The Early Career And Governorship Of Paul V Mcnutt

The Early Career and Governorship of Paul V. McNutt

Paul V. McNutt and the Age of FDR

This “definitive biography of Indiana Gov. Paul V. McNutt” shows the politician’s “importance on the national stage" through the Great Depression and WWII (Indianapolis Star). The 34th Governor of Indiana, head of the WWII Federal Security Agency, and ambassador to the Philippines, Paul V. McNutt was a major figure in mid-twentieth century American politics whose White House ambitions were effectively blocked by his friend and rival, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. This historical biography explores McNutt’s life, his era, and his relationship with FDR. McNutt’s life underscores the challenges and changes Americans faced during an age of economic depression, global conflict, and decolonialization. With extensive research and detail, biographer Dean J. Kotlowski sheds light on the expansion of executive power at the state level during the Great Depression, the theory and practice of liberalism as federal administrators understood it in the 1930s and 1940s, the mobilization of the American home front during World War II, and the internal dynamics of the Roosevelt and Truman administrations.

Philippine Sanctuary

During World War II, the United States government and many Western democracies limited or closed themselves off entirely to Jewish refugees. By contrast, a Pacific island nation decided to keep its doors open. Between 1938 and 1941, the Philippine Commonwealth provided safe asylum to more than 1,300 German Jews. In highlighting the efforts by Philippine president Manual Quezon and High Commissioner Paul V. McNutt, Bonnie M. Harris offers fuller implications for our understanding of the Roosevelt administration's response to the Holocaust. This untold history is brought to life by focusing on the incredible journey of synagogue cantor Joseph Cysner. Drawing from oral histories, memoirs, and personal papers, Harris documents Cysner's harrowing escape from the Nazis and his heroic rescue by the American-led Jewish community of the Philippines in 1939. Moving and rich in historical detail, Philippine Sanctuary reveals new insights for an overlooked period in our recent history, and emphasizes the continued importance of humanitarian efforts to aid those being persecuted.