Day of Deceit

DAY OF DECEIT is an intriguing book of greater interest for its political science than its history. Author Robert Stinnett weaves a compelling and plausible scenario by which the administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt, handcuffed by protectionist forces in Congress, secretly provoked the Japanese into bombing Pearl Harbor in order to enter WWII. This hypothesis is decades old, but Stinnett does a commendable job of using recently released documents to link key fatal decisions in Honolulu back to Washington. But Stinnett loses the listener when he tries to lay blame for the deaths at Pearl Harbor directly on FDR and his staff. The abridged text, well narrated by Ferrer, occasionally overwhelms even the most attentive listeners with a daunting sea of names and military jargon. J.B.B. (c) AudioFile 2000, Portland, Maine