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A review by bsweezy
Eisenhower: Soldier and President by Stephen E. Ambrose
2.0
I will admit, this has been hard to review. On the one hand, as you're reading it, this feels like a real blow-by-blow retelling of thirty years of history (if not more). On the other hand, if you want to get a sense of the government institutions, practices, and methods that came out of the Eisenhower administration, this is wholly lacking.
I get it. Stephen Ambrose and I may have a very different sense of "what's important" in history. He focuses on the man. The struggles, the family, the personal choices that someone named Dwight D. Eisenhower actually faced. More than anything else this book helped solidify my expectation that history NOT be consumed by the "man" but rather be a retelling of the structures attempted, accepted, or destroyed by those in power.
I have read other books that, for example, refer to the Eisenhower years as an era in which America learned its covert action strategy. I have heard that xxxx era was when America learned its ability to play one nation off of another in a region for the improvement of overall strategy. I see these in this book merely as passing mentions, not as opportunities to understand what made the subordinates of the Eisenhower adminstration make choices that were DIFFERENT from other administrations. What led to a better functioning executive? what led to a better functioning commander-in-chief. If it was simply force-of-personality and great-man-theory, then come out and say it, defend it, and prove it. Ambrose does none of these.
The end result is that the best I can take away from these books is an appreciation for Eisienhower. It is extremely challenging to learn lessons that I can apply from these books.
[this review was based on the first half of the cnodensed "soldier and president" volume as well as the second volume of the two volume set entitled "Eisenhowe: a president."
I get it. Stephen Ambrose and I may have a very different sense of "what's important" in history. He focuses on the man. The struggles, the family, the personal choices that someone named Dwight D. Eisenhower actually faced. More than anything else this book helped solidify my expectation that history NOT be consumed by the "man" but rather be a retelling of the structures attempted, accepted, or destroyed by those in power.
I have read other books that, for example, refer to the Eisenhower years as an era in which America learned its covert action strategy. I have heard that xxxx era was when America learned its ability to play one nation off of another in a region for the improvement of overall strategy. I see these in this book merely as passing mentions, not as opportunities to understand what made the subordinates of the Eisenhower adminstration make choices that were DIFFERENT from other administrations. What led to a better functioning executive? what led to a better functioning commander-in-chief. If it was simply force-of-personality and great-man-theory, then come out and say it, defend it, and prove it. Ambrose does none of these.
The end result is that the best I can take away from these books is an appreciation for Eisienhower. It is extremely challenging to learn lessons that I can apply from these books.
[this review was based on the first half of the cnodensed "soldier and president" volume as well as the second volume of the two volume set entitled "Eisenhowe: a president."