The Age of Eisenhower: America and the World in the 1950s

The reign of the 34th president has been examined over half a century. The consensus has viewed it as quaint, stagnant, and lacking in leadership. The Age of Eisenhower seeks to illuminate past misconceptions and make cause for reconsideration. Dwight D. Eisenhower was from humble origins, raised in a religious household where a hard work ethic was praised. His military career began with little fanfare; he served as second fiddle to the bombastic Douglas MacArthur. His shepherding of the US forces in World War II would be met with praise and would signal a calling for higher office. Eisenhower was reluctant to run in 1952, but powerful men would nudge him to accept the torch. Eisenhower would win in 1952 and 1956. His presidency wouldn’t be as quiet as once believed. The ending of the Korean conflict, the tumult of the civil rights battle, the stain of the McCarthy witchhunts, Indochina as an emerging concern, the constant bullets of the Cold War whooshing by in countries such as Hungary, Egypt, and elsewhere taxed Eisenhower’s mind and body. Eisenhower never stopped fighting battles.

The Age of Eisenhower is hard to classify as just a historical biography. It is timeless, a book about a leader of men and battalions being asked to lead the free world and be just as victorious. Eisenhower is shown, warts and all, as a man who believed in leadership, no matter what the blowback.