Who's Your Favorite Historical Figure?

[Gawdzilla Sama]

I agree. But if people want to quote mine the Polls that's a juicy target. It tells me much about their scholarship when they come out with this "argument". It usually begins with "America was strongly against getting into the war and FDR had to let Pearl Harbor happen to get the US properly riled up." They ignore the rest of the polls because they find them awkward.

Oh, don't mistake me -- while I've argued that there was a strong isolationist undercurrent in America at the time, the second clause of your attribution is nothing I've ever held to be true.

I'll go to Wayne Cole for my impressions of the isolationist movement in the US. He, despite being the historian for the Committee to Defend America First, can't pain a positive picture of their efforts. 

As for the public at large: Largely isolationist up to June 1940, decreasingly so at a good clip over the next 18 months.