The untold story of the three intelligent and glamorous young women who accompanied their famous fathers to the Yalta Conference in February 1945, and of the conference’s fateful reverberations in the waning days of World War II. Tensions during the Yalta Conference in February 1945 threatened to tear apart the wartime alliance among Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin just … Joseph Stalin just as victory was close at hand. Catherine Grace Katz uncovers the dramatic story of the three young women who were chosen by their fathers to travel with them to Yalta, each bound by fierce family loyalty, political savvy, and intertwined romances that powerfully colored these crucial days.
Kathleen Harriman was a champion skier, war correspondent, and daughter of U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union Averell Harriman. Sarah Churchill, an actress-turned-RAF officer, was devoted to her brilliant father, who depended on her astute political mind. Roosevelt’s only daughter, Anna, chosen instead of her mother Eleanor to accompany the president to Yalta, arrived there as keeper of her father’s most damaging secrets. Situated in the political maelstrom that marked the transition to a post- war world, The Daughters of Yalta is a remarkable story of fathers and daughters whose relationships were tested and strengthened by the history they witnessed and the future they crafted together.
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Catherine Grace Katz paints a vivid portrait of one of history’s great international summits through the eyes of three young women, each a daughter of a key participant. We get the inside story, and learn the compelling details that bring history to life.
In 1945 an American president, his ambassador to the Soviet Union, and a British prime minister chose to make the trip to Yalta with their daughters in tow. Over the next weeks those ‘second mates’ served as their fathers’ eyes and ears, their tasters, confidantes, and chiefs of staff. They gate-kept and play-acted, eradicated bedbugs, held their vodka, and offered up toasts, as Stalin cunningly put it, ‘to the broad sunlight of victorious peace.’ In a rich, captivating narrative, Catherine Grace Katz gives us a wholly original Yalta, one seen from a different gender and generation.
I was familiar with the individual events, but the writer wove together the individual, strong personalities of both the leaders and their daughters. Great Job! Highly recommend it.
An excellent look into the Yalta conference which shaped the world after World War II.
This book concerns the events that took place during the Yalta conference in 1945, and the three daughters of the principals – Sarah Churchill, Anna Roosevelt and Kathy Harriman. It is a fascinating look at one of the major turning points in WWII and the role that the daughters played in shaping history.
Catherine Grace Katz’s The Daughters of Yalta is a revelation. It’s a story of World War II, the origins of the Cold War, a key moment in diplomatic history, but above all a coming-of-age tale about three fascinating women in an extraordinary time.
The Daughters of Yalta is an absorbing, revealing, and expertly crafted narrative that takes us behind the scenes of some of World War Two’s most consequential periods of political leadership and diplomacy. Catherine Grace Katz possesses a novelist’s gift for character, and for how supposedly minor characters may influence and color the intimate movements of history. A truly impressive debut.
The Daughters of Yalta is yet more proof that behind every great man is an army of exceptional women. We need their stories told; so three cheers for Catherine Katz!
A story that has seldom been told. Real behind the head lines history.
Really interesting non fiction about the Yalta conference, the men in charge and the daughters who accompanied them.
Having been to a Yalta a few years ago and having photos a friend of my father in lawbrought back from his time at the conference with the signal corps, I was eager to get the story told from these young women’s eyes. I was not disappointed. The author gives enough background on each daughter for the reader to understand her relationship with her powerful father and her life experiences that allowed her to interpret her experiences. The author did extensive research, especially using the correspondence of the characters. I enjoyed every page and learned so very much.
Fresh insights into male dominated history.
An interesting take on the Yalta Conference, seen through the eyes of the three women who accompanied their fathers.
This is a great textbook on the history of the Yalta Conference that helped end the European Theater of WW2.
However,I feel the author gets stuck in the minutia of The Yalta Conference and it distracts from the premise of the book. The pictures and the lens on the time after is the most interesting part of the writing. I’d recommend it for a library or for a historian 3/5
[disclaimer: I received this book from an outside source and voluntarily read and reviewed it ]
This shows us the Yalta conference in a bit of different light then we used to.
1945 even then these three daughters proven to be useful in diplomacy and the politics of those days.
Churchill, Roosevelt and Harriman not only showed themselves as strong players in the political world but also as appreciative fathers for what their daughter each in their own way contributed.
I was a bit disappointed in Franklin Roosevelt in how he miscalculated Joseph Stalin and ignored advice from Winston Churchill and some of his own advisers. I learned new things about these two great political figures. There were some disappointments but also good. Now I understand them a bit better as a person with strengths and weaknesses.
The book did not end with the conference but followed the important moments in the lives of the main characters
Book was well researched and a joy to read.
The Daughters of Yalta by Catherine Crace Katz is a great book that is nonfiction in nature, yet easily reads as fiction (in my opinion).
I love it when I can enjoy a book and learn so much about historical events and people that I only knew little about.
In this book, I was introduced to the events surrounding, during, and after the Yalta Conference that took place in the Crimea during Feb 4-11, 1945. I knew of this, but did not know much more then overall facts. With this book, I felt like I was actually there among so many dignitaries, leaders, and politicians.
I also got to learn more about several fascinating women: Sara Churchill (daughter of Winston Churchill), Anna Roosevelt (daughter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt), and Kathleen Harriman (daughter Averell Harriman in this case envoy to Britain and later USSR amongst many other important appointed positions within the American government). It was wonderful to learn so much about so many strong, fiery, intelligent, and impressive women. I was also privy to their relationships with their parents, each other, and the pool of significant others sprinkled throughout these families. It was beyond amazing. The things I never knew.
I really enjoyed learning more about Kathleen Harriman and I have already started reading more about her. I hope to find out even more!
An excellent book that takes historical events and subjects and presents it into a contemporary format and understanding so as anyone can read, absorb, learn, and enjoy. I know I did.
5/5 stars
Thank you Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for this ARC and in return I am submitting my unbiased and voluntary review and opinion.