“This is a spellbinding, character-driven account of what Franklin Roosevelt called the 'Unconditional Surrender Meeting,' the ten days at Casablanca that altered the course of World War II.”
In January 1943, at a turning point in World War II, Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and their top military commanders met in secret in bomb-damaged, spy-infested Casablanca to decide how to win the war. For ten tense days, the Allies wrestled over strategy—whether to strike in Europe’s soft underbelly or push directly into France—while questioning each other’s judgment, clashing over colonial futures, and navigating the egos of leaders like Charles de Gaulle, George C. Marshall, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and George S. Patton Jr. In The Devils Will Get No Rest, James B. Conroy delivers the first full, behind-the-scenes account of the Casablanca Conference, revealing the fraught debates, personal rivalries, and uneasy alliances that shaped the path from defense to offense. Drawing on fresh research and overlooked memoirs, Conroy captures how, in the face of global peril, an alliance of necessity became a partnership capable of defeating the Axis.
James B. Conroy is an award-winning author and Honorary Fellow of the Massachusetts Historical Society. His previous works include Our One Common Country, a finalist for the Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize, and Lincoln’s White House, winner of the Abraham Lincoln Institute’s annual book award and co-winner of the Lincoln Prize. He lives in Massachusetts and Martha’s Vineyard with his wife, Lynn.
Our Speaker Series is free & open to the public! Light refreshments will be served.
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This series is made possible by our generous sponsor, Christine Mayer, and is presented in partnership with the Wellesley Free Library.