The Visionaries

A sweeping look at what happens when we forget the lessons of history, from the Sunday Times bestselling author James Holland
'The remedy we need at the time we need it' The Atlantic
'A brilliant reassessment of the two wartime US presidents... and timely reminder' Saul David
'Essential reading for anyone who cares about leadership and the future' Anthony Scaramucci, former White House Communications Director

The post-war world wasn't an accident - it was designed. So what happens when we forget the lesson?
Although the Second World War was still a long way from being won, even by early 1941, US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was already planning for peace. America’s entry into the war may still have been almost a year away, but he could already see the new world order that needed to emerge from the smouldering ashes of Europe.

Three years later, the Marshall Plan would emerge, a forward-thinking combination of global philanthropy and canny self-interest, which kickstarted unprecedented European growth and a chance for the world as a whole to rebuild after the ruinous catastrophe of war.

From the world on the eve of war in 1914 through to the Versailles Treaty, to the Great Depression and the political earthquakes that followed, The Visionaries takes a broad sweep of history with important lessons for today. It’s a reminder that while history does not repeat itself, patterns of human behaviour certainly do.

James Holland is an internationally acclaimed and award-winning historian, writer, and broadcaster. The author of a number of best-selling histories including most recently The Savage Storm and Cassino '44, he is also the author of ten works of fiction and a dozen Ladybird Experts.

He is the co-founder of the annual Chalke Valley History Festival which is now in its twelfth year, and he has presented - and written - many television programmes and series for the BBC, Channel 4, National Geographic and the History and Discovery channels.

With Al Murray, he has a successful Second World War podcast, We Have Ways of Making You Talk, which also has its own festival, and is a research fellow at St Andrew's University and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. He can be found on Twitter as @James1940 and on Instagram as @jamesholland1940.