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The Daughters of Yalta: The Churchills, Roosevelts, and Harrimans: A Story of Love and War Hardcover – September 29, 2020

by Catherine Grace Katz (Author)
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 2,376 ratings
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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 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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  1. Print length
    416 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Mariner Books
  4. Publication date
    September 29, 2020
  5. Dimensions
    6 x 1.37 x 9 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0358117852
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0358117858
  8. See all details
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From the Publisher

daughters of yalta
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“Skillfully written and meticulously researched, it’s an extraordinary work that reveals the human side underlying the politics . . . The Daughters of Yalta is a thoroughly engrossing book, as acute about the contentious politics of the day as it is about the remarkable daughters who participated.” —Wall Street Journal

“[In] Catherine Grace Katz’s detailed behind-the-scenes account . . . she skillfully marshals diaries, letters, oral histories and memoirs to support her thesis that the pressures of wartime had warped normal familial bonds, so that the Western leaders’ relationships with their daughters had become more like those between business partners than between parent and child. Loyalty and discretion were prized above all . . . Light on political drama, this entertaining history is nevertheless packed with vivid personalities, jockeying aides and insider observations about a pivotal moment in history.” —New York Times Book Review

“A stirring account of one momentous week that would unleash fifty years of tyranny for half of Europe and plunge the world into the Cold War, as seen through the eyes of three young women. Catherine Grace Katz’s debut book, The Daughters of Yalta, is a marvelous and extraordinary work that reveals the human experience of the conference, with all its tragedy, love, betrayal, and even humor. She defines the relationships that shaped our world, and continue to shape our future.” —Julian Fellowes, Oscar-winning writer and creator of Downton Abbey
 
“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.” —Erik Larson, author of The Splendid and the Vile
 
“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.” —Jeffrey Toobin, author of True Crimes and Misdemeanors and American Heiress
 
“Both intimate and sweeping, Catherine Grace Katz vividly captures a little known story against the backdrop of a very big one. Meticulously researched and emotionally gripping.”—Amy Pascal, producer, Little Women (2019)
 
“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.” —John Burnham Schwartz, author of The Red Daughter and The Commoner

“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!” —Amanda Foreman, author of Georgiana and A World on Fire

“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.” —Stacy Schiff, author of Cleopatra and The Witches

"Well-researched, well-written, and evocative . . . Katz has produced a new, absorbing prism through which to view the tragedy that was Yalta."—Andrew Roberts, Claremont Review of Books

“A singular take on the history of the Yalta Conference, viewed through the eyes of the three notable daughters who supported their famous fathers, the ‘Big Three,’ and contributed in heretofore undocumented ways . . . A substantive debut work of first-rate scholarship . . . Katz effectively shows how these three often overlooked women proved to be indispensable in a variety of ways. Engaging, multilayered history of the best kind, grounded in telling detail and marvelous personalities.” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review

“This sparkling account offers a fresh take on a decisive moment in the history of WWII and the Cold War . . . Gleaning a treasure trove of details from memoirs, diaries, and letters, Katz documents poor sanitary conditions . . . at the ransacked summer palaces where the delegations stayed, analyzes diplomatic maneuverings, and shares plenty of spicy gossip . . . Katz debuts with a vivid and revealing account of . . . the daughters of Roosevelt, Churchill, and Harriman at the 1945 Yalta Peace Conference.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review

“An intricately detailed history . . . [Katz] offers an intimate portrait of the networks of friendships, shared professional histories, and other links that were forged in Anglo-American diplomatic circles and which shaped the conference's progress.” —Booklist

“Katz’s work is invaluable for bringing to life a historical moment in ways that are almost novelistic.” —Library Journal
 

About the Author

CATHERINE GRACE KATZ is a writer and historian from Chicago. She holds degrees in history from Harvard and Cambridge and is currently pursuing her JD at Harvard Law School.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Mariner Books; Illustrated edition (September 29, 2020)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 416 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0358117852
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0358117858
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 1.37 x 9 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 2,376 ratings

About the author

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Catherine Grace Katz

Catherine Grace Katz

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Catherine Grace Katz is a writer and historian from Chicago. She graduated from Harvard in 2013 with a BA in History and received her MPhil in Modern European History from Christ’s College, University of Cambridge in 2014, where she wrote her dissertation on the origins of modern counterintelligence practices. After graduating, Catherine worked in finance in New York City before a very fortuitous visit to the book store in the lobby of her office in Manhattan led her to return to history and writing. She is currently pursuing her JD at Harvard Law School. The Daughters of Yalta is her first book.

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
2,376 global ratings
Never have so few bedded so many.
3 Stars
Never have so few bedded so many.
Kathleen Harriman, repeatedly "Kathy" in the text, is fawned over and sanitized by the author. Omitted are her London trysts with Polish pilots in the RAF who, from 1940-42 were the heroes and sexual prey of British society women. Churchill's famous tribute to the RAF, "Never have so few . . ." applies particularly to the Poles: never have so few bedded so many. It is not until a later chapter that the author reports Beria's innuendo to her father Averell that his daughter had relations with her guards [Moscow]. And possibly at Yalta, though not mentioned by the author. What is known to Polish historians is two NKVD agents were later executed because of "contact with a foreigner", Miss Harriman. Kathleen's father Averell is portrayed by the author favorably, but one wonders about sub rosa meetings with Stalin that rewarded him later with keeping his financial interests in Polish mines, and the gift of two thorough bred horses for him and his daughter. The author asserts that Kathleen Harriman had no more to say about the Katyn Massacre after her testimony at the 82nd House Hearings in 1952. I received a letter from her in 1991 that distanced herself from the matter. Despite my quibbles, I recommend the book to the general reader, particularly for the behind the scenes machinations by the British and Americans. We are not informed about the off-stage Soviet intrigues that assisted their big deception and victory at Yalta. They were well-informed, not just by bugging the rooms , but also by spies such as Alger Hiss and others. Stalin's brilliant stroke was installing very few toilets for the British and Americans who queued up in the mornings, and at times had to scurry to find a pot or can.
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Top reviews from the United States

Linda S. Rae
5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating Book!
Reviewed in the United States on January 22, 2024
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What an excellent book and terrific read, well written and meticulously researched. It is both a masterful rendition of an important historic moment, but also a very personal portrait of the characters involved, not only the three daughters who attended and laid much of the groundwork for the Yalta conference (Sarah Churchill, Anna Roosevelt and Kathleen Harriman) but also of FDR, Winston Churchill, Stalin and the many others who were the major players at this key moment in the waning days of WWII. The author has really achieved both an impressive historical account of an event that has not received as much attention in recent times as it should have, but is also a deeply human account of the extraordinary young women who, each in her own way, played a key role in the conference. This was one of those books that I read far too late into the night, as it was very hard to put down until finished!
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Linda R. Ackerman
4.0 out of 5 stars The Daughters of Yalta
Reviewed in the United States on September 11, 2021
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New perspective on Yalta and The Daughters
The diplomatic complications and personal relations were very interesting. This made for an interesting book discussion.
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Dave Wilde
5.0 out of 5 stars History Comes Alive!
Reviewed in the United States on March 12, 2021
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The Daughters of Yalta is a brilliant book, bringing to life the minutiae of a historic conference through the eyes of three unlikely participants. These three were Sarah Churchill, Prime Minister Winston's daughter, who accompanied him, Anna Roosevelt, FDR's daughter, who watched over her ailing father who survived little more than two months after the conference, and finally Kathleen Harriman, daughter of the US ambassador to the Soviet Union, Averell Harriman, one of the richest men in the world, heir to one of the great railroad fortunes.

It was an amazing journey to take with the world still at war and for Roosevelt a very difficult journey to make and not be at full strength when dealing with the wily Stalin. The site of the conference was an old Imperial Russian palace in great disrepair among the ruins that the Germans had made of Crimea. The lush banquets the Soviets offered as a show of pride sharply contrasted with the desolation all around and the fear the populace had of the NKVD, the forerunner of the KGB. Indeed, the palace was so bare that bathrooms were in short supply.

The whole background of the conference participants is fascinating. Their history and their connections are written about in such a manner that their stories come to life as those of individuals, not merely historical figures.

Nevertheless, the shortcomings of the conference are spelled out. With the Soviet army already holding Poland and the other East European countries, there was little hope of dislodging them short of all out war. Roosevelt believed as many as two million American troops would perish in an invasion of the Japanese homelands without the Soviet army's help. No one knew at the time if the Manhattan Project would prove successful. And, there was no mention of the Holocaust at all despite the evidence now being undeniable. The conference that set up the postwar world paved the way for decades of the Cold War.

All in all, a fantastic story about history that is unforgettable in its breadth and scope.
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Charles Salmans
5.0 out of 5 stars An Insiders' View of the Most Important Wartime Conference
Reviewed in the United States on October 17, 2023
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The Daughters of Yalta

The wartime conference at Yalta in early 1945, which brought together Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Josef Stalin, came at an exceptionally important time as Germany was about to be defeated and the future of postwar Europe had yet to be determined. Invited to accompany their fathers were Roosevelt’s daughter Anna, Churchill’s daughter Sarah, and Kathleen, the daughter of Averell Harriman who at the time was U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union.

Author Catherine Grace Katz’s research into the three daughters’ letters, diaries, and reminiscences adds “you are there” insight to what we know about the most controversial meeting of World War II leaders. As such, it adds color and perspective to the historical record about the decisions taken — or not taken — over seven days.

We learn from Katz’s book that opportunities were wasted for Roosevelt and Churchill to coordinate positions prior to Yalta. Indeed FDR and daughter Anna went sightseeing in Malta, a stopover that would have allowed for the two leaders to consult with each other. Nor was Averell Harriman, who was prepared to give FDR a briefing on Stalin, given an opportunity to do so.

After the Soviet Union made satellites of the countries of eastern Europe, and installed a puppet government in Poland for which Britain and France had gone to war, the word “Yalta” became a label for a sell-out to Communists, with conservatives in the U.S. singling out Franklin Roosevelt for particular blame.

Based on the recollections of Kathleen Harriman, a combination of factors meant that FDR indeed undermined the effort by Churchill to take a forceful position in support of Poland and to provide a united front to stand up to Stalin. Kathleen was particularly upset that Roosevelt refused to meet with her father prior to the conference and did not seek his advice on how to negotiate with Stalin. Churchill tried desperately to meet with FDR prior to the conference and to press his concerns about Soviet objectives with respect to Poland and the postwar occupation of Germany.

The book provides a first-hand account of the reasons for Roosevelt’s failure to realize the criticality of the conference and the importance of forceful negotiation with Stalin.

First, Roosevelt was gravely ill. Indeed, he was to die a little over two months after the conference ended. The trip itself to Yalta was arduous, especially for someone in fragile health, involving a 7,000 mile journey on naval ships and in the unpressurized aircraft of the time. FDR’s sickly demeanor was recognized and chronicled by Sarah and Kathleen. Anna was fiercely protective of her father, a further barrier to ensuring critical briefings from Averell Harriman and coordination with Churchill.

Second, FDR had great confidence in his ability to establish personal rapport with others, and to charm them into making decisions that they were reluctant to take. This was a very unwise strategy when dealing with Stalin, who was unmoved by a charm offensive. In the pursuit of rapprochement with “Uncle Joe,” FDR froze out Churchill. (But then, in fairness, Churchill also tried to negotiate directly with Stalin.) British and American interests were not fully aligned.

Third, Roosevelt placed great importance on setting up an international organization that would be more effective than the League of Nations, and which would be the instrumentality for avoiding another world war. Other agenda items were not a priority. The Nazi death camps of the Holocaust were never discussed.

Once at Yalta, which had suffered terrible wartime destruction, the three leaders were housed in separate Czarist-era palaces miles from each other. This prevented the Americans and British from consulting with one another as did lavish banquets lasting hours and featuring free-flowing alcohol in numerous toasts.

The result was an agreement among the three leaders that left much undefined and provided Stalin with the ability to install a puppet government in Poland and subsequently to control Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and other parts of eastern Europe. Whether or not this would have happened in any case, given the size of the Soviet army occupying those countries at the time of Germany’s surrender, is subject to debate.

What Katz has given us is a well-written story of what happened through the eyes of three well-connected women who were there. It adds to our understanding of the time and place of one of the most important meetings of world leaders in the 20th century.
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NanaK
5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating perspective on leaders and politics during WW2
Reviewed in Canada on July 20, 2021
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So unusual to read war history from the perspective of three young women who had access to the highest echelons of leadership. A must read - fascinating, compelling, and moving. We read this after reading The Splendid and the Vile (the male view of Churchill and WW2), and Clementine (another female perspective) and the three books make a great historiographic trilogy.
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Deborah Hatter
5.0 out of 5 stars A very interesting and engaging read
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 17, 2022
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I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I knew very little of the background to this period and found that it was presented in a very readable way. I really enjoyed the perspective from the three daughters. I would highly recommend it.
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andré lalonde
3.0 out of 5 stars Long a lire
Reviewed in Canada on October 10, 2022
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