President Roosevelt and the Coming of the War, 1941 was published by Yale University Press in 1948, and it was the last book Beard saw into print — he died in September of that year. The book was a systematic indictment of Franklin Roosevelt’s foreign policy, arguing that Roosevelt had deliberately provoked Japan into attacking Pearl Harbor in order to bring the United States into a war that the American public did not want.
Beard’s argument rested on a careful reading of the diplomatic record: he examined the sequence of embargoes, freezes, and ultimatums directed at Japan in 1941 and concluded that they were designed not to preserve peace but to provoke a military response. He did not argue that Roosevelt desired a Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor specifically, but that Roosevelt wanted war and was willing to sacrifice candor and constitutional procedure to get it.
The book was devastatingly reviewed by the liberal historians who had been Beard’s allies for decades. Samuel Eliot Morison called it “the most disgraceful book by a reputable historian.” The intensity of the reaction reflected not just disagreement with Beard’s thesis but a sense of betrayal: Beard, the great progressive, was now making common cause with the isolationists and Roosevelt-haters. His reputation suffered a decline from which it took decades to recover.
Subsequent scholarship has vindicated some of Beard’s claims about Roosevelt’s maneuvering while rejecting others. The broader question — whether presidents have the right to lead a reluctant nation into war through indirection — remains one of the central problems of American foreign policy.
Collecting President Roosevelt and the Coming of the War
First edition (Yale University Press, New Haven, 1948): Cloth binding. Beard’s last book adds biographical interest.
Market values:
- First edition in dust jacket: $30–$80
- Without jacket: $10–$25