The Age of Eisenhower: America and the World in the 1950s by William I. Hitchcoc

Description: The Age of Eisenhower by William I. Hitchcock "[This book] is the definitive account of [Eisenhowers] presidency, drawing extensively on declassified material... that explains why this "do-nothing" president is... regarded as one of the best leaders our country has ever had"--Amazon.com. FORMAT Paperback LANGUAGE English CONDITION Brand New Publisher Description A New York Times bestseller, this is the "outstanding" (The Atlantic), insightful, and authoritative account of Dwight Eisenhowers presidency.Drawing on newly declassified documents and thousands of pages of unpublished material, The Age of Eisenhower tells the story of a masterful president guiding the nation through the great crises of the 1950s, from McCarthyism and the Korean War through civil rights turmoil and Cold War conflicts. This is a portrait of a skilled leader who, despite his conservative inclinations, found a middle path through the bitter partisanship of his era. At home, Eisenhower affirmed the central elements of the New Deal, such as Social Security; fought the demagoguery of Senator Joseph McCarthy; and advanced the agenda of civil rights for African-Americans. Abroad, he ended the Korean War and avoided a new quagmire in Vietnam. Yet he also charted a significant expansion of Americas missile technology and deployed a vast array of covert operations around the world to confront the challenge of communism. As he left office, he cautioned Americans to remain alert to the dangers of a powerful military-industrial complex that could threaten their liberties. Today, presidential historians rank Eisenhower fifth on the list of great presidents, and William Hitchcocks "rich narrative" (The Wall Street Journal) shows us why Ikes stock has risen so high. He was a gifted leader, a decent man of humble origins who used his powers to advance the welfare of all Americans. Now more than ever, with this "complete and persuasive assessment" (Booklist, starred review), Americans have much to learn from Dwight Eisenhower. Author Biography William I. Hitchcock is a professor of history at the University of Virginia and the Randolph Compton Professor at the Miller Center for Public Affairs. A graduate of Kenyon College and Yale University, he is the author of The Age of Eisenhower and The Bitter Road to Freedom: The Human Cost of Allied Victory in World War II Europe, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Review "Outstanding." -- Michael ODonnell * The Atlantic *"Like the supposedly conformist and complacent 1950s, too long eclipsed by the drama and turbulence of the 1960s, so has Dwight Eisenhower too long been dismissed as a distracted codger compared with the youthful president who succeeded him, John F. Kennedy. Now William I. Hitchcocks trenchant and compelling book convincingly redresses the balance. He reminds us of the gravity of the issues at stake in the 1950s—including increasingly violent clashes over civil rights and the prospect of nuclear Armageddon—and persuasively portrays Eisenhower as an engaged and thoughtful leader who deeply shaped the nations destiny for decades to come." -- David M. Kennedy, Donald J. McLachlan Professor of History Emeritus, Stanford University, and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Freedom From Fear"A complete and persuasive assessment." * Booklist (starred review) *"William Hitchcock has given us an absorbing account of an era that looms large not only in the long history of the West but in our time. Dwight Eisenhower helped create a strong, dynamic, and in many ways enviable America. There were flaws, yes, and dreams deferred—but taken all in all, Ikes achievements on the battlefield and in the public square of peacetime are towering, and we live still in their long shadow." -- Jon Meacham, author of DESTINY AND POWER: The American Odyssey of George H.W. Bush and AMERICAN LION"Expansive. . . . Hitchcock discusses the full range of challenges that occupied Eisenhower across the eight years of his presidency. . . . [A] rich narrative." -- Richard Rhodes * The Wall Street Journal *"A splendid biography." -- Joseph C. Goulden * The Washington Times *"Eisenhowers steady hand, deep experience, and seriousness of purpose served America well during eight perilous years. William Hitchcocks insightful and stimulating study couldnt be more timely." -- H. W. Brands, Jack S. Blanton Sr. Chair in History, University of Texas at Austin, and author of The General vs. the President: MacArthur and Truman at the Brink of Nuclear War"William I. Hitchcocks The Age of Eisenhower is a superb synthesis, comprehensive in its coverage of domestic and international issues, current in its treatment of what the documents contain, and consistently fair in the conclusions it reaches. By so successfully showing whats known about the Eisenhower era, this book more than any other will shape how the future remembers it." -- John Lewis Gaddis, Yale University, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of George F. Kennan: An American Life"The Age of Eisenhower is a page-turner masterpiece about what we Americans can accomplish when we try to be and do our best. William Hitchcock tells the remarkable story of how a values-laden boy from Kansas grew up to become one of the most important—and best—leaders in modern history." -- Jim Lehrer"The best single account of Eisenhowers presidency to date. . . . A lively and insightful exploration of how Ikes brand of no-nonsense leadership defined an era." -- Derek Chollet * The National Interest *"The definitive single-volume account of this understudied but highly consequential presidency." -- Alvin S. Felzenberg * The Claremont Review of Books * Review Quote "William I. Hitchcocks The Age of Eisenhower is a superb synthesis , comprehensive in its coverage of domestic and international issues, current in its treatment of what the documents contain, and consistently fair in the conclusions it reaches. By so successfully showing whats known about the Eisenhower era, this book more than any other will shape how the future remembers it." Excerpt from Book The Age of Eisenhower PROLOGUE "When I think about Dwight Eisenhower," wrote Capt. Edward Beach Jr., Eisenhowers naval aide, "I like to recall an incident that took place aboard the presidential yacht Williamsburg shortly after he was inaugurated for his first term in 1953." The Williamsburg, a steel-hulled vessel of 1,800 tons, had served as President Harry S. Trumans pleasure craft; he used it for cruises with friends and political cronies. In May 1953 President Eisenhower ordered it decommissioned. He thought the ship frivolous and wasteful and felt it should be used for recreation by GIs who had been injured in the Korean War. One evening the president met the ship at the dock in the Washington Navy Yard as it returned from a cruise on the Potomac. "As Eisenhower boarded the Williamsburg, he stepped in among the soldiers, brushing aside his Secret Service guards with words to the effect, Just let me be for a while. I know these men.?" Captain Beach remembered the scene: The soldiers crowded in around him. They were young men whose bodies had been ravaged by war in some way; some lacked an arm or a leg, some hobbled on crutches, others had heartbreaking facial disfigurements. . . . They gathered as close to the President as they could get, and I heard him talking to them. This was an Eisenhower that the public never saw. He talked to the soldiers of love of country, and of sacrifice. He said their country would never let them down, but no matter how much it did for them it was nothing compared to what they had done for it. And then he said that even with all they had already given, they must yet be prepared to give more, for they were symbols of devotion and sacrifice and they could never escape that role and its responsibilities. Beach never forgot the electricity of Eisenhowers presence and the impact it had on these wounded warriors. "His voice had a deep friendly warmth, with a somewhat different timbre than I had ever heard before. It reached out and grabbed the men around him, so that they kept crowding in closer and closer as he talked, as if an unseen magnet were pulling at them."1 Historians who study Eisenhower know how those men felt in his presence. Ike draws you in. He radiated authenticity, idealism, sincerity, and charisma, and these personal qualities were the keys to his political success. Between 1945 and 1961 no person dominated American public life more than Eisenhower. He was the most well-liked and admired man in America in these years. And he was also the most consequential. This book argues that the era from the end of the Second World War up to the presidency of John F. Kennedy deserves to be known as the Age of Eisenhower. * * * Such a claim would once have prompted chuckles and even sneers from historians, journalists, and politicians. From the start of his active pursuit of the presidency in 1951, right through eight years in office, and for a decade after he retired to his farm in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, critics styled Eisenhower as a lightweight, an amateur, an orthodox pro-business do-nothing president, a lazy leader who, despite all his grinning, was often callous and distant, more interested in golf than governing. The Washington press corps depicted him as unimaginative, slow-witted, out of touch, and frankly uninterested in the daily affairs of the country. Even as the nation enjoyed a period of unprecedented prosperity at home and a stable if fragile peace abroad, and even as the American people grew ever more fond of Ike, his political rivals were scathing about his shortcomings as a leader. It is the central paradox of the Eisenhower presidency: that a man so successful at the ballot box and so overwhelmingly popular among the voters could have been given such poor marks by the political class. His critics never grasped the profound appeal of the man and never appreciated the depth of his political talent. His two-time opponent for the presidency, Governor Adlai Stevenson of Illinois, mocked Eisenhower as dim and tongue-tied and declared him little more than a tool of wealthy right-wingers. President Truman, campaigning on Stevensons behalf in 1952, went further: he told whistle-stop audiences across the country that Eisenhower had only "a military mind" and that voters should "send Ike back to the Army where he belongs." The radical muckraker I. F. Stone, writing what many liberals felt, predicted that Ike, a "rather simple man who enjoys his bridge and his golf and doesnt like to be too much bothered," would be a "president in absentia." Even after his resounding triumph at the polls in 1952, Eisenhower still earned nothing but scorn from his critics. "Poor Ike," Truman said on his way out of office. "It wont be a bit like the Army. Hell sit here, and hell say, Do this! Do that! And nothing will happen."2 His presidency changed few minds among the commentators. A 1958 book by journalist Marquis Childs described Ike as a "captive hero," a man unable to make decisions, passive, complacent--little more than a ventriloquists dummy who mouthed words prepared by others. That same year the New York Posts Washington columnist William V. Shannon drew up a balance sheet and concluded that Eisenhower had largely sustained the policies of his Democratic predecessors in both the domestic and the international realm and had made almost no major initiatives of his own. "The Eisenhower era," he wrote, "is the time of the great postponement."3 Norman Mailer, the novelist, was nastier. In a celebrated 1960 essay in Esquire that hailed the nomination of the youthful and energetic John F. Kennedy for president, Mailer derided Eisenhowers era of "security, regularity, order." The 1950s for Mailer was a time when "many a mind atrophied from disuse and private shame." Mailer struck a note that has continued to reverberate ever since in some circles: "Eisenhowers eight years have been the triumph of the corporation. Tasteless, sexless, odorless sanctity."4 With Eisenhowers departure from office in January 1961, critics gleefully got out their spades and began to bury the ex-president. On the eve of Kennedys inauguration, New York Times journalist James Reston wrote an essay on the Eisenhower years that read like an epitaph. Eisenhower "was not in tune with the world-wide spirit of the age, which was convulsive and revolutionary." He was merely "a good man in a wicked time; a consolidator in a world crying for innovation; a conservative in a radical age; a tired man in a period of turbulence and energetic action." Scholars agreed. In July 1962 Harvard historian Arthur Schlesinger Sr. published the results of a poll that asked 75 historians to rank the presidents. Eisenhower placed 22nd out of 31 chief executives, nestled between Chester A. Arthur and, incredibly, Andrew Johnson. President Kennedy himself had a good chuckle about this; after all the adulation and public frenzy, Eisenhower would now see "how he stood before the cold eye of history--way below Truman; even below Hoover."5 Indeed Camelot almost killed Ike. Not only did Kennedy run a brilliant campaign for president in 1960, contrasting his youth and dynamism with the septuagenarian Eisenhower, but his tragically shortened life only enhanced the sense of his sparkling singularity. Arthur Schlesinger Jr., who had served as special assistant to JFK, rushed out an elegiac account of the Kennedy presidency. In his 1965 testament, A Thousand Days, Schlesinger used the complacent Eisenhower as a foil to better reflect sunlight upon the glittering years of Camelot. In every respect the comparison between the two men and the ideas that inspired them was unflattering to Eisenhower.6 By the time of his death, on March 28, 1969, at the age of 78, Eisenhower had been largely forgotten by the press. Obituaries summed him up as a worthy man whose greatest role had been played on the European stage in the Second World War and whose presidency was a postscript to a life of noble military achievement. The New York Times asserted that as president he "had governed effectively through sheer force of his popularity among average Americans"--a distinctly backhanded appraisal. Time magazine commented that many Americans would remember Ike "not as the 34th president whose stewardship may long be disputed, but as the soldier of peace who led the greatest alliance of armies the world has ever seen." By the close of his years in office, Time concluded, he was "more figurehead than president" and "out of touch with his people." As a politician Eisenhower seemed destined to be written off as a benign mediocrity.7 * * * Tides, once having ebbed, always come back in. The revival of interest in Eisenhower began in the late 1960s, prodded perhaps by the deep national crisis that his successors, John Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, and Richard Nixon, had confronted and exacerbated. In an era of student protest, war in Vietnam, racial upheaval, and economic malaise, the 1950s began to look curiously alluring. One of his most acerbic critics, the shrewd New York Post columnist Murray Kempton, penned a 1967 essay that almost single-handedly gave rise to a new school of thought about Eisenhower. He was neither benign nor mediocre, Details ISBN1451698429 Author William I. Hitchcock Pages 672 Publisher Simon & Schuster Language English Year 2019 ISBN-10 1451698429 ISBN-13 9781451698428 Format Paperback Imprint Simon & Schuster Subtitle America and the World in the 1950s Place of Publication New York Country of Publication United States DEWEY 973.921092 Affiliation University of Virginia Publication Date 2019-03-05 Short Title The Age of Eisenhower NZ Release Date 2019-03-05 US Release Date 2019-03-05 UK Release Date 2019-03-05 Illustrations 1x16pg b&w insert; AU Release Date 2019-03-31 Alternative 9781439175668 Audience General We've got this At The Nile, if you're looking for it, we've got it. With fast shipping, low prices, friendly service and well over a million items - you're bound to find what you want, at a price you'll love! TheNile_Item_ID:120105875;

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