A new and original analysis of the mission undertaken by FDR's Secretary of State during the Phoney War, Rofe’s work explains the motivations and goals of Roosevelt through an analysis the president's foreign policy and of the nature of the Anglo-American relationship of the time.
"A valuable addition to the historiography of US foreign policy on the eve of World War II."
--Journal of American Studies
"The few historians who have previously looked at the Welles mission have paid insufficient attention to its full context and ambitions. Rofe addresses this problem with a fluid, compelling examination of the full range of Roosevelt's motives in sending Welles to Rome, Berlin, Paris, and London in the fateful winter of 1940."
--International Journal
"Rofe's well-organized book will be an important contribution to the literature on Roosevelt's foreign policy. If Warren F. Kimball's The Juggler: Franklin Roosevelt as Wartime Statesman still stands as a model in the effort to explore Roosevelt's motivations and objectives, Rofe too has succeeded here."
--The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society
"A new and fascinating look at one of the most important diplomatic initiatives of World War II. A must read for anyone interested in American foreign policy in the past or of the present."
--Professor Randall B. Woods, University of Arkansas
"Simon Rofe has shed light on an important 'might have been' in the build up to US involvement in the Second World War. Sumner Welles' mission to Europe, had it been given a chance to succeed, could have changed the course of history."
--Professor Andrew Williams, School of International Relations, University of St. Andrews
Introduction: The Mission of Sumner Welles to Europe (Feb-Mar 1940), Rooseveltian Foreign Policy and Anglo-American Relations in the Late 1930s * The Anglo-American Relationship of 1938 and 1939: A Relationship in the Making * War and Peace: The Phoney War, "Like Spectators at a Football Match" * "Wishing Welles:" The Immediate Origins of the Welles Mission in January and February 1940 * Hope, Despair, Friends: Welles in Rome, Berlin and Paris, 17 February-12 March 1940 * "The Grass Snake" Arrives: Welles in London, 13 March-15 March 1940 * Increasingly Forlorn: Welles Heads Home via Rome * Conclusion: The Welles Mission: A Short-Term Legacy and a Historical Evaluation
