.. a book of painstaking scholarship... mature understanding and fair-m indedness.. .tim ely and penetrating conclusions..." New York Times, 1940 3.50 $ “Imagine that as a young man in college you wrote a book of judgment on the behavior of a contemporary empire, its leaders, and its people... “Imagine that years later when you are 20 still young, you become President of the United States at a time when America faces grim possibilities of destruction and surren­ der ... “Imagine, then, that you re-read the book you wrote in college and find that you would not be embarrassed by having it exposed again; this surely would be an extraordinary experience. Perhaps nothing like it ever hap­ pened before in the lives of all the leaders of men. “This has been the experience of John F. Kennedy, th President of the United 35 States___”-Heriry R. Luce Written when John F. Kennedy was a senior at Harvard and published in , 1940 Why is a brilliant appraisal of the England Slept tragic events of the thirties that led to World War II: it is an electrifying account of England's unpreparedness for war and a sober and serious study of the shortcomings of democracy when confronted by the men­ ace of totalitarianism. Many of John Kennedy’s most impression­ able years were spent in London where he (continued on back (lap) W H Y E N G L A N D S L E P T WHY E N GL A N D S LEP T JOHN F. KENNEDY NEW YORK WILFRED FUNK, INC. © Copyright, 1961, by Wilfred Funk, Inc. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 40-14799 Printed in the United States of America 1 Original edition copyright 1940 by Wilfred Funk, Inc. TO MY MOTHER AND FATHER tT Acknowledgments For their encouragement and advice in assembling much of the material upon which this book is based I would like to express my sincere appreciation to Professor Bruce Hopper and Dr. Payson Wild of Harvard University and to Mr. John Wheeler-Ben- nett for his very helpful suggestions. I would also like to thank the staff members of the Widener Library of Harvard University for their helpfulness and cooperation. To the numerous writ­ ers I have mentioned in the bibliography I owe much. The views expressed in this book are my own, and for them I accept full responsibility. J. F.K. 1940