Description

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Written with “a cinematic sense of urgency and realism” (Evan Osnos, National Book Award–winning author), this is the first full account of the Casablanca Conference of January 1943, the secret ten-day parlay in Morocco where FDR, Churchill, and their divided high command hammered out a winning strategy at the tipping point of World War II.

The Devils Will Get No Rest is a “vivid and engaging” (Jon Meacham, Pulitzer Prize­­–winning author) 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. Churchill called it the most important Allied conclave of the war. Until now, it has never been explored in a full-length book.

In a secret, no-holds-barred, ten-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. You will be treated to 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.

About the Author

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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.

Praise For…

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"This is World War II gamesmanship at its most gripping, deserving of a place alongside the best of Erik Larson and Ben Macintyre. James B. Conroy writes with panache, wisdom, humor, and razor-sharp precision. He gives the reader a cinematic sense of urgency and realism, with characters that spring to life with brilliant humanity."
— Evan Osnos, winner of the National Book Award 

“James Conroy has brought a pivotal moment in world history to vivid and engaging life. With sophisticated analysis and an eye for the telling detail, this illuminating account of the Casablanca Conference and the war that raged before and after has much to tell us about diplomacy and human nature.”
— Jon Meacham, author of Franklin and Winston: An Intimate Portrait of an Epic Friendship

"The Devils Will Get No Rest is compelling reading. It not only vividly recaptures the struggle to defeat the Axis powers it also reminds us of how fortunate we were to have two great leaders in Churchill and FDR."
— Robert Dallek, author of An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917-1963 and Franklin D. Roosevelt: A Political Life

"This is a spellbinding, character-driven account of what Franklin Roosevelt called the  'Unconditional Surrender Meeting,' the ten days at Casablanca that altered the course of World War II. It is freshly researched, crisply written, and supremely interesting. James Conroy, a richly gifted storyteller, has given us the finest account yet published on this momentously important turning point in world history."
— Donald L. Miller, author of Masters of the Air and Vicksburg

"Spiced with droll humor and studded with deft character sketches, telling anecdotes, and vivid scene painting, this riveting book places the reader in a front row seat at the tense drama in which FDR and Churchill, along with their cantankerous staffs, disagreed, wrangled, and finally hammered out the overall strategy that won WW II. In his account of this crucial meeting where the die was cast, James Conroy lives up to the high standard he set in his estimable works on Lincoln and Jefferson."
— Michael Burlingame, author of The Black Man's President: Abraham Lincoln, African Americans, and the Pursuit of Racial Equality