Freedom from Fear
The American People in Depression and War, 1929–1945
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Narrated by:
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Tom Weiner
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By:
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David M. Kennedy
About this listen
Between 1929 and 1945, two great travails were visited upon the American people: the Great Depression and World War II. This Pulitzer Prize-winning history tells the story of how Americans endured, and eventually prevailed, in the face of those unprecedented calamities.
The Depression was both a disaster and an opportunity. As David Kennedy vividly demonstrates, the economic crisis of the 1930s was far more than a simple reaction to the alleged excesses of the 1920s. For more than a century before 1929, America's unbridled industrial revolution had gyrated through repeated boom-and-bust cycles, wastefully consuming capital and inflicting untold misery on city and countryside alike.
Freedom from Fear explores how the nation agonized over its role in World War II, how it fought the war, why the United States won, and why the consequences of victory were sometimes sweet, sometimes ironic. In a compelling narrative, Kennedy analyzes the determinants of American strategy, the painful choices faced by commanders and statesmen, and the agonies inflicted on the millions of ordinary Americans who were compelled to swallow their fears and face battle as best they could.
Both comprehensive and colorful, this account of the most convulsive period in American history, excepting only the Civil War, reveals a period that formed the crucible in which modern America was formed.
Please note: The individual volumes of the series have not been published in historical order. Freedom from Fear is number IX in The Oxford History of the United States.
Listen to more of the definitive Oxford History of the United States.©1999 Oxford University Press, Inc. (P)2010 Blackstone Audio, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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James MacGregor Burns’s stunning trilogy of American history, spanning the birth of the Constitution to the final days of the Cold War. In these three volumes, Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winner James MacGregor Burns chronicles with depth and narrative panache the most significant cultural, economic, and political events of American history.
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American History ABCs
- By Michael on 06-16-15
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Modern Times
- The World from the Twenties to the Nineties
- By: Paul Johnson
- Narrated by: Nadia May
- Length: 37 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Beginning with May 29, 1919, when photographs of the solar eclipse confirmed the truth of Einstein's theory of relativity, Johnson goes on to describe Freudianism, the establishment of the first Marxist state, the chaos of "Old Europe", the Arcadian 20s, and the new forces in China and Japan. Also discussed are Karl Marx, Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Roosevelt, Gandhi, Castro, Kennedy, Nixon, the '29 crash, the Great Depression, Roosevelt's New Deal, and the massive conflict of World War II.
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The Anti-Howard Zinn
- By Pork C. Fish on 05-22-12
By: Paul Johnson
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The Year of Peril
- America in 1942
- By: Tracy Campbell
- Narrated by: Paul Heitsch
- Length: 14 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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The Second World War exists in the American historical imagination as a time of unity and optimism. In 1942, however, after a series of defeats in the Pacific and the struggle to establish a beachhead on the European front, America seemed to be on the brink of defeat and was beginning to splinter from within. Exploring this precarious moment, Campbell paints a portrait of the deep social, economic, and political fault lines that pitted factions of citizens against each other in the post-Pearl Harbor era....
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Disappointing
- By David S. on 06-08-20
By: Tracy Campbell
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The Pity of War
- Explaining World War I
- By: Niall Ferguson
- Narrated by: Graeme Malcolm
- Length: 21 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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The Pity of War makes a simple and provocative argument: the human atrocity known as the Great War was entirely England's fault. According to Niall Ferguson, England entered into war based on naive assumptions of German aims, thereby transforming a Continental conflict into a world war, which it then badly mishandled, necessitating American involvement. The war was not inevitable, Ferguson argues, but rather was the result of the mistaken decisions of individuals who would later claim to have been in the grip of huge impersonal forces.
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Ferguson wouldn’t know history if it hit him in the head
- By Schen on 10-07-20
By: Niall Ferguson
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Herbert Hoover
- A Life
- By: Glen Jeansonne
- Narrated by: Mark Deakins
- Length: 16 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Prize-winning historian Glen Jeansonne delves into the life of our most misunderstood president, offering up a surprising new portrait of Herbert Hoover - dismissing previous assumptions and revealing a political Progressive in the mold of Theodore Roosevelt and the most resourceful American since Benjamin Franklin.
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Thought provoking
- By Jean on 10-26-16
By: Glen Jeansonne
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The Marshall Plan
- Dawn of the Cold War
- By: Benn Steil
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 16 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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The award-winning author of The Battle of Bretton Woods reveals the gripping history behind the Marshall Plan—told with verve, insight, and resonance for today.
In the wake of World War II, with Britain’s empire collapsing and Stalin's on the rise, US officials under new secretary of state George C. Marshall set out to reconstruct western Europe as a bulwark against communist authoritarianism. Their massive, costly, and ambitious undertaking would confront Europeans and Americans alike with a vision at odds with their history and self-conceptions. In the process, they would drive the creation of NATO, the European Union, and a Western identity that continues to shape world events.
Focusing on the critical years 1947 to 1949, Benn Steil’s thrilling account brings to life the seminal episodes marking the collapse of postwar US-Soviet relations—the Prague coup, the Berlin blockade, and the division of Germany. In each case, we see and understand like never before Stalin’s determination to crush the Marshall Plan and undermine American power in Europe.
Given current echoes of the Cold War, as Putin’s Russia rattles the world order, the tenuous balance of power and uncertain order of the late 1940s is as relevant as ever. The Marshall Plan provides critical context into understanding today’s international landscape. Bringing to bear fascinating new material from American, Russian, German, and other European archives, Steil’s account will forever change how we see the Marshall Plan and the birth of the Cold War. A polished and masterly work of historical narrative, this is an instant classic of Cold War literature.
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A Deeply Researched Narrative
- By Jean on 10-18-18
By: Benn Steil
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Overthrow
- America's Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq
- By: Stephen Kinzer
- Narrated by: Michael Prichard
- Length: 15 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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"Regime change" did not begin with the administration of George W. Bush, but has been an integral part of U.S. foreign policy for more than one hundred years. Starting with the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy in 1893 and continuing through the Spanish-American War and the Cold War and into our own time, the United States has not hesitated to overthrow governments that stood in the way of its political and economic goals.
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Looking at the dark side
- By Stanley on 08-02-06
By: Stephen Kinzer
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The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution: 1763-1789
- By: Robert Middlekauff
- Narrated by: Robert Fass
- Length: 26 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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The first book to appear in the illustrious Oxford History of the United States, this critically-acclaimed volume - a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize - offers an unsurpassed history of the Revolutionary War and the birth of the American republic.
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Strong History Rich With Behind The Scenes Details
- By John on 10-06-11
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1941: Fighting the Shadow War
- A Divided America in a World at War
- By: Marc Wortman
- Narrated by: Richard Poe
- Length: 11 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1941: Fighting the Shadow War: A Divided America in a World at War, historian Marc Wortman thrillingly explores the little-known history of America's clandestine involvement in World War II before the attack on Pearl Harbor. Prior to that infamous day, America had long been involved in a shadow war. Winston Churchill, England's beleaguered new prime minister, pleaded with Franklin D. Roosevelt for help. FDR concocted ingenious ways to come to his aid without breaking the Neutrality Acts.
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Fascinating, well worth the time to read or listen.
- By tennreader on 06-07-16
By: Marc Wortman
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The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution: 1763-1789
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- Narrated by: Robert Fass
- Length: 26 hrs and 56 mins
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The first book to appear in the illustrious Oxford History of the United States, this critically-acclaimed volume - a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize - offers an unsurpassed history of the Revolutionary War and the birth of the American republic.
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Strong History Rich With Behind The Scenes Details
- By John on 10-06-11
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The Impending Crisis
- America Before the Civil War: 1848-1861
- By: David M. Potter, Don E. Fehrenbacher
- Narrated by: Eric Martin
- Length: 22 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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David M. Potter's Pulitzer Prize-winning The Impending Crisis is the definitive history of antebellum America. Potter's sweeping epic masterfully charts the chaotic forces that climaxed with the outbreak of the Civil War: westward expansion, the divisive issue of slavery, the Dred Scott decision, John Brown's uprising, the ascension of Abraham Lincoln, and the drama of Southern secession.
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A Slog for Sure
- By Brux on 04-13-17
By: David M. Potter, and others
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Over Here
- The First World War and American Society
- By: David M. Kennedy
- Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain
- Length: 17 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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The Great War of 1914-1918 confronted the United States with one of the most wrenching crises in the nation's history. It also left a residue of disruption and disillusion that spawned an even more ruinous conflict scarcely a generation later. Over Here is the single most comprehensive discussion of the impact of World War I on American society.
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Good HISTORY AWFUL READING
- By Magyar on 02-05-20
By: David M. Kennedy
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Battle Cry of Freedom
- The Civil War Era
- By: James M. McPherson
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 39 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Battle Cry of Freedom vividly traces how a new nation was forged when a war both sides were sure would amount to little dragged for four years and cost more American lives than all other wars combined. Narrator Jonathan Davis powerful reading brings to life the many voices of the Civil War.
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Excellent Book
- By J. Weston on 12-11-20
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The Glory and the Dream
- A Narrative History of America, 1932 - 1972
- By: William Manchester
- Narrated by: Jeff Riggenbach
- Length: 57 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
This great time capsule of a book captures the abundant popular history of the United States from 1932 to 1972. It encompasses politics, military history, economics, the lively arts, science, fashion, fads, social change, sexual mores, communications, graffiti...everything and anything indigenous that can be captured in print.
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Fabulous book, good narration, bad recording
- By Paula on 07-10-08
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The Secret History of MI6: 1909-1949
- By: Keith Jeffery
- Narrated by: John Curless
- Length: 36 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Keith Jeffery’s fascinating and revealing account draws on a wealth of archival materials never before seen by any outsider to unveil the inner workings of the world’s first spy agency. Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service—or MI6—was born a century ago amid rising fears of foreign military powers, especially Germany. The next 40 years saw MI6 taking an increasingly important—and, until now, largely hidden—role in shaping the history of Europe and the world.
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How to make the fascinating totally boring!
- By Eugene on 05-29-11
By: Keith Jeffery
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The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution: 1763-1789
- By: Robert Middlekauff
- Narrated by: Robert Fass
- Length: 26 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The first book to appear in the illustrious Oxford History of the United States, this critically-acclaimed volume - a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize - offers an unsurpassed history of the Revolutionary War and the birth of the American republic.
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-
Strong History Rich With Behind The Scenes Details
- By John on 10-06-11
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The Impending Crisis
- America Before the Civil War: 1848-1861
- By: David M. Potter, Don E. Fehrenbacher
- Narrated by: Eric Martin
- Length: 22 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
David M. Potter's Pulitzer Prize-winning The Impending Crisis is the definitive history of antebellum America. Potter's sweeping epic masterfully charts the chaotic forces that climaxed with the outbreak of the Civil War: westward expansion, the divisive issue of slavery, the Dred Scott decision, John Brown's uprising, the ascension of Abraham Lincoln, and the drama of Southern secession.
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A Slog for Sure
- By Brux on 04-13-17
By: David M. Potter, and others
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Over Here
- The First World War and American Society
- By: David M. Kennedy
- Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain
- Length: 17 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Great War of 1914-1918 confronted the United States with one of the most wrenching crises in the nation's history. It also left a residue of disruption and disillusion that spawned an even more ruinous conflict scarcely a generation later. Over Here is the single most comprehensive discussion of the impact of World War I on American society.
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Good HISTORY AWFUL READING
- By Magyar on 02-05-20
By: David M. Kennedy
-
Battle Cry of Freedom
- The Civil War Era
- By: James M. McPherson
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 39 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Battle Cry of Freedom vividly traces how a new nation was forged when a war both sides were sure would amount to little dragged for four years and cost more American lives than all other wars combined. Narrator Jonathan Davis powerful reading brings to life the many voices of the Civil War.
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Excellent Book
- By J. Weston on 12-11-20
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The Glory and the Dream
- A Narrative History of America, 1932 - 1972
- By: William Manchester
- Narrated by: Jeff Riggenbach
- Length: 57 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This great time capsule of a book captures the abundant popular history of the United States from 1932 to 1972. It encompasses politics, military history, economics, the lively arts, science, fashion, fads, social change, sexual mores, communications, graffiti...everything and anything indigenous that can be captured in print.
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-
Fabulous book, good narration, bad recording
- By Paula on 07-10-08
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The Secret History of MI6: 1909-1949
- By: Keith Jeffery
- Narrated by: John Curless
- Length: 36 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Keith Jeffery’s fascinating and revealing account draws on a wealth of archival materials never before seen by any outsider to unveil the inner workings of the world’s first spy agency. Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service—or MI6—was born a century ago amid rising fears of foreign military powers, especially Germany. The next 40 years saw MI6 taking an increasingly important—and, until now, largely hidden—role in shaping the history of Europe and the world.
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How to make the fascinating totally boring!
- By Eugene on 05-29-11
By: Keith Jeffery
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Woodrow Wilson
- The Light Withdrawn
- By: Christopher Cox
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 25 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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More than a century after he dominated American politics, Woodrow Wilson still fascinates. With panoramic sweep, Woodrow Wilson: The Light Withdrawn reassesses his life and his role in the movements for racial equality and women’s suffrage. The Wilson that emerges is a man superbly unsuited to the moment when he ascended to the presidency in 1912, as the struggle for women’s voting rights in America reached the tipping point.
By: Christopher Cox
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Gay New York
- Gender, Urban Culture, and the Making of the Gay Male World, 1890-1940
- By: George Chauncey
- Narrated by: Graham Halstead
- Length: 18 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Gay New York brilliantly shatters the myth that before the 1960s gay life existed only in the closet, where gay men were isolated, invisible, and self-hating. Drawing on a rich trove of diaries, legal records, and other unpublished documents, George Chauncey constructs a fascinating portrait of a vibrant, cohesive gay world that is not supposed to have existed. Gay New York forever changed how we think about the history of gay life in New York City, and beyond.
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An Eye Opening History!
- By Nelson on 04-26-22
By: George Chauncey
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Race and Reunion
- The Civil War in American Memory
- By: David W. Blight
- Narrated by: David Colacci
- Length: 20 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Race and Reunion is a history of how the unity of white America was purchased through the increasing segregation of black and white memory of the Civil War. Blight delves deeply into the shifting meanings of death and sacrifice, Reconstruction, the romanticized South of literature, soldiers' reminiscences of battle, the idea of the Lost Cause, and the ritual of Memorial Day. He resurrects the variety of African-American voices and memories of the war and the efforts to preserve the emancipationist legacy in the midst of a culture built on its denial.
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How we remember matters
- By Adam Shields on 04-03-19
By: David W. Blight
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Franklin D. Roosevelt
- A Political Life
- By: Robert Dallek
- Narrated by: Rick Adamson
- Length: 29 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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In an era of such great national divisiveness, there could be no more timely biography of one of our greatest presidents than one that focuses on his unparalleled political ability as a uniter and consensus maker. Robert Dallek's Franklin D. Roosevelt: A Political Life takes a fresh look at the many compelling questions that have attracted all his biographers: how did a man who came from so privileged a background become the greatest presidential champion of the country's needy?
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Not bad but,
- By Christopher on 12-20-17
By: Robert Dallek
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The Civil War: A Narrative, Volume I, Fort Sumter to Perryville
- By: Shelby Foote
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 42 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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The Civil War: A Narrative, Volume 1 begins one of the most remarkable works of history ever fashioned. All the great battles are here, of course, from Bull Run through Shiloh, the Seven Days Battles, and Antietam, but so are the smaller ones: Ball's Bluff, Fort Donelson, Pea Ridge, Island Ten, New Orleans, and Monitor versus Merrimac.
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OUTSTANDING! I'M PROUD TO BE A BLACK AMERICAN!!
- By The Louligan on 08-22-13
By: Shelby Foote
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American Civil Wars
- A Continental History, 1850-1873
- By: Alan Taylor
- Narrated by: Graham Winton
- Length: 17 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Story
The American Civil War stands at the center of the story, its military history and the drama of emancipation the highlights. Taylor relies on vivid characters to carry the story, from Joseph Hooker, whose timidity in crisis was exploited by Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson in the Union defeat at Chancellorsville, to Martin Delany and Mary Ann Shadd Cary, Black abolitionists whose critical work in Canada and the United States advanced emancipation and the enrollment of Black soldiers in Union armies.
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fascinating!
- By Brandon Marken on 07-12-24
By: Alan Taylor
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The Invisible Bridge
- The Fall of Nixon and the Rise of Reagan
- By: Rick Perlstein
- Narrated by: David de Vries
- Length: 39 hrs
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
In January of 1973 Richard Nixon announced the end of the Vietnam War and prepared for a triumphant second term - until televised Watergate hearings revealed his White House as little better than a mafia den. The next president declared upon Nixon’s resignation “our long national nightmare is over” - but then congressional investigators exposed the CIA for assassinating foreign leaders. The collapse of the South Vietnamese government rendered moot the sacrifice of some 58,000 American lives.
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Brilliant
- By Tad Davis on 10-03-14
By: Rick Perlstein
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Indigenous Continent
- The Epic Contest for North America
- By: Pekka Hamalainen
- Narrated by: Kaipo Schwab
- Length: 18 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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In Indigenous Continent, acclaimed historian Pekka Hämäläinen presents a sweeping counternarrative that shatters the most basic assumptions about American history. Shifting our perspective away from Jamestown, Plymouth Rock, the Revolution, and other well-trodden episodes on the conventional timeline, he depicts a sovereign world of Native nations whose members, far from helpless victims of colonial violence, dominated the continent for centuries after the first European arrivals.
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indigenous Continent
- By katherine on 07-09-23
By: Pekka Hamalainen
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American Revolutions
- A Continental History, 1750-1804
- By: Alan Taylor
- Narrated by: Mark Bramhall
- Length: 18 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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The American Revolution is often portrayed as a high-minded, orderly event whose capstone, the Constitution, provided the ideal framework for a democratic, prosperous nation. Alan Taylor, two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize, gives us a different creation story in this magisterial history of the nation's founding. Rising out of the continental rivalries of European empires and their native allies, Taylor's Revolution builds like a ground fire overspreading Britain's mainland colonies, fueled by local conditions, destructive, hard to quell.
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Best book on the American Revolution that I have read
- By Peter Stephens on 11-16-16
By: Alan Taylor
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The Napoleonic Wars
- By: Alexander Mikaberidze
- Narrated by: Steven Crossley
- Length: 35 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Story
The Napoleonic Wars saw fighting on an unprecedented scale in Europe and the Americas. It took the wealth of the British Empire, combined with the might of the continental armies, almost two decades to bring down one of the world's greatest military leaders and the empire that he had created. Napoleon's ultimate defeat was to determine the history of Europe for almost 100 years. From the frozen wastelands of Russia, through the brutal fighting in the Peninsula to the blood-soaked battlefield of Waterloo, this book tells the story of the dramatic rise and fall of the Napoleonic Empire.
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No description of battles
- By John Gaston on 01-15-21
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Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee
- An Indian History of the American West
- By: Dee Brown
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 14 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
Dee Brown's eloquent, meticulously documented account of the systematic destruction of the American Indian during the second half of the 19th century uses council records, autobiographies, and firsthand descriptions. Brown allows great chiefs and warriors of the Dakota, Ute, Sioux, Cheyenne, and other tribes to tell us in their own words of the battles, massacres, and broken treaties that finally left them demoralized and defeated.
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Easy to Listen To, Difficult to Hear About
- By J.B. on 04-12-16
By: Dee Brown
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Founding Brothers
- The Revolutionary Generation (Pulitzer Prize Winner)
- By: Joseph J. Ellis
- Narrated by: Bob Walter
- Length: 12 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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An illuminating study of the intertwined lives of the founders of the American republic - John Adams, Aaron Burr, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and George Washington.
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Great!
- By Gotta Tellya on 08-10-16
By: Joseph J. Ellis
What listeners say about Freedom from Fear
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Cynthia
- 10-29-12
Well Worth the Credit and the Time!
I started exploring WWII on Audible with Herman Wouk's "The Winds of War" and "War and Remembrance". I loved both, but I was left wondering "How much is true?" and "What is historically accurate?" An afterword in "War and Remembrance" assured me that the basic history was true, but I wasn't sure how much.
"Freedom from Fear: The American People in Depression and War 1929-1945" answers my questions, from the American perspective: although the characters were fictional, the places and facts were true.
That's not to say that David M. Kennedy needs any assistance from the very capable Herman Wouk - he doesn't. Mr. Kennedy delves into a 16 year period that changed the United States in a crucial way. That period is only equalled by the American Revolution and the Civil War. In each case, the outcome determined the path of a nation.
Kennedy's description of macroeconomics (the economic relationship between nations) is especially adept. The exploration of the measures taken to relieve the dire economic straights the US was in at the time is clear. I can't say it was concise, because the actions themselves were not concise. "The New Deal" was a brave plan, but sub\bject to extensive political wrangling that finally collapsed during WWII.
I also found the discussion of the use of nuclear bombs against Japan fascinating. Having read John Hersey's "Hiroshima" more than a quarter century ago, I had longed believed that the Enola Gay's successful mission was as inexplicable as it was inexcusable. The use of such a horrific weapon is, after its use, grotesque and cruel - but not there was a reason for it.
I definitely recommend this book.
I have one criticism of the performance, and it's one I've never had of an Audible book before. The narration was faster than any other book I've listened to, and I would have like to have it about 15% slower. Of course, that would have made a 31 hour book into a 37 hour book.
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14 people found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 07-27-17
very informative.
I learned things I never knew about the depression and the war. well presented and readily understood.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Meddlesome
- 09-10-12
Fascinating, history of Americe 1919-1945
Would you listen to Freedom from Fear again? Why?
Yes, because there is so much detail it will bear a second listen.
Who was your favorite character and why?
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the dominant politician of that era.
Which character – as performed by Tom Weiner – was your favorite?
See above
Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?
It is history
Any additional comments?
This ia an excellent volume of the Oxford History of the United States.
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2 people found this helpful
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- jtkubs
- 05-30-15
Powerful insights
Kennedy' well-researched work on the American people from onset of the Great Depression through the end of World War II provides uniquely powerful insights into who we are as a nation. The saga reveals the multitude of powerful political forces resident in American society as they interacted over the course of arguably the most formative national experience since the Civil War. A must read for anyone serious about understanding modern America.
My only critical comment is Kennedy's excessive use of metaphors. His attempt to creatively communicate complex ideas with extended metaphors bordered on comical at times.
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- Fred Robert Slotkin
- 06-09-21
Demur v. Demure
I’ve long appreciated 20th century US history, but this book made me realize there’s a story arc I’d previously seen only as vignettes. This book does an amazing job explaining the nuances of the New Deal, how we ended up in two wars at once, and how the US and world were changed by early 20th century developments.
This book puts all this in clear context in a delightfully engaging and literate way. Simply put, I didn’t want this book to end.
Narrator was compelling, but I found his word mispronunciation distracting.
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- Wiregrass18
- 07-31-11
An amazing achievement
This is an impressive work of scholarship, ranging across many different facets of the Depression and World War II and doing it so well that it is easy to see why it won the Pulitzer. I learned so much about the roots of our own time that I want to order the hard copy and reread substantial sections to reflect more on what Kennedy has to say. And Tom Weiner's reading is perfect.
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8 people found this helpful
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- patrick a. shea
- 03-23-19
Understandable history
Kennedy has both the intellectual skill and creative storytelling to cover a very complex time without the reader dozing.
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- johnhalfen
- 09-26-14
Obvious Pulitzer Prize winner
I read a fair bit of military history. This book, while much more than that, is a great concise history of WWII. Most interestingly, the author gets into the motivations of the military leaders and it comes across excellently. There is some bias, but that is a minor distraction.
I would recommend this book to any history buff, military history buff, and anyone just interested that period of time in US history. The political science is also very interesting.
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- Amazon Customer
- 06-13-11
An FDR Tour de Force
No question, this book is very complete, and very long. But, for anyone who wants to study this period in history serious, I think it is a must read. What really comes through is the amount of experimentation that FDR tries to end the Depression, and how many times those results are mixed or worse. Still, it is difficult not to side with FDR's irrepressible enthusiasm, even though a honest evaluation may lead to the conclusion that now of the agencies he created had much effect on the overall state of the nation. One thing I especially liked about the book was the fairness displayed toward Herbert Hoover, inheriting the mess from the Coolidge years of laissez faire financial speculation.
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- ejb
- 04-07-19
"American People In..."
Overall this book is a great comprehensive look at the Depression and the War. I have read from this Oxford series before and have been pleased with each volume's scope. I was expecting that the book would spend more time focusing on "the American people" such as with the issues of the home front. While it did, it spent more time than expected on the military events. I enjoyed the book but if you are looking for more of a history of the home front, you would do better to find an alternate read.
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