Customer Reviews

In the Time of the Americans

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4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
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This book clarifies one's understanding of the "great events" of the 20th century and the role that America has played. It puts a new focus on what really happened during the eras of WWI, the Versailles peace conference and WWII (and its aftermath). The book is particularly valuable in that it represents an ideal place from which to branch out into specific studies of the "cast of characters" who framed these events. The author provides an outstanding bibliography. After reading this book (obtained from a local library) I felt compelled to purchase it for my personal library. My children and grandchildren MUST read this book!! If the preceeding comments are insufficient to attract a reader of this review, try this: Now more than ever before I understand the roots of the tragic entry and participation of America in Vietnam

Frompkin pulls all of the major players together and tells a story that fills in the blanks left out of the history books. He also describes why and how these men came together to end, once and forall, European wars. We can truely thank these men for the past 53 years of European peace. We can thank Frompkin for telling the story.

This is a wonderfully written book detailing how five exceptional American individuals literally transformed America from a country characterized by isolationism and a narrow, parochial perspective into the major player on the world stage. All five came to age in an America still locked in the self-absorbed issues of the 19th century, yet each grew with the needs of the times to become instruments for monumental change.

The most interesting aspect of this book is the fashion in which the author sets out substantive proof for the "exceptional man" thesis in history. So here we had five such individuals interacting contemporaneously and profoundly changing the world as a result. Of course, this isn't to suggest that they somehow aggressively pounded the world into their chosen image, for nothing is farther from the truth. This was a time when many titans strode the stage, men like Hitler, Churchill, Stalin, Mussolini and Hirohito. Yet the fact that these five succeeded in vanquishing Hitler, Mussolini and Hirohito demonstrates the extent of their accomplishment.

Yet these five men successfully confronted the most urgent and manifest challenges of their time, from FDR's New Deal and transformation of the national government into an active instrument for change. It is no accident that three of the five, Eisenhower, Marshall, and MacArthur, were military professionals, each of whom played an unique and indispensable role in defeating the Axis powers. That each then continued to contribute after the end of the hostilities is more proof of their sense of personal responsibility and need to serve the nation in whatever manner they could. each had a sense of time and place, as well as an appreciation for the unique historical circumstances he found himself in, whether it be MacArthur in Asia, who over decades became a kind of American Centurion, or Harry Truman, thrust onto the national and then world stage most unexpectedly.

In a time like ours, when we are surrounded by public pygmies like Clinton, Gore, the Bushes, Newt Gingrich, and those nine comedians over in Supreme Court land striving to be giants, it's instructive to remember that we weren't always hampered by such venal, self-interested, and morally corrupt leaders. Indeed, it is refreshing, hopeful, and perhaps even a bit nolstalgic to remember that America is not necessarily the eternal land of manipulative mental midgets, and that it once was a place whose titans strode and literally saved the world. Read this book and remember.

In this marvellous book, David Fromkin tells the story of how the United States made the journey from introverted isolationist to global superpower. He begins his account with the Presidency of Theodore Roosevelt, whose accession to office as a result of the assassination of President McKinley must be regarded as one of the most significant accidents in history. The tension between TR's "big stick" internationalism and Woodrow Wilson's more idealistic version is vividly described, and Fromkin does an excellent job of showing how the ideas (and policies) of FDR, Truman and their generation were both indebted to and yet reactions against the ideas of the great scholar-President. America's reluctant path to the centre of the world stage is presented as a mixture of fait accompli, idealism and enlightened self interest. It is a great story, and Mr. Fromkin does it justice. Warmly recommended.

I read Fromkin's A Peace to End All Peace in preparation for travelling to the Middle East earlier this summer. This book continues his ability to bring history to life, with details on the diaries, conversations, and interactions of both the known major players in the World Wars, as well as those that were influential but behind the scenes.

I was already fairly conversant in the major events of the time, but even so, Fromkin's retelling is set in a class by itself by his portraits of the leaders of the time: Wilson, FDR, TR, Churchill, MacArthur, Ike. By bringing together painstaking research as well as acectodes, it's amazing to see how much just one man can electrify and fire up a nation -- FDR yanking America out of the Depression, or Churchill stalwartly leading Britain through WWII as notable examples.

This book is sort of an in-between point between Fromkin's almost too-detailed history in A Peace to End All Peace and his recent ultra-summarized history of the world (150 pages, well worth your time) in The Way of The World. I'd recommend them all highly, but in order from most-summarized to least.

This book is a riveting account of the lives of thoughs who changed American politics and foreign policy in the twentieth century. Anyone interested in the rise of America in the world and the roots of her assention to global dominace after World War Two must read this book. Fomkin is a skill writer and historian who takes the tales of significant events and shows how they changed our nation.

Very few writers can be both insightful and make their writing approachable. Fromkin is one of the few who can do this. This books is about FDR, Truman, Eisenhower, Marshall and MacArthur. It is an excellent periodic review of the dawning of one age to the passing of another. It also is important because the characters are flawed, often naive, uninformed but largely successful during the first half of the 20th century. If you want to read one book that explains this period of time - this is the book. And you will come away with how one generation is formed by the previous generation, must come to grip with new challenges, and how this special generation dealt with it.

I actualy bought this for a friend but was finishing reading the book when I did. I think it is a wonderfull review of the time from the late 19th centuary, both wars and the cold war and the emergence of America as the World Power. I learned many things about that period that I thought I knew but did'nt.

This highly praised book struck me as mostly a foreign policy overview of America during the 20th century. I really didn't connect with the characters here, and for the most part they are people I admire.

The whole thing was just too wonkish for my tastes. More the book was devoted to the author's analysis and themes than to the characters who made the events happen.