View online

Reception: 5:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. | Event: 6:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.
This event is free and open to the public. Register today to join us in person or to view the event online.

Join us in conversation with James B. Conroy, author of The Devils Will Get No Rest: FDR, Churchill, and the Plan that Won the War, a character-driven account of the Casablanca Conference of January 1943, an Anglo-American clash over military strategy that produced a winning plan when World War II could have gone either way. The Devils Will Get No Rest is the first full account of the secret conference, which British Prime Minister Winston Churchill called the most important Allied conclave of the war.

In a secret, no-holds-barred, 10-day debate in a Moroccan warzone, protected by British marines and elite American troops, Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, Charles de Gaulle, George C. Marshall, Dwight D. Eisenhower, George S. Patton Jr., Sir Alan Brooke, Lord Louis Mountbatten, Sir Harold Alexander, and their military peers questioned each other’s competence, doubted each other’s visions, and argued their way through choices that could win or lose the war. This book details a master class in strategy by the legendary statesmen, generals, and admirals who overcame their differences, transformed their alliance from a necessity to a bond, forged a war-winning plan, and glimpsed the postwar world.

James B. Conroy is an award-winning author and an honorary fellow of the Massachusetts Historical Society. Having worked on Capitol Hill as a Senate press secretary and a congressman’s chief of staff and served for six years in the Naval Air Reserve, Conroy graduated magna cum laude from the Georgetown University Law Center and practiced law in Boston until 2020. His first book, Our One Common Country, was a finalist for the prestigious Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize. His second, Lincoln’s White House, shared the Lincoln Prize and won the Abraham Lincoln Institute’s annual book award. He and his wife, Lynn, divide their time between Hingham, Massachusetts, and Martha’s Vineyard.

A reception from 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. will precede the event, and Conroy will sign copies of his book following the presentation. Preorder a copy of Conroy’s book in advance here.

If you’re unable to make it to the Museum for this free event, it will be available to stream on Vimeo.

For additional information, please email Connie Gentry, Conference and Programs Specialist, at connie.gentry@nationalww2museum.org.