But that’s fine the reader should not be heard to complain if he get a lot about Eisenhower in a book where the man himself stares into your eyes from the cover. True, despite the title and the author’s claims, it’s really mostly a biography of Eisenhower’s presidency, not a tale of the age. For the most part, Hitchcock’s book is a good overview. This book, William Hitchcock’s The Age of Eisenhower, seemed like a reasonable way to try to expand my knowledge.ĭwight Eisenhower presided over the 1950s, since he was President from 1953 until 1961.
My excuse is that it seems difficult to find good histories of the 1950s that are not either narrowly focused or crammed with ideological claptrap blended with Baby Boomer preening (David Halberstam’s awful The Fifties is an example of such a combination).
But I know little that is not trivia or surface knowledge. Now more than ever, with this “complete and persuasive assessment” ( Booklist, starred review), Americans have much to learn from Dwight Eisenhower.I have always had a fascination with the 1950s, even though they ended many years before I was born. He was a gifted leader, a decent man of humble origins who used his powers to advance the welfare of all Americans. Today, presidential historians rank Eisenhower fifth on the list of great presidents, and William Hitchcock’s “rich narrative” ( The Wall Street Journal) shows us why Ike’s stock has risen so high. As he left office, he cautioned Americans to remain alert to the dangers of a powerful military-industrial complex that could threaten their liberties. Yet he also charted a significant expansion of America’s missile technology and deployed a vast array of covert operations around the world to confront the challenge of communism. Abroad, he ended the Korean War and avoided a new quagmire in Vietnam.
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. This is a portrait of a skilled leader who, despite his conservative inclinations, found a middle path through the bitter partisanship of his era. A New York Times bestseller, this is the “outstanding” ( The Atlantic), insightful, and authoritative account of Dwight Eisenhower’s presidency.ĭrawing on newly declassified documents and thousands of pages of unpublished material, The Age of Eisenhower tells the story of a masterful president guiding the nation through the great crises of the 1950s, from McCarthyism and the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.
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