The Age of Eisenhower: America and the World in the 1950s
Details
The Age of Eisenhower: America and the World in the 1950s
By: William I Hitchcock
A New York Times Bestseller
Drawing on newly declassified documents and thousands of pages of unpublished material, The Age of Eisenhower tells the story of a masterful president guiding the nation through the great crises of the 1950s, from McCarthyism and the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 America’s 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 Hitchcock’s shows us why. He was a gifted leader for whom the welfare of the country always came first.
Now more than ever, Americans have much to learn from his leadership.
Paperback; 672 pages
ISBN: 978-1451698428
About the Author
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 most recently of The Bitter Road to Freedom: The Human Cost of Allied Victory in World War II Europe, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, a finalist for the Mark Lynton Prize, a winner of the George Louis Beer Prize, and a Financial Times bestseller.
For more about the book, visit AgeofEisenhower.com.
Praise for The Age of Eisenhower...
"A complete and persuasive assessment."
— Booklist (starred review)
"Expansive. . . . Hitchcock discusses the full range of challenges that occupied Eisenhower across the eight years of his presidency. . . . [A] rich narrative."
― The Wall Street Journal
“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. Hitchcock's 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 nation's 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
By: William I Hitchcock
A New York Times Bestseller
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 America’s 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 Hitchcock’s shows us why. He was a gifted leader for whom the welfare of the country always came first.
Now more than ever, Americans have much to learn from his leadership.
Paperback; 672 pages
ISBN: 978-1451698428
About the Author
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 most recently of The Bitter Road to Freedom: The Human Cost of Allied Victory in World War II Europe, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, a finalist for the Mark Lynton Prize, a winner of the George Louis Beer Prize, and a Financial Times bestseller.
For more about the book, visit AgeofEisenhower.com.
Praise for The Age of Eisenhower...
"A complete and persuasive assessment."
— Booklist (starred review)
"Expansive. . . . Hitchcock discusses the full range of challenges that occupied Eisenhower across the eight years of his presidency. . . . [A] rich narrative."
― The Wall Street Journal
“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. Hitchcock's 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 nation's 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