The dramatic events of the Pearl Harbor attack have been covered in detail from a wide variety of approaches. What came next--the American declaration of war, the intervention of Germany and Italy and the U.S. proclaiming war against them as well--has been given considerably less attention. This detailed volume fills that gap with careful analysis of how the public and Congress reacted to the attack and how it began to modify their past attitudes toward foreign war.

Excerpts from the Congressional Record of 1941 support the author's discussion of the debates leading to the decision to declare war. The book explores the rationales defending past conduct by those who had been of both interventionist and anti-interventionist sentiments, as well as their collective effort to forge a national consensus that would support a multi-year international conflict. Emphasis is also placed on the reasoning behind war not being immediately declared on Germany as well as Japan and the motivations behind Germany's decision to enter the conflict on it's own initiative. Lengthy attention is given to Jeanette Rankin, the only House member to vote against the war.