British in WWII in the years before the United States officially entered the war.

My views of Roosevelt have vastly changed after reading this book. I found myself becoming very frustrated all the times he dragged his feet. It seemed as though he couldn't get through his head that Great Britain was the last hope for Europe and was just barely holding out against Hitler. He just did not get the devastation!

Here's a passage that struck me:

Since the Blitz began, some 43,000 British civilians had been killed by bombs, about half of them in London. As of the spring of 1941, far more British women and children had died in the war that had members of the country's armed forces. More than two million houses were damaged or destroyed; in the central London area, only one house in ten had escaped completely unscathed.

London was falling apart and Roosevelt barely did anything.

Moving on, the book also covered the events after the United States entered the war, showing the mostly strained allied relationship between the two countries. However, the stories of how relationships formed between American soldiers and residents of London were particularly touching. One London couple who lost a son in the war thought of one American soldier as their surrogate son and brought him into their home, letting him stay there during the duration of the war.

I'm glad that I won this book from Goodreads; it was a bit of history that I hadn't known before. And the names of the main three Americans covered in the book: Winant, Murrow and Harriman and their devotion to Great Britain will forever be stamped in my mind. As Winant said said at his farewell dinner before heading back to America, "I shall always feel that I am a Londoner."

Citizens of London is an amazing account of three Americans who lived in London that had a great influence over the relationship between Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill. As much of a key roll that John Gilbert Winant, Averell Harriman, and Edward R. Morrow played in having the US help Britain in WWII, I was surprised to find that I had heard of only Morrow before reading this book.

This interesting and intense book takes one through the lives, both private and public of those that played important rolls in the survival of England and the important relationship that it developed with America.

Truly a page turner, I found I did read slower to absorb everything, and savor the intense revelations of what did happen during those darkest hours - things our history books forgot to tell us! Lynne Olson did a spectacular job with her research and her ability to capture the essence of the times and what these "heroes" brought to Britain... hope.

Definitely a must read for anyone interested in American, British, or World War 2 history!