1941: FIGHTING THE SHADOW WAR

In 1941: Fighting the Shadow War, A Divided America in a World at War, historian Marc Wortman thrillingly explores the little-known history of America’s clandestine involvement in World War II before the attack on Pearl Harbor. Prior to that infamous day, America had long been involved in a shadow war.

This shadow war darkened the American scene where those who favored military support for the British, Chinese and Russians and those who opposed intervention mirrored and reacted to the war overseas. Journalists who had witnessed the war in person, such as radio correspondent William Shirer and essayist Philip Johnson – the latter much better known for his architectural work – and political and government leaders – most famously Charles Lindbergh and Harry Hopkins, the president’s alter ego and unofficial envoy to Winston Churchill and Joseph Stain – came back from Europe to tell conflicting stories about the war and express opposing visions of the world’s future. Unsure which way to turn, America stumbled through the shadows of war until conflict on a scale never before seen finally exploded upon the nation in 1941.

Based on many previously unpublished sources, 1941: Fighting the Shadow War ingeniously weaves together military, political and social history through sharply etched characters, including Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., one of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s most vocal antiwar foes; Britain’s spy master running a hemispheric intelligence service out of Rockefeller Center in Manhattan; Japan’s secret agent sending Tokyo vital details of port activity in Pearl Harbor; and an eight-year-old living in the shadow of Battleship Row on the day of the attack. Readers of the book will never look at American entry into World War Two in the same way again.

Marc Wortman served as an advisor for Humanus Films' multi-award-winning feature-length documentary, "The Millionaires’ Unit – U.S. Naval Aviators in the First World War," which was inspired by the book. Recipient of Sigma Delta Chi and CASE feature writing prizes and a Daily Beast Long Reads selection, Marc has written articles on a wide range of subjects for Vanity Fair, Smithsonian, Town & Country, and many other popular and specialized publications. He was the recipient of a coveted New York Public Library Research Fellowship. His discovery of a 1918 letter documenting a long-rumored grave robbery of Geronimo's skull by members of Skull & Bones drew worldwide press coverage. His reviews and essays on history and other subjects appear frequently to The Daily Beast. He is also a Contributing Writer for Start-Up, a publication covering the biotechnology industry. He was formerly a columnist for the New Haven Register and an editor at the Yale Alumni Magazine. He has spoken to audiences around the country and appeared on CNN, NPR, C-SPAN BookTV, History Channel, and numerous other broadcast outlets. Marc was born in St. Louis, Missouri and grew up in the Washington, DC, area. Following college at Brown University, he received a doctorate in Comparative Literature from Princeton University. He lives with his family in New Haven, Connecticut, where he coaches lots of youth baseball.