Herbert S. Parmet's Eisenhower and the American Crusades is a major assessment of the American presidency during the critical period of America at mid-century. The book follows the career of General Dwight D. Eisenhower from 1952, when he decided to leave his NATO command to campaign for the presidency, to his retirement at Gettysburg nearly nine years later. His entry into politics was well-timed. A mood of conservatism was sweeping the country; surveys indicated that the majority of Americans felt it was time for a change from two decades of executive control 'by those who had permitted events to get out of hand.'Parmet based his study of the Eisenhower years on massive research, conversations with leading figures of the era, and previously unreleased documents. This wealth of material has enabled him to provide answers to questions frequently asked about the thirty-fourth president: Was Eisenhower the kind, fatherly man millions grew up to love on their television or was this an image created by a shrewd politician who knew what the country needed in a trying time?Did he choose Richard Nixon as a running mate or was Nixon forced upon him by political necessities? Was the president intimidated by the appearance of power of Joseph McCarthy, and did the Army-McCarthy hearings influence Eisenhower's decision to involve the United States in Vietnam? Was Eisenhower concerned with the lack of progress in civil rights? Was he the right man for the right time in history or was he merely postponing the major crises of the 1960s?Parmet offers a convincing refutation of the idea of the Eisenhower years as being placid or boring. 'No years that contained McCarthy and McCarthyism, a war in Korea, constant fears of nuclear annihilation, and spreading racial violence, could be so described.' For Parmet, Eisenhower was a stabilizing force in a time of conflict. He may not have been a political genius, but he knew perhaps better than anyone else around him exactly what the people wanted and how they wanted it.

In observance of Dwight David Eisenhower's one-hundredth birthday in 1990, the Eisenhower Center at the University of New Orleans sponsored a series of lectures by distinguished American and European scholars who espouse an exciting breadth of interpretation regarding the man and his times. In Eisenhower: A Centenary Assessment, Günter Bischof and Stephen E. Ambrose have assembled thirteen of those lectures, revised and updated, thus providing an important contribution to scholarship on the thirty-fourth United States president.The collection is truly balanced in the interpretive sense, with essays by leading revisionist and postrevisionist scholars on Eisenhower. Four of the essays address Eisenhower historiography and his role as military commander, two concern his presidential domestic policies, and the remainder represent an assortment of ongoing research into select areas of his foreign policy by a younger generation of scholars, demonstrating how much the evaluation of Eisenhower's handling of foreign affairs remains in ferment. Ambrose concludes the volume with a broad summary of Eisenhower's achievements and legacies.As Bischof and Ambrose state in their Introduction, Eisenhower played a central role for so long and so crucial a period in twentieth-century history that his impact, contributions, successes, and failures will be subject to reinterpretation and debate for as long as Western civilization lasts. His reputation has already undergone ups and downs -- from the negative opinions of his contemporaries to the enthusiasm of revisionists in the late seventies and early eighties to the more critical assessments of postrevisionist scholars in the late eighties and the nineties. Such is the inevitable cycle of scholarship, to look at old problems with new perspectives, using new documentation or innovative methods, to arrive at new conclusions. This centennial reexamination of Eisenhower's place in history will remain a milestone in years to come.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1989.

Throughout the 1950s and 1960s Communism and the Cold War pervaded almost every aspect of American policy and concern. Eisenhower's Highway Act sought to strengthen America with the sort of roads system and military advantage Germany's Autobahn provided in World War II; Kennedy looked to space, the Peace Corps, and the schools to improve America's actual and perceived status in the eyes of the world; LBJ continually found concerns about Southeast Asia pressing in upon him notwithstanding his desire to found a new Great Society in the United States. However, despite the Cold War and demands of international politics, these three presidents were continually involved in critical debates about the domestic future of America, and their roles and victories in these debates have left deep impressions upon American society. This volume provides readers with access to the primary documents—both foreign and domestic—that reflect the debates that have had such a strong influence in shaping the United States. This resource covers thirty-two key issues and initiatives of the Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson presidencies. An introductory overview of each president's administration provides a useful window through which to assess the specific debates and documents addressed, and each of these individual issues is also supplemented by a brief introductory discussion. Among the issues covered are: Eisenhower's attempt to establish a new look for national defense, the Eisenhower doctrine, and the National Defense Education Act; Kennedy's Alliance for Progress and Peace Corps programs, his role in Cuba, his plans for America in space, and his work on arms control and the Limited Test Ban Treaty; and Johnson's Civil Rights Act, Model Cities Program, war on poverty, and role in the ground and air wars in Vietnam. A timeline provides a chronological backdrop for the subject, and recommended readings following each section offer helpful direction for further study.

A ghost has inhabited the Oval Office since 1945 -- the ghost of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. FDR's formidable presence has cast a large shadow on the occupants of that office in the years since his death, and an appreciation of his continuing influence remains essential to understanding the contemporary presidency. This new edition of In the Shadow of FDR has been updated to examine Bill Clinton's presidency, including possible parallels between Hillary Clinton and Eleanor Roosevelt. Concluding with an analysis of the 2000 presidential campaign, William E. Leuchtenburg assesses the influence FDR's legacy is likely to continue to have in the new century.

A ghost has inhabited the Oval Office since 1945—the ghost of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. FDR's formidable presence has cast a large shadow on the occupants of that office in the years since his death, and an appreciation of his continuing influence remains essential to understanding the contemporary presidency.This new edition of In the Shadow of FDR has been updated to examine the presidency of George W. Bush and the first 100 days of the presidency of Barack Obama. The Obama presidency is evidence not just of the continuing relevance of FDR for assessing executive power but also of the salience of FDR's name in party politics and policy formulation.