Just after midnight, a snowdrift stopped the Orient Express in its tracks. The luxurious train was surprisingly full for the time of the year. But by the morning there was one passenger fewer. An American lay dead in his compartment, stabbed a dozen times, his door locked from the inside.
The famed BBC correspondent furnishes an incisive, firsthand portrait of America on the homefront during the early days of World War II, describing the dramatic changes that were occurring throughout the nation during the period as it was transformed from a civilian society to a wartime one, as seen through the eyes of ordinary citizens.