Eisenhower The President [Hardcover]

Ambrose (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 28, 1984

Volume two of Ambrose's biography of Dwight D. Eisenhower, this one covering his years as President of the United States. A chronological account of Ike's endeavors, successes, and many frustrations during the 1950s and 1960s.

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster; 1St Edition edition (September 28, 1984)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671499017
• ISBN-13: 978-0671499013
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.8 x 2.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #315,982 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Dr. Stephen Ambrose was a renowned historian and acclaimed author of more than 30 books. Among his New York Times best-sellers are: Nothing Like It in the World, Citizen Soldiers, Band of Brothers, D-Day - June 6, 1944, and Undaunted Courage.He was not only a great author, but also a captivating speaker, with the unique ability to provide insight into the future by employing his profound knowledge of the past. His stories demonstrate how leaders use trust, friendship and shared experiences to work together and thrive during conflict and change. His philosophy about keeping an audience engaged is put best in his own words: "As I sit at my computer, or stand at the podium, I think of myself as sitting around the campfire after a day on the trail, telling stories that I hope will have the members of the audience, or the readers, leaning forward just a bit, wanting to know what happens next." Dr. Ambrose was a retired Boyd Professor of History at the University of New Orleans. He was the Director Emeritus of the Eisenhower Center in New Orleans, and the founder of the National D-Day Museum. He was also a contributing editor for the Quarterly Journal of Military History, a member of the board of directors for American Rivers, and a member of the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial Council Board. His talents have not gone unnoticed by the film industry. Dr. Ambrose was the historical consultant for Steven Spielberg's movie Saving Private Ryan. Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks purchased the film rights to his books Citizen Soldiers and Band of Brothers to make the 13-hour HBO mini-series Band of Brothers. He has also participated in numerous national television programs, including ones for the History Channel and National Geographic.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A first-rate biography, volume 2, February 26, 2002

By 

mrliteral - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Eisenhower The President (Hardcover)

In this book, Ambrose follows up on his biography of Dwight Eisenhower. The first book dealt with the sixty-two years of Eisenhower's life before he became president. This volume deals with the last seventeen years of his life, focusing particularly on his eight years as President.

It is clear that Ambrose likes Eisenhower, but he nonetheless is critical of Eisenhower when it is appropriate. If one of the lessons of the first book is how politics can have a negative effect on a principled man, the main lesson in this one is how moderation is both a virtue and a vice.

For Eisenhower, it is a virtue when he besieged by extremists within his own party who are all too willing to use nuclear weapons and it is he who stays a middle course. As moderation's negative image, hesitancy, however, it is a vice as he fails to take on McCarthy or segregation. As one of the most continuously popular presidents in history, Ike could have done more in these areas.

Overall, however, Eisenhower comes off as a President whose accomplishments are generally underrated. Ike himself generally comes off as a good person, honest and intelligent, with a vision of a better America that many would agree with, one without the threat of nuclear war.

There are a couple little errors in the book and its predecessor, but that doesn't take away from this volume's high caliber. This is a great biography, well written, detailed and always interesting.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An Able President for the High Cold War, April 14, 2001

By 

Steven S. Berizzi - See all my reviews

This review is from: Eisenhower The President (Hardcover)

This is the second of a two-volume biography of Dwight Eisenhower, the great World War II military administrator who was elected president in 1952 without any experience in elective office and served two full terms, one of only five presidents in this century to do so. Author Stephen Ambrose, whose Nothing Like It in the World: The Men Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad 1863-1869 became a bestseller just days after it was published last August, writes authoritatively here about a president whom he clearly admires. This is a comprehensive study of an eight-year period which is sometimes portrayed as a mid-20th century era of good feelings. As Ambrose ably demonstrates, it was, in fact, a period marked by frequent international crises, as well as by strong undercurrents of change in American life, most notably in the area of civil rights.

The Cold War was at its height in the 1950s, and Ambrose devotes a great detail of space to diplomatic and military affairs. According to Ambrose, Eisenhower intended to "continue the policies of containment, foreign aid, and Europe first," but opposition to Eisenhower's program came most frequently from within his own party, beginning with battles over Eisenhower's appointees to key State Department positions at the beginning of his first term. Some of the most interesting passages in this book involve Ambrose's presentation of the frequent conflicts between the moderate Eisenhower Republicans and the "Old Guard," which was practically hysterical in its opposition to the threat posed by international Communism, real and supposed. Ambrose's discussion of Eisenhower's consistent opposition to increased military spending is fascinating. This is one area in which Eisenhower displayed real leadership, even when the president's position was not popular. By1960, one important issue was whether Richard Nixon and John Kennedy would spend more on national defense. (Ambrose makes clear Eisenhower's disappointment with the choice the American people were offered in that election: Eisenhower, one of the giants of World War II, would have to turn over executive power at the height of the Cold War to a former junior officer, either Nixon or Kennedy.) In his Farewell Address, Eisenhower warned of the dangers posed by the creation of a military-industrial complex. Only a president with Eisenhower's impeccable military credentials could credibly have said that. Ambrose leaves no doubt about Eisenhower's determination to decrease international tensions, especially in Europe, and most especially the threat of nuclear war. For the most part, Eisenhower's management of the frequent international crises during his administration was deft.

One Republican with whom Eisenhower publicly refused to dispute was Sen. Joseph McCarthy. According to Ambrose, one of Eisenhower's reasons for avoiding conflict with the notorious witch-hunter was personal: "I just won't get into a pissing contest with that skunk." But Ambrose also writes: "Eisenhower was more on McCarthy's side than not on the issue of Communism in government. It was McCarthy's methods he disapproved of, not his goals or his analysis." Ambrose concludes: "Eisenhower's cautious, hesitant approach - or nonapproach - to the McCarthy issue did the President's reputation no good, and much harm."

Eisenhower also was often criticized for presiding over a British-style cabinet government in which he purportedly delegated too much responsibility to his department heads. Ambrose makes clear that Eisenhower was keenly interested in the big issues facing the State, Defense, and Treasury departments, but the record presented here indicates that Eisenhower had much less interest in domestic affairs. The creation of the interstate highway system probably was the principal domestic achievement of the Eisenhower administration.

Civil rights was an issue which begged for presidential leadership. Eisenhower rightly deserves credit for appointing Earl Warren Chief Justice of the United States, and Warren, of course, presided over the unanimous 1954 decision declaring separate-but-equal public education systems to be unconstitutional. But Ambrose makes clear that, except on the issue of voting rights, Eisenhower refused to be pushed into the forefront in civil rights. Eisenhower was a product of the late-19th century (he was born in 1890), and this is one area in which he failed to grow as president. On occasion, according to Ambrose, Eisenhower could be "bumbling" and "ineffective." With regard to civil rights, Eisenhower simply failed to lead. According to Ambrose: "In the field of civil rights, [Eisenhower] felt he had done as well as could be done." The judgment of history disagrees.

Ambrose makes very effective use of primary sources, including Eisenhower's diaries. The text includes numerous references to Eisenhower's assessments of colleagues and subordinates, political rivals, other public figures international leaders, and some of them are cutting. Although Nixon loyally served as Eisenhower's vice president for eight years, they never were close, and Eisenhower was not enthusiastic about Nixon's candidacy in 1960. During that campaign, when Nixon was trying to make the most of his experience as vice president, Eisenhower told a reporter it would take him a week to think of a major contribution Nixon had made to the administration. But if Nixon had followed Eisenhower's advice and had refused to debate Kennedy, he might well have been elected in 1960.

Ambrose may admire his subject too much. To cite just one example, although Ambrose writes that "friends as well as critics worried about how unprepared [Eisenhower] was for the presidency," the author, himself, asserts that, in foreign affairs, Eisenhower "was undoubtedly the best prepared man ever elected to the Presidency." But I believe Ambrose is correct when he observes at the beginning of his chapter assessing the Eisenhower presidency: "To say that Eisenhower was right about this or wrong about that is to do little more than announce one's own political position." That is Ambrose's justification for examining Eisenhower's years in the White House "in his own terms."

When this book was published in 1984, Ambrose predicted: Eisenhower's "reputation is likely to continue to rise, perhaps to the point that he will be ranked just below Washington, Jefferson, Jackson, Lincoln, Wilson, and Franklin Roosevelt." I am skeptical that history ever will be that kind to Eisenhower. Ambrose writes that, by November 1952, Eisenhower had come to actively dislike Harry Truman" because "in Eisenhower's view Truman had diminished the prestige of the office of the President of the United States." Even Eisenhower's critics, and there remain plenty of them, must concede, based upon the record presented by authors such as Ambrose, that he conducted the duties of the presidency with great dignity. And that places him far above some of his successors. The two-volume Ambrose biography of Eisenhower is now out of print, having been superceded by this author's Eisenhower: Soldier and President and more recent works of scholarship. But Eisenhower, Volume Two, The President, continues to have value as a highly-detailed account of the administration of a president who may, indeed, have been under-appreciated. Ambrose is partial to his subject, but he generally allows Eisenhower's actions to speak for themselves, and I do not believe that a reader may ask much more from a biographer.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Changed my opinion of Ike, February 17, 2009

By 

Cory Geurts (Portland, Oregon) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Eisenhower The President (Hardcover)

Ambrose is a legendary historian, and this 1984 biography is a true masterpiece. I loved this book from the very first page, and one of the main reasons is because although Ambrose truly likes Eisenhower and the enthusiasm comes through in the text, he doesn't let that get in the way of being objective and even critical at times.

At the foundation to the book is obviously a high level of research. Many of the documents from the Eisenhower administration weren't declassified until the late 70's, so Ambrose was able to incorporate them here for the first time. He includes dozens of excellent photos and even some political cartoons from the time that augment the solid narrative.

The result is a smart yet easy-to-read page-turner that really makes me feel as if I know this man who was president before I was born. And I can tell you that it wasn't long before Ambrose's sympathetic writing style had me rooting for Ike.

As a side note, I bought a later book by Ambrose, the 1991 condensed volume "Eisenhower: Soldier and President (The Renowned One-Volume Life)." Same author and same subject, but I just couldn't get into it.