|
|
Freedom from Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929-1945 (Oxford History of the United States) (Paperback)
by David M. Kennedy
| Category:
American history, Depression, World War II |
| Market price: ¥ 228.00
MSL price:
¥ 248.00
[ Shop incentives ]
|
| Stock:
Pre-order item, lead time 3-7 weeks upon payment [ COD term does not apply to pre-order items ] |
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. |
| If you want us to help you with the right titles you're looking for, or to make reading recommendations based on your needs, please contact our consultants. |
Detail |
Author |
Description |
Excerpt |
Reviews |
|
|
|
Author: David M. Kennedy
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; New Ed edition
Pub. in: April, 2001
ISBN: 0195144031
Pages: 992
Measurements: 9.2 x 6.2 x 2.3 inches
Origin of product: USA
Order code: BA00635
Other information: ISBN-13: 978-0195144031
|
|
Rate this product:
|
|
- Awards & Credential -
A sweeping, compelling and classic text on the American history from 1929 through 1945 (or from the Great Depression through the World War II). |
|
- MSL Picks -
Freedom From Fear is an exhaustive study of America and its people during two of this country's most defining periods, the Great Depression and World War II. David Kennedy packs a lot of information in this very substantial book while maintaining a very readable study of this important period in American history. While the book is geared towards the general reader, it doesn't lack for analysis, which makes this both an accessible and very informative book.
This period in question covers 1929-1945, which in the broad spectrum of time seems to be very insignificant, but in reality was anything but insignificant. From the early stages of the depression in the late 1920s during the Hoover Administration, to the Atomic bombs used against Japan in 1945 during the Truman Presidency which ended the war in the Pacific, this books covers many important people and events in both the social, political and economic realms of American life.
The Depression years are the focus of the first part of the book (obviously) and delves with insight into what issues led to the crisis, how the Hoover and Roosevelt Administrations confronted the crisis, how the American people were affected by the economic difficulties and how the New Deal was both successful and unsuccessful. Hoover was actually quite proactive in the fight to bring some economic stability to the nation, contrary to what many believe, Hoover was an extremely capable man, but perhaps not open minded enough to try new and far larger objectives as Franklin Roosevelt proved during his presidency.
The New Deal is obviously the focus of much attention as it should be, but while it did do much to bring about some major legislation in the relief and reforming aspects of the New Deal's objectives, it wasn't quite the panacea to complete economic recovery, only World War II would bring that about. I think I'm summarizing Kennedy's view on the New Deal as accurate as possible without getting to overwhelmed by the nature of this broad program. There is so much covered that it's hard to summarize both concisely and precisely.
The turmoil in Europe caused by Hitler's regime, the strong isolationist sentiments that so pervaded the attitudes in this country before Pearl Harbor, and the eventual American intervention and allied efforts to defeat the German and Japanese powers are all part of the next phase in the period covered in this book. Kennedy is able to effectively describe the many facets surrounding America's entry and involvement in the Second World War from the mobilization of the country's industrial and manpower-womanpower supply, to the different strategies developed and implemented to win the war on the European and Pacific fronts, and the people who played such important roles in the conflict.
The major battles fought, the successes and setbacks of military and political strategies, the changing nature on the American homefront that would improve the standard of living for so many Americans after World War II are all covered. Difficult subjects aren't left out either, including the internment of Japanese-Americans, the status of African Americans during the war years, and the general brutality of the war itself from both sides, most especially in the Pacific Theater of the war.
This book is all-encompassing, well-written, yet very analytical when it needs to be. Quite rare. Maybe some of his conclusions are open for debate, which is not unusual when writing history. He at times can be critical of individuals for decisions made or not made, lost opportunities and the likes, and that should be discussed. He does disagree with the theory, I suppose advocated by some, that Roosevelt wanted Pearl Harbor to be attacked or knew it would happen. Some sections of the book require a good working knowledge of certain issues, but overall it is well-written. I've studied this period before, but I found this book very rewarding in that I also learned quite a bit I knew little or nothing about. I would highly recommend this book.
(From quoting Montgomery, USA)
Target readers:
People interested in the American history, World War II, and the presidency of Franklin Roosevelt.
|
|
Customers who bought this product also bought:
|
|
David M. Kennedy is Donald J. McLachlan Professor of History at Stanford University. He is the author of Over Here: The First World War and American Society, which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, and Birth Control in America: The Career of Margaret Sanger, which won a Bancroft Prize. He lives in Stanford, California.
|
|
From Publisher
Between 1929 and 1945, two great travails were visited upon the American people: the Great Depression and World War II. Freedom From Fear tells the story of how Americans endured, and eventually prevailed, in the face of those unprecedented calamities. The Depression was both a disaster and an opportunity. As David Kennedy vividly demonstrates, the economic crisis of the 1930s was far more than a simple reaction to the alleged excesses of the 1920s. For more than a century before 1929, America's unbridled industrial revolution had gyrated through repeated boom and bust cycles, wastefully consuming capital and inflicting untold misery on city and countryside alike. Nor was the fabled prosperity of the 1920s as uniformly shared as legend portrays. Countless Americans, especially if they were farmers, African Americans, or recent immigrants, eked out thread bare lives on the margins of national life. For them, the Depression was but another of the ordeals of fear and insecurity with which they were sadly familiar. Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal wrung from the trauma of the 1930s a lasting legacy of economic and social reform, including the Social Security Act, new banking and financial laws, regulatory legislation, and new opportunities for organized labor. Taken together, those reforms gave a measure of security to millions of Americans who had never had much of it, and with it a fresh sense of having a stake in their country. Freedom From Fear tells the story of the New Deal's achievements, without slighting its shortcomings, contradictions, and failures. It is a story rich in drama and peopled with unforgettable personalities, including the incandescent but enigmatic figure of Roosevelt himself. Even as the New Deal was coping with the Depression, a still more fearsome menace was developing abroad--Hitler's thirst for war in Europe, coupled with the imperial ambitions of Japan in Asia. The same generation of Americans who battled the Depression eventually had to shoulder arms in another conflict that wreaked world wide destruction, ushered in the nuclear age, and forever changed their own way of life and their country's relationship to the rest of the world. Freedom From Fear explains how the nation agonized over its role in World War II, how it fought the war, why the United States won, and why the consequences of victory were sometimes sweet, sometimes ironic. In a compelling narrative, Kennedy analyzes the determinants of American strategy, the painful choices faced by commanders and statesmen, and the agonies inflicted on the millions of ordinary Americans who were compelled to swallow their fears and face battle as best they could. Freedom From Fear is a comprehensive and colorful account of the most convulsive period in American history, excepting only the Civil War - a period that formed the crucible in which modern America was formed. The Oxford History of the United States The Atlantic Monthly has praised The Oxford History of the United States as "the most distinguished series in American historical scholarship," a series that "synthesizes a generation's worth of historical inquiry and knowledge into one literally state-of-the-art book. Who touches these books touches a profession." Conceived under the general editorship of one of the leading American historians of our time, C. Vann Woodward, The Oxford History of the United States blends social, political, economic, cultural, diplomatic, and military history into coherent and vividly written narrative. Previous volumes are Robert Middlekauff's The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution; James M. McPherson's Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era (which won a Pulitzer Prize and was a New York Times Best Seller); and James T. Patterson's Grand Expectations: The United States 1945-1974 (which won a Bancroft Prize).
|
| View all 12 comments |
The Washington Post (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-18 00:00>
One of our most broad-gauged American historians brings us that increasing rarity: a big book about a big subject. In a compelling narrative... the Stanford scholar takes on the job of tracing the American people through three of the most important and widely written-about epochs in the century - the Great Depression, the New Deal, and World War II - and provides us with consistently original and sometimes startling conclusions. |
Jack Beatty (Author of The World According to Peter Drucker) (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-18 00:00>
From its dramatic prelude depicting Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, Adolf Hitler, and Joseph Stalin hearing the news of the end of World War I on November 11, 1918, to its moving climax on board the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay on September 2, 1945, this panoramic narrative pulses with life, color, incident, and action. We know how it all comes out, yet the fate of the nation seems to hang in the balance as Kennedy captures history's throat-catching contingency. |
Alan Wolfe (Boston University, author of One Nation After All) (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-18 00:00>
Freedom from Fear brings together in one place the epic story of how America faced the greatest challenges in its history. At a time when we tend to bemoan our selfish preoccupations, it is bracing to read David Kennedy's moving account of our better selves. This is history the way it ought to be. |
James T. Patterson (Bancroft Prize-winning author of Grand Expectations), USA
<2007-01-18 00:00>
David Kennedy is one of America's most distinguished historians, and Freedom from Fear is a remarkable achievement: deeply researched, insightful, and beautifully written. Fast-paced, it presents vivid portraits of major actors such as Roosevelt, Churchill, and Hitler, as well as of the hopes and fears of millions of lesser-known people caught up in the tumultuous years of the Great Depression and of World War II. |
View all 12 comments |
|
|
|
|
