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The World War II era has been fertile ground for historians, especially those who concentrate on military history and geopolitics.

The latest book from historian Craig Shirley, “April 1945: The Hinge of History,” provides a sweeping examination, of not just war, but rather uniquely — everyday life — in the countries at war. Mr. Shirley has written numerous, popular books about former President Ronald Reagan, as well as The New York Times bestseller “December 1941: 31 Days that Changed America and Saved the World.”

In his latest offering, Mr. Shirley examines the waning months of the Second World War. The book masterfully offers a great deal of suspense considering its ending is well known. As the war slogged on, many citizens, soldiers and leaders were hoping for an end by Christmas of 1944, but the spring of 1945 and the following summer seemed to drag.

One of the important points in Mr. Shirley’s work is the emergence of the United States as a global superpower. After Germany invaded Poland in 1939, the American people and Congress maintained a position of isolationism. In a willingness to aid Great Britain, but to remain within the confines of the Neutrality Acts, then-President Franklin D. Roosevelt got Congress to pass the now famous Lend-Lease Act, which allowed the U.S. to lend Britain armaments, munitions, battleships and other necessities to challenge Germany’s military might.

We learn so much from Mr. Shirley’s latest, from how the government regulated baby diapers to what happened to Lou Gehrig’s trophies. (They sold at auction for $1 apiece).

The research and rapid-fire stylistic pace of Mr. Shirley’s writing pay off when describing the events immediately following the death of Roosevelt on April 12, 1945. He begins with a hastily arranged conference call with Roosevelt’s press secretary, Stephen Early, and journalists from The Associated Press, International News Service and United Press International. 

Word reached Vice President Harry Truman, who was presiding over the U.S. Senate before the news was made public. He hurried back to the White House. He was sworn in by Supreme Court Justice Harlan F. Stone, at a time when his wife and daughter were available to be at his side. 

Mr. Shirley writes, “Truman picked up a Bible from the end of a big table in the cabinet room and repeated the simple thirty-five-word oath that every man going back to George Washington had recited, adding the words ‘so help me God’ at the end. President Truman then lifted the Bible to his lips and kissed it. The ceremony did not last more than one minute.” 

The author goes on to report that now-President Truman asked all the members of his predecessor’s Cabinet to remain in their posts. Imagine the country at war for nearly four years and the president suddenly dies. Truman was Roosevelt’s third vice president and had only been on the job a little over a month. Who knows whether any of Truman’s predecessors could have grabbed the reins of power with such confidence? 

It is the detailed descriptions of the day-by-day and even hour-by-hour events of 1945 that make Mr. Shirley’s work a pleasure to read. The events of the time occurred with dizzying speed and had an impact on our lives still felt today. 

As with each of his titles, he asks The Washington Post not to review his book. It meekly complies.

Mr. Shirley’s “April 1945” is both an enjoyable and informative study of a pivotal era. Unlike most works of that era, it provides a viewpoint from everyday Americans with all their hopes and fears.

It was one of the few times in American history in which we were truly unified. The reality is, as Mr. Shirley points out, we are most often divided. But in this era, this time, this war, we were together.

As Mr. Shirley writes, it was the worst of times, it was the best of times.

• John Heubusch is the head of the Reagan Library.

April 1945: The Hinge of History By Craig Shirley $31.99 528 pages Thomas Nelson, Feb. 22, 2022

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