Rating: 
Summary: An exciting new book that spans the Great Depression to WWII
Review: IN THE TRADITION OF JAMES McPHERSON'S BATTLE CRY OF FREEDOM, JAMES PATTERSON'S GRAND EXPECTATIONS AND ROBERT MIDDLEKAUFF'S THE GLORIOUS CAUSE COMES THE LATEST IN THE AWARD-WINNING OXFORD HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES SERIES: DAVID M. KENNEDY'S FREEDOM FROM FEAR.Here Kennedy Reevaluates the Hoover and Roosevelt Presidencies, The Great Depression, and The New Deal; and Vividly Brings to Life the Major Military and Naval Battles of World War II. "This is an enormous book, heavy to carry and light and very agreeable to read. David Kennedy is merciless to fact and detail but very kind to the reader... [FREEDOM FROM FEAR] has my strong approval. As it will have, I cannot doubt, that of the many readers it deserves." --John Kenneth Galbraith, The Washington Monthly "Displaying a literary craft...[Kennedy] has woven together narrative, sketches of character, and critical judgment to record and analyze the economic, political, social, and military events of these epic years... This account of the crucial struggles and events of the Depression and war years will lend perspective like few others." --Library Journal In FREEDOM FROM FEAR: The American People in Depression and War, 1929-1945, the first comprehensive study that spans the Depression, the New Deal and World War II eras, Bancroft Award-winning historian David M. Kennedy tells the story of three of the most formative events in modern American history. Here Kennedy situates American history in the context of the world historical events developments of the era, including global economic crisis, the rise of Nazism, and Japan's quest for empire in Asia. In FREEDOM FROM FEAR, an important addition to the award-winning The Oxford History of the United States series, Kennedy examines in detail America's greatest economic crisis ever, and sheds light on all contemporary comparisons with that event. It also documents the techniques of presidential leadership developed by Franklin Roosevelt, arguably the most effective and consequential president of the century, and critically discusses the nature of FDR's great reform legacy. Finally, the book rehearses the momentous debate between 1935 and 1941 about American foreign policy, a debate that ended with American intervention in World War II and the end (for a time, at least) of a century and a half of isolationism - a debate that still echoes in discussions for foreign policy today. Kennedy addresses major controversies, such as: causes of the Depression, the Hoover presidency, the failures and successes of the New Deal, the role of Depression-era demagogues like Father Charles Coughlin and Senator Huey Long, the rise of organized labor, the origins of Social Security, the "Constitutional Revolution" of 1937, the origins of WWII, the Pearl Harbor attack, the emergence of the American-British-Russian "Grand Alliance," the internment of Japanese-Americans in wartime, the American society in wartime, the Second Front debate, the liabilities of the "unconditional surrender" policy, the nature of the air war waged against Germany and Japan, the development of atomic weapons, and the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Ultimately, FREEDOM FROM FEAR tells the story of how Americans endured, and finally prevailed in the face of two back-to-back calamities: The Great Depression and WWII. Kennedy describes the Depression's impact in vivid detail, and documents the New Deal's effort to wring lasting social and economic reform out of the Depression crisis. Kennedy also offers a compelling narrative of America's engagement in World War II, including fresh analyses of how and why America won, and the lasting consequences of American victory. Covering what are the most influential years of the 20th century, FREEDOM FROM FEAR is an exciting narrative of the foundations of modern America. ABOUT THE AUTHOR 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. ABOUT 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). Future volumes include the work of such distinguished historians as Gordon S. Wood, Timothy Breen, James Patterson, and Michael McGerr. FREEDOM FROM FEAR FACT SHEET In this new book, David Kennedy... · Rehabilitates the reputation of Herbert Hoover, who is rendered here as in many ways a forerunner of the New Deal. · Examines the "old poor," who were not impoverished by the Depression, but were among the era's most ravaged victims. These people were 1/3 of the nation who had not prospered in the "affluent" 20s. · Explains the economic causes and consequences of the Great Depression in non-technical language. · Vividly renders the human face of both Depression and War with personal stories. · Analyses the causes of the Great Depression, with important implications for assessing the prospects of a comparable calamity in our own era. · Makes clear the relationship between America's deepest economic crisis and the most prolific moment of political and social reform in American history. · The first major re-interpretation of the New Deal era in a generation or more. · Shows the importance of immigrant and minority communities to the shaping of the New Deal, and the creation of the fabled "New Deal Coalition" that made the Democrats the dominant political party for nearly two generations after WWII. · Explains the origins of the great New Deal reforms that have shaped American life for the last three generations: The Social Security Act, the National Labor Relations (Wagner) Act, the Securities Exchange Commission Act, Fair Labor Standards (minimum wage) Act, etc. · Documents the achievement of Franklin Roosevelt in guiding the country through both the Depression and the war. · Presents the "Great Debate" on foreign policy between isolationists and internationalists, from 1935 to the Pearl Harbor attack in 1941. · Provides the best account of America in World War II, taking into account homefront, military, and diplomatic aspects of the war, bar none. · Makes clear the grand strategic architecture that informed America's wars in both Europe and Asia. · Vividly and clearly renders major military and naval engagements, including Pearl Harbor, North Africa, Italy, D-Day, Midway, the Battle for Northwest Europe, the Battle of the Bulge, the air war against Germany, Guadalcanal, Leyre Gulf, Tarawa, Iwo Jima, the Marianas, Okinawa, and the final air assault on Japan. · Explains why and how the United States emerged victorious in World War II, with emphasis on strategy, the homefront economy, and the character, training, and deployment of the 16-million men and women who served in the armed forces. · Argues that Franklin Roosevelt was a shrewd and pragmatic war leader who nevertheless failed to prepare his countrymen for the post-war world they inherited. · Graphically illustrates the transformation of America from a surprisingly backward, still heavily rural nation in the 1920s to the "affluent society" of the post-war era. · Shows how the seeds of the Cold War were planted during WWII. DON'T BLAME HOOVER! Public opinion made him the villain of the Great Depression. In fact, as FREEDOM FROM FEAR, a new book from historian David Kennedy, shows the 31st president was a visionary - but a hopelessly inept politician. By 1932, Herbert Hoover, once the most respected man in America, had become the most loathed, his name forever synonymous with the Great Depression. But, according to Stanford historian David Kennedy, history's indictment of Hoover is flawed. His failure in the face of the Depression has obscured his achievement as an activist president who pointed the way to the New Deal. · Hoover's vigorous response to the stock market crash dazzled most commentators. "No one in his place could have done more," said the New York Times of March 2, 1930. · A Roosevelt advisor conceded: "Practically the who
Rating: 
Summary: Outstanding general history
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The book is exactly what it says it is, a general history of the United Stated during the Depression and WWII. I found myself wanting to know more about many topics than author wrote. This should be expected though as the nature of a book of this type though is that some topics must be treated in a rather cursory manner or left out all together. The book does provide a vivid portrait of the era and of the events and personalities that shaped it. After reading it, I can see why it won the Pulitzer prize!
Rating:
Summary: They Were Afraid - With Good Cause
Review: This is a very literate and enjoyable history. It explains some of the greatest crises of Western Civilization and parades in all their glory heroes like FDR, Churchill, Truman, and Marshall, and it singles out others for less glowing treatment.
Professor Kennedy's survey of the period from 1929 to the end of W.W.II is, in my view, the finest of those perilous times. Naturally, the Great Depression and World War II are too vast for any one volume, and if one has an interest in any specific topic, personage, or chapter, the author has provided an unrivalled bibliography to kick off the quest.
The professor's writing is simple and straightforward and he knows how to keep his narrative moving at a good clip. This is essential in such a lengthy document. All in all, I'd classify it as a tour de force, essential reading for those interested in the Depression and the War.
After the wonderfully enjoyable read, the book sits well on the shelf and comes down quickly for solid reference. This is definitely a five star effort.
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding general history
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The book is exactly what it says it is, a general history of the United Stated during the Depression and WWII. I found myself wanting to know more about many topics than author wrote. This should be expected though as the nature of a book of this type though is that some topics must be treated in a rather cursory manner or left out all together. The book does provide a vivid portrait of the era and of the events and personalities that shaped it. After reading it, I can see why it won the Pulitzer prize!
Rating: 
Summary: "Just the facts, ma'am"
Review: David M. Kennedy's Freedom from Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929-1945 is simply not a very good book. On one level, it is a meticulous, informative accounting largely of the political history of the New Deal. It is full of facts, details, observations, quotations. (Don't be misled by its title-the book makes feints and gestures toward social and popular history, but it is a rather old-fashioned political narrative, focused, in fact, mightily on the legislative record.) On another level, that of author's overall framework, the book is really a conceptual mess-internally contradictory, biased against Roosevelt under the guise of dispassionate assessment, trite, and more than a little smug. It brings to mind Joe Friday's admonition: this thing can be mined for evidence, but it doesn't offer much in the way of novel interpretation. Kennedy offers the truism that scholars of the period, down to the present, have not adequately understood and explained the economic causes of the Great Depression. But his pro-Hoover sympathies cause Kennedy to valorize Hoover's international thesis and almost to mock FDR's focus on domestic structural problems. Nowhere does he make anything of the fact that the "sick industries" and impoverished regions, in deep depression certainly since the end of World War I, were Hoover failures, as much as anything, and, in this sense, Hoover himself may have been one of the architects of the economic collapse of the 'thirties. Certainly, the structural imbalances with which the New Deal wrestled were a crushing bequest of the Hoover era-and while Kennedy blames FDR for much, time and again he lets the GOP off the hook. The volume is, in fact, filled with solicitude for business-the blinkered, short-sighted, tyrannical, and actually rapacious business of the 'twenties and 'thirties. In this vein, serious efforts by the Roosevelt administration to understand the economic catastrophe that hit during the end of the era of the Republican ascendancy are written off as "prolabor propaganda" and the like. Kennedy is no fan of the New Deal. His treatment of FDR in the New Deal years is like that of a baseball writer, confronted with the spectacle of a .400 hitter, who concentrates on finding fault for the six times out of ten the batter does not reach base. In fact, this sort of scholarship-people who write these sorts of books regularly gather to give one another Pulitzer Prizes and such-is to the real world as sports writing is to playing a sport. There are strange, almost fun moments: Kennedy makes the dubious accusation that, by 1937 and 1938, Roosevelt opted for a policy in favor of economic sabotage and continued depression lest the economic impetus for reform be lost. The evidence for this charge is scant and impressionistic, yet the argument is intoned repeatedly (one of Kennedy's favorite rhetorical devices, by the way, is to have FDR "intone" and the business leadership or Hoover "explain"). I guess we are all at the Trans-Lux hissing Roosevelt after all. But one needn't be an acolyte of FDR, or the New Deal for that matter, to feel somewhat put upon by the carping tone of the writing, often flying in the face of the content, all presented under the guise of even-handedness. Time and again, targeting ancient, cobwebbed tomes from the likes of Schlesinger and Leuchtenberg, Kennedy debunks myths no one has held for four decades. There is the shocking discovery that politicians are political-and in FDR's case, it is a "political jihad," of all things, that has been launched. Kennedy trumpets, as well, what have been since the 'seventies fairly commonplace observations-Hoover was not Harding, FDR came to office a tinkerer without a program, WWII rescued the economy, FDR was at best a reluctant Keynsian, etc.-as breakthrough discoveries. I kept checking the copyright date to make sure I wasn't reading a book written in the late 'seventies or early 'eighties. Further, Kennedy makes far more of small points and quibbles, minor shortcomings, blind alleys than is warranted, magnifying into broad failures interesting instances of trial and error or hopeful experiments. There is a strange tone of expectations unmet, as though in a season or two the oppressive weight of a generation of business excess and parochialism should have been cancelled overnight, by a few strokes of the legislative pen, by the New Deal. Relying heavily on a single source, the reportage of Lorena Hickok, Kennedy paints a portrait of an American population that is docile and passive. From his perspective-what we now call "inside the Beltway"-Kennedy's portrait might make sense. But, had he ventured with other witnesses into the cities and countryside, he would surely have found a more complex situation. In fact, the narrative's organization itself-in which Kennedy first announces his passive populace thesis early into FDR's first term, then several chapters later reaches into some of the social, political, and labor developments of the same period-is used to create the lingering impression that during 1932-1935 Americans fell silent in a cowed mass. But the roots of political and labor agitation, as described by Kennedy himself in these later chapters (even he cannot ignore "the labor eruptions of Roosevelt's first term"), reach in fact back to the early years of the New Deal-and Kennedy ignores a lot that would have broadened and deepened his treatment of this period. Even so, the account is rather bizarre: we read that Father Coughlin, Gerald L.K. Smith, and the Townsend movement, for example, are part of the "left." Nor is Kennedy above using the familiar device of the Communist and radical bogeyman to marginalize labor and social stirrings, which he characterizes as "open class warfare . . . orchestrated by bellicose radicals [which] erupted in . . . 1933 and 1934"; with this neat trick, Kennedy preserves his dubious thesis of a people shocked into bewildered apathy and acceptance, were it not for random outbursts caused bellicose charlatans. Scholarly, almost pedantic, inbred, cloistered, Freedom from Fear is a massive work-and a massive disappointment. It serves as a kind of indictment of an entire school of historiography, a reminder of why we read the likes of Bourdieu and Levi-Strauss, Baudrillard and Hunter Thompson, Faulkner and Dos Passos.
Rating:
Summary: Admirably done.......
Review: Freedom From Fear is a bountiful and hugely enjoyable look at America from the onset of the Great Depression to the conclusion of the Second World War. Typically used to books which concentrate solely on the former or the latter period of time, I found this seamless and comprehensive look at both world-altering events to provide an intellectual continuity heretofore unexperienced. Kennedy certainly devotes more time and detail to the New Deal bureaucracy of FDR than his WWII narrative, but this shouldn't dissuade the purely military reader. Kennedy's WWII narrative may lack the scope of books focusing solely on the war, but it compensates by clipping along at a highly compelling pace. Freedom From Fear, though covering well traveled ground, manages to inform, entertain, grip, and provoke. It is an excellent book deserving the attention of any serious consumer of history. Accordingly, I recommend it highly.
Rating: 
Summary: Almost a Classic.
Review: 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 ½ 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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