Dragon Harvest, by Upton Sinclair

Our intrepid hero, Lanny Budd, visits with Hitler and other top Nazi’s as well as politicians, business leaders, and the well-to-do in France and England just before the outbreak of WWII. Ostensibly he is an art dealer and avoids taking any sides; as a result everyone confides in him. He sends his intelligence to FDR as his secret agent.  Sinclair, muckraker at heart, portrays the war as a class struggle between the business owners and the wealthy on one side and ‘labor’ on the other (whether socialists,  pinkos,  or actual communists/Reds). This divide supersedes nationalities and races. It explains appeasement because the wealthy would rather have Fascism than a war that destroyed their position, or worse yet having the Russians incite workers to overthrow social order (at least until the Hitler’s pact with Stalin, by which time it was too late to stop Germany).  It is not clear how much is true but the story is richly woven with historical details. Very entertaining and illuminating, I give it an A.