Author and journalist Henry Hemming discusses his new book, Our Man in New York, which describes the adventures of British spymaster William Stephenson who plotted to bring the United States into World War Two.

Surveys showed that just 14% of the US population wanted to go to war against Nazi Germany. But soon that began to change...
Those campaigning against America's entry into the war, such as legendary aviator Charles Lindbergh, talked of a British-led plot to drag the US into the conflict. They feared that the British were somehow flooding the American media with 'fake news', infiltrating pressure groups, rigging opinion polls and meddling in US politics.
These claims were shocking and wild: they were also true.
That truth is revealed here for the first time by bestselling author Henry Hemming, using hitherto private and classified documents, including the diaries of his own grandparents, who were briefly part of Stephenson's extraordinary influence campaign that was later described in the Washington Post as 'arguably the most effective in history'. Stephenson - who saved the life of Hemming's father - was a flawed maverick, full of contradictions, but one whose work changed the course of the war, and whose story can now be told in full.

History Extra podcast

Fake news in World War Two

Sir Max Hastings discusses his new book on the iconic World War Two raid, describing the ingenuity and courage of the operation, as well as the terrible cost

Max Hastings on the Dambusters

Roger Moorhouse tells the story of the 1939 battle for Poland that saw the country dismembered by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union.

Poland, 1939: World War Two begins

Historian and journalist Tim Bouverie discusses his new book Appeasing Hitler, which explores the failed diplomacy that led to World War Two and the Nazi domination of Europe.

Appeasement and the Road to World War Two

Penguin herder with one foot in the clouds & the other in the future. I fall over quite a lot...

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