Robert Conroy

To the generation of Americans who lived through it, the Second World War was the defining event of the 20th century, and the defining events of that war were played out in the year 1942. It was a time when an unexpected attack on American territory pulled an unprepared country into a terrifying new brand of warfare with a ruthless enemy. Soon after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, German U-boats were sinking hundreds of US merchant ships, some right off the American coast. In the Pacific, Japan's Army and Navy far outmatched those of the United States and was threatening the American mainland from Alaska to the Panama Canal. The beginning of 1942 was a relentless cataract of defeats. The Japanese annihilated MacArthur's 130,000-man army in the Philippines and set into motion the infamous "Death March" on Bataan. Hong Kong fell, followed by Malaya, with its vast natural resources, and then Singapore itself. By May, it appeared to many that the entire Western Pacific, including Australia would be in Japanese hands. Then, in June, the tide began to turn. In this riveting account, acclaimed novelist and historian Winston Groom relates the story of 1942 as it has never been told before, with an accomplished storyteller's eye for the time's fascinating tales and characters -- from the great leaders of the 20th century to war heroes such as Gen. Jimmy Doolittle, who led a daring revenge raid on Tokyo, to lesser-known but equally fascinating characters such as Claire "High Pockets" Phillips, an attractive actress and dancer who, after her husband was killed while a prisoner of war, used the nightclub she ran in Manila to front a spy-and-supply ring that got desperately needed items into the POW camps and probed Japanese intelligence officers for vital information. 1942 tells the story of America's most critical hour -- a year of perseverance, courage, and ingenuity in the face of great odds, during which America rose against adversity and displayed the qualities that have made her what she is to this day. - Jacket flap.

Outraged when the U.S. Navy seizes three Confederates aboard an English sailing shop, Britain retaliates by entering the fray in support of the Rebels and suddenly it's a whole new war. Once again, cotton is king as the North's blockade crumbles before the might of the Royal Navy. While President Lincoln confronts the monumental challenge of vanquishing mighty Britannia, the Redcoats revive their 1812 penchant for burning down American cities, and Union troops see Canada as ripe for the picking. From the Mississippi bayou to the Pennsylvania farmlands to the woods of Maine, the great armies of Generals Grant and Lee face off in the nation's deadliest conflicts. And to the victor goes history.

The year is 1901. Germany's navy is the second largest in the world; their army, the most powerful. But with the exception of a small piece of Africa and a few minor islands in the Pacific, Germany is without an empire. Kaiser Wilhelm II demands that the United States surrender its newly acquired territories: Guam, Puerto Rico, Cuba, and the Philippines. President McKinley indignantly refuses, so with the honor and economic future of the Reich at stake, the Kaiser launches an invasion of the United States, striking first on Long Island. Now the Americans, with their army largely disbanded, must defend the homeland. When McKinley suffers a fatal heart attack, the new commander in chief, Theodore Roosevelt, rallies to the cause, along with Confederate general James Longstreet. From the burning of Manhattan to the climactic Battle of Danbury, American forces face Europe's most potent war machine in a blazing contest of will against strength.

In April 1945, the Allies are charging toward Berlin from the west, the Russians from the east. For Hitler, the situation is hopeless. But at this turning point in history, another war is about to explode.To win World War II, the Allies dealt with the devil. Joseph Stalin helped FDR, Churchill, and Truman crush Hitler. But what if "Uncle Joe" had given in to his desire to possess Germany and all of Europe? In this stunning novel, Robert Conroy picks up the history of the war just as American troops cross the Elbe into Germany. Then Stalin slams them with the brute force of his enormous Soviet army.From American soldiers and German civilians trapped in the ruins of Potsdam to U.S. military men fighting behind enemy lines, from a scholarly Russia expert who becomes a secret player in a new war to Stalin's cult of killers in Moscow, this saga captures the human face of international conflict. With the Soviets vastly outnumbering the Americans--but undercut by chronic fuel shortages and mistrust--Eisenhower employs a brilliant strategy of retreat to buy critical time for air superiority. Soon, Truman makes a series of controversial decisions, enlisting German help and planning to devastate the massive Red Army by using America's ultimate and most secret weapon.From the Trade Paperback edition.

Imagines an alternate-history World War II in which the United States fatefully takes Churchill and Patton's controversial advice to invade Berlin to prevent Stalin's expansion into Europe.