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Freedom from Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929-1945 (Oxford History of the United States) (平装)
by David M. Kennedy
| Category:
American history, Depression, World War II |
| Market price: ¥ 228.00
MSL price:
¥ 248.00
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| Stock:
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MSL rating:
 Good for Gifts |
| MSL Pointer Review:
An exhaustive and masterly study spanning 16 years of crises, travails, fears, and insecurities, as suffered by the American people. |
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AllReviews |
  1 2 Total 2 pages 12 items |
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Paul Frandono (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-18 00:00>
David Kennedy provides timely reading for a country whose people pull in a hundred different directions as they seek to (re)discover their collective identity in a rapidly changing world. Kennedy is a brilliant storyteller and thumbnail biographer, and the story he tells is nothing less than the monumental tale of Franklin Roosevelt's "rendezvous with destiny" and how that encounter made us, in most significant dimensions, what we are today. The categories that defined the political debate over the New Deal are with us today, but the United States of 1929, where this narrative begins, although well within living memory, is scarcely recognizable for the revolution that Roosevelt and the 20th century's "thirty years war" wrought.
Here is the dramatic story of the "southern problem" - the proud, intransigent backwardness of the American "mezzogiorno" - Hoover's and Roosevelt's dogged efforts to remedy the rural woes that are the backdrop for the Great Depression, Hoover's heroic but doomed struggle to cope with economic collapse from within a confining conceptual box out of which he could not imagine his way, the brilliant Hundred Days of inaugural New Deal legislation, the labor wars of the mid-1930s and the rise of homegrown radicalism, the first stirrings of a proto-Civil Rights movement (and the appointment by Roosevelt of the first African-American judges to the Federal bench), the "Court-packing" controversy of 1937 that marked - but did not cause - the New Deal's grinding halt, and a brilliant summation of "What the New Deal Meant." The excellent chapters on WWII, and particularly on the home front, are in my view a solid and useful bonus (and provide an overview of material that many readers are likely to know much better than the 1930s story): the thrilling first half of this book is by itself worth the purchase price.
Kennedy writes sparkling prose, is a master of compression and synthesis, gives all significant sides their due (however briefly), offers balanced judgments, and has given us an excellent survey of a time when many roads and options were open, when the stakes were monumental, and when America truly might have become something very diffent from what it ultimately became. Read this, and press it into the hands of your children, and then thank whichever God you may pray to for the events that transpired from 1929 to 1945 and the way they worked out in US history. And if you are an American, Kennedy's monumental work will give you additional grist to invoke come Thanksgiving Day.
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Richard Fianza (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-18 00:00>
Freedom From Fear starts strong with great prose and passion as we read about "destroyed dynasties" and the "strange stillness settled over the fighting fronts" at the end of WWI. The author, David Kennedy, has a great sense of style and drama but, at the same time, is still historically accurate. With an interesting parallel writing style, he briefly examines the reactions of Hitler, Churchill, Stalin, and Roosevelt to end of WWI, which was also can be seen as the beginning of WWII.
And, if this book continued in this vein, it would deservedly be ranked as a classic and be worthy of the overwhelming praise it has received. It does not. Instead it ebbs and flows as parts of this book make quick and interesting reading, while other parts drag on and stray from history into gossip generally only found in crude gossip magazines.
First the good. After opening at the end of WWI, Mr. Kennedy skips forward to the Eve of the Depression Years. America is described in detail, then her people, their problems, and the different ways their leaders tried to solve them. We learn that much of America lived then like the forefathers of 100, 200, or even 300 years before them.
For example, in 1930 electricity, plumbing, even indoor toilets were unknown to much of the country. The difference was that now that people had options, now that they could have plumbing, their previous way of life was considered to be a life of poverty. Additionally, many new problems did exist, ironically much of them as a result of America's technical successes.
For example, Farmers could grow more crops because they could use tractors instead of oxen or horses. More crops generally meant more money, in the past. In 1930s America more crops meant lower prices, which meant less money. Farmers would then borrow money and plant even more crops, lower the prices further, causing more borrowing and impoverishment. It was a sad cycle which could only end when enough farmers stopped planting and went onto a different way of life.
In other words, it could only end when enough farmers went broke, abandoned their father traditional lives and went to the cities. But even the cities had a limited amount of jobs. As more people arrived from the farms, for a variety of reasons, there weren't enough jobs for them. Labor was plentiful, labor's power was weak. Thus, the roots of the depression planted in the countryside, began to bloom into a devestating crop of employment, misery and poverty in American Cities.
In addition to the farming problems, WWI created a variety of other problems. America experience a massive influx of immigration as, in addition to the traditional reasons for travel, many new immigrants decided to flee the old world still recovering from four years of war. Resultantly, a larger percentage of America was compromised of immigrants at this time, then at any other point before or since in American History. Interestingly Mr. Kennedy states that to 1/3 of these immigrants, after coming to America, more or less looked around and then returned to their homes.
There were also loans due from WWI. The Allies would pay America with reparations from Germany - who would borrow money from America to pay off these amounts due. Thus America was loaning money to Germany so that Germany could pay England and France who would then pay back a different American loan. Such a system can never sustain itself.
Finally, there was the growing isolationist tendency of America. Stung by WWI, shocked by the Nye Committee's conclusion that America fought to protect bankers, not Democracy, many Americans started to turn away from Europe and begin to construct immigration and trade barriers. The house of cards was ready to collapse.
Enter Hoover. I never know much about Herbert Hoover, but Mr. Kennedy has shown us that there is a lot about him that we can all admire. Basically an orphan, he first became a millionaire, later he was a great humanitarian feeding Europe after WWI, later still he was elected as President, his first elected office. Herbert Hoover, to me, seemed like an early Jimmy Carter. Smart, capable, caring- but probably not a very good politician. When the depression came on, it was Hoover who started to expand government to help the people, but he didn't appear to care enough.
FDR spoke well, promised everything, and seemed to care. In the next election, FDR was thus elected president. As Kennedy takes us through these years, he ultimately seems to conclude that FDR basically did most of the same things that Hoover was doing, he just did them more often and to a greater extent.
It is at this point that Freedom From Fear also starts to veer off track. Kennedy goes into explicit detail, for example, about a reporter hired by FDR to keep him "in touch" with the America People. We learn about her history, her appearance and her sexual preferences - none of which would, normally, be considered important. However, because this report may have been a lesbian, may have a relationship with Eleanor Roosevelt, maybe she is important? For me, this is nonsense. It probably can never be proven, one way or another. If we don't even know it happened, how can Mr. Kennedy argue that it impacted on American History?
Then Mr. Kennedy starts to go into a lot of maybes, could have, and what ifs. Not content to only talk about possible affairs of Eleanor, he talks about alleged affairs of FDR. Why? Again, these were unproven matters, based on speculation, which have no apparent historical value. Titillating? Maybe. Maybe it is an attempt to make other presidents look better. I don't know. I don't see any good reason to keep them here.
Also after giving actual numbers, he grossly exaggerates the effect of the communist movement in America. He spends a lot of time talking about Unions, but he contributes very little insight. And then he spends cursory times on a variety of other social issues. In other words, rather then be a book on political history, or social history, this book tries to be both. I think the nature of such an effort took away from the impact which could have been stronger if, for example, two books were written, or even three.
The book also starts to emphasis more opinion, at this point in time, and a little less history. As such chapter like "What the New Deal Did" started to stray, somewhat, into commentary, and away from the historical perspective in the book's beginnings. Then the Chapters on World War II begin.
I didn't learn much during this portion of the read. The most interesting parts for me were based on simple speculation, even if it was a well-reasoned opinion. For examples, Kennedy claims that the American insistence on unconditional surrender was a political move to keep the Russian in the war and prevent them from making a separate peace. Not a new theory, but it was well presented here.
The history of the campaigns also is well documented and clear. As with most of the second half of this book, Kennedy intermixes his opinions with the presentation of his history. So, for example, he explains why FDR probably didn't know that the sneak attack was going to be launched on Pearl Harbor. He also tells you which generals he believed did a better job, and which ones deserved to be replaced. I can't be sure, but I think Kennedy was arguing with other books and opinions, but he doesn't name directly.
In the end, I found myself wondering what happened to this book, which was so wonderful in the beginning. I still think it was well done, I guess I just feel a little let down because it could started so strong and ended rather weak. It coud have been a classic. Still, overall it is a very solid read and worthy of consideration for your history collection.
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