Eisenhower

Rating:
Summary: Save your money
Review: Although I enjoyed Perret's previous works, this one truely disappoints. The narrative flows poorly and is disjointed in many areas. It provides no new insights in the WWII venue and only gives an ill-conceived overview of Eisenhower's presidency. I felt that I knew no more about Ike as a human being than I did before I finished the work which was supposed to be the strong point of this effort. A great disappointment from an author I have enjoyed immensely in the past.

Rating:
Summary: Very readible with good insights
Review: Based upon sales figures, this effort by Perret is not destined to become a classic as is Ambrose's two volume (later condensed into one) standard biography of Ike. That's too bad because I believe that Perret gives great insights into the human side of Ike, such as his tremendous grief over the death of his first son, and his troubled relationship with his second son, John. Indeed, I recently saw John interviewed on television and John's uncomfortable reactions to being compared to his father, including his striking physical resemblence, show that Perret's observations are well taken. I also was fascinated by Perret's analysis of the Kay Somersby rumors. Perret carefully sifts the evidence and determines that the two were emotionally close but never had sex. Perret points out that if Kay's account is true, they would have been doing it in a common area of a house shared by others. That's highly unlikely. Most importantly, this book backs up recent historians who rate Eisenhower as a better president than did historians of a generation ago. Perret documents a great deal of achievenment in the Eisenhower administration that has previously been overlooked. Ike's seeming detachment was actually calculated and he always was in control and knew exactly what he wanted to do. I recommend this interesting biography.

Rating:
Summary: An Outstanding Biography
Review: In "Eisenhower" Geoffrey Perret gives an outstanding biography of a very interesting and important historical figure. Here we meet Ike from birth to death.

The reader is treated to an introduction to the Eisenhower family, to the father who could never be close to his sons, the mother who had little influence over them and the brothers with whom Ike grew up and continued his mutually supportive relationship through their highly successful careers.

The relationship with Mamie, their lost son, and son John, all reflect Ike's personal strengths and limitations.

Perret does equally well in telling the stories of the junior officer and the commander as well as those of the President and senior statesman.

Eisenhower's evaluations of many of the characters who crossed his path add to the allure of this book. Ike's admiration, followed by his contempt for MacArthur, his dislike of FDR, his lack of respect for Truman and his lack of affection for Nixon, all add to the insight into Ike's times. Omar Bradley, George Marshall, John Foster Dulles, Henry Cabot Lodge and Joseph McCarthy are just a sampling of the world characters who played on Eisenhower's stage.

Perret thoroughly reports each phase of Ike's life in a way as to maintain interest throughout. He comments on Eisenhower's rights and wrongs in a way which provokes thoughts, without seeming to be opinionated. I believe that this is what makes this biography superior so many others..

Rating:
Summary: An Outstanding Biography
Review: In "Eisenhower" Geoffrey Perret gives an outstanding biography of a very interesting and important historical figure. Here we meet Ike from birth to death.

The reader is treated to an introduction to the Eisenhower family, to the father who could never be close to his sons, the mother who had little influence over them and the brothers with whom Ike grew up and continued his mutually supportive relationship through their highly successful careers.

The relationship with Mamie, their lost son, and son John, all reflect Ike's personal strengths and limitations.

Perret does equally well in telling the stories of the junior officer and the commander as well as those of the President and senior statesman.

Eisenhower's evaluations of many of the characters who crossed his path add to the allure of this book. Ike's admiration, followed by his contempt for MacArthur, his dislike of FDR, his lack of respect for Truman and his lack of affection for Nixon, all add to the insight into Ike's times. Omar Bradley, George Marshall, John Foster Dulles, Henry Cabot Lodge and Joseph McCarthy are just a sampling of the world characters who played on Eisenhower's stage.

Perret thoroughly reports each phase of Ike's life in a way as to maintain interest throughout. He comments on Eisenhower's rights and wrongs in a way which provokes thoughts, without seeming to be opinionated. I believe that this is what makes this biography superior so many others..

Rating:
Summary: Readable and interesting
Review: This biography, written with an obvious affection for its subject, focuses largely on Ike's activities in WWII and immediately after. I would have liked a little more about his early life - Perret uses only about 1/5th of the book to get to Ike as a senior officer preparing for US entry into the war in 1940. That was, after all, the first 50 years of his life. By moving through them so quickly, I don't think that Perret gives as much insight as he could into the man.

The war years and just after are covered well. Perret gives sketches of the other major figures Ike dealt with. MacArthur is portayed as an egomaniac and comes off rather badly; Patton and Marshall are seen more positively. Perret is rough on Ike's alleged lover, Kay Summers, who he concludes lied, but he's roughest of all on Bernard Montgomery, who is presented as insubordinate, afraid to commit troops to battle, and incompetent to use them properly when he does. I don't recall anything positive that Perret has to say about Monty.

The post-war years are interesting, but I was not really satisfied with the coverage of the Presidential years. The story hits the main points - Little Rock, the Sherman Adams scandal, the Checkers speech, Sputnik, the U2 incident, but doesn't give enough of an insider perspective to give any new insight on most of them. One thing that is covered fairly thoroughly, and the only real surprise I got from this section, is finding out how weak Ike was in standing up to McCarthyism, even when McCarthy and his supporters went after Ike's old friend George Marshall.

In summary, this is hardly a great biography, but it is easy to read despite the considearable size, and has enough value that you'll get a good return for the time spent reading it.

Rating:
Summary: Worth reading...
Review: This book has earned the mixed reviews that it has received, both here and elsewhere. It's not the last word in Ike bios. But I found some insights here that I had not read elsewhere (and I've read most of the standard works.)

I think that the influence of Fox Conner is somewhat understated, and there's not enough here on Ike's dealings with Marshall before going to Europe. But the relationship with MacArthur was covered well. I enjoyed it. It compares well with Miller's biography, but the standard work remains S. Ambrose 2 volumes.

Someone needs to do a study on the influence of Fox Conner on WWII generals. He was a major influence on Marshall, Patton and Ike, as well as a key officer in the AEF in WWI.

Rating:
Summary: Worth reading...
Review: This book has earned the mixed reviews that it has received, both here and elsewhere. It's not the last word in Ike bios. But I found some insights here that I had not read elsewhere (and I've read most of the standard works.)

I think that the influence of Fox Conner is somewhat understated, and there's not enough here on Ike's dealings with Marshall before going to Europe. But the relationship with MacArthur was covered well. I enjoyed it. It compares well with Miller's biography, but the standard work remains S. Ambrose 2 volumes.

Someone needs to do a study on the influence of Fox Conner on WWII generals. He was a major influence on Marshall, Patton and Ike, as well as a key officer in the AEF in WWI.

Rating:
Summary: Abysmal
Review: This is a truly poor book, filled with errors and mistakes. There is abslolutely no new information or any new insights into Ike. I was greatly disappointed in the lack of research and the sloppy writing.

Rating:
Summary: Mixed opinion about this book
Review: This is the first biography I've read about Eisenhower and I'm not exactly an expert on World War II, so I really cannot comment on the degree to which the author does or does not offer new information. As my first biography on Eisenhower, Perret did an excellent job of elevating the former president's reputation in my own mind. In school, I was taught that, "...the American people believed that all Eisenhower did while president was play golf. They were right." After reading Perret's biography, I can see that this is clearly untrue. Eisenhower played a great role in the early years of the Cold War. Furthermore, unlike some of the men who became president after him, Eisenhower had a good understanding of world events, a vision of the United States' role in the world (esp. relations with the USSR), and went about making that vision a reality. The narrative, for the most part, flowed. However, there were several times in the book when I had to stop, shake my head a little and re-read a paragraph just to make sure I read an odd statement correctly as Perret makes some very odd remarks in this book. For instance, he advances the notion that General Marshall (of Marshall Plan fame) might have been gay; he laments the fact that Dwight and his son John S.D. Eisenhower never shared father-son moments such as urinating together; Eisenhower becomes angry because Russian ICBMs are larger than American ICBMs "like a man becomes upset when comparing his penis to another man's to find that the other man's penis is larger." Statements like this detract from the book rather than illuminate the facts. Overall, the book was very much worth my time, but I'm sure there are better Eisenhower biographies out there.

Rating:
Summary: A quick 600 pages
Review: Very well written, it lends itself to being read in a few days. It portrays Ike as a very complex and multifaceted man, much more than I had expected before reading it. I remember, not being able to wait until Ike goes to war in Europe. But actually the African Campaign is the most tedious reading in the book. The most entertaining part of the book, was the political intrigue of the presidency, which I enjoyed immensly. Still, I wish that there had been more about Ike's relationship with Nixon and more explanation of his mysterious final address, in which he spoke of the growing power of the military-industrial complex.