The American People in World War II: Freedom from Fear, Part Two (The Oxford History of the United States, V. 9)

By David M. Kennedy

Book Overview

Even as the New Deal was coping with the Depression, a new menace was developing abroad. Exploiting Germany's own economic burdens, Hitler reached out to the disaffected, turning their aimless discontent into loyal support for his Nazi Party. In Asia, Japan harbored imperial ambitions of its own. The same generation of Americans who battled the Depression eventually had to shoulder arms in another conflict that wreaked worldwide destruction, ushered in the nuclear age, and forever changed their way of life and their country's relationship to the rest of the world.

The American People in World War II--the second installment of Kennedy's Pulitzer Prize-winning Freedom from Fear--explains how the nation agonized over its role in the conflict, how it fought the war, why the United States emerged victorious, 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. The American People in World War II is a gripping narrative and an invaluable analysis of the trials and victories through which modern America was formed.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0195168933
• ISBN13: 9780195168938
• Release Date: November 2003
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Length: 480 Pages
• Weight: 1.71 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 6.1" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Great

I couldn't put this book down. Great writer. And his first book, Part One is even better!

Buy the single volume version instead

This book was originally released as a single volume. In 2003, they rereleased it as a 2 volume set. The single volume version, Freedom from Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929-1945 (Oxford History of the United States), is still available and is much cheaper than buying these 2 volumes separately.

The first volume of a 2 vol set - enjoyable & insightful

David M. Kennedy won the Pulitzer Prize for his one volume work entitled "Freedom From Fear" - this volume is the first half of that work, and covers the period 1929-1939. Mostly addressing the Great Depression, the New Deal, and the Presidency of FDR, Kennedy has given us a thorough (yet somewhat biased) primarily economic-based analysis of the period. He focuses on how American society was affected by the economic shifts during this period, which, naturally, was a critical portion of American history during these years, since the Depression was an economic crisis unlike any previously seen. The one trouble I had with the book was that Kennedy differs from many people in saying that Herbert Hoover (FDR's predecessor in the White House) had the ideas on how to combat & beat the Depression, and FDR simply continued & implemented many of those ideas. He gives FDR virtually no credit except to say he's a master politician. Kennedy does give the reader fantastic background information & helps the reader to understand what the daily economic plights were. If you're looking for a true social history (i.e. what the people were going through every day, look at a book like Robert McElvaine's "The Great Depression, 1929-1941"). Overall, though, this is a very well written and concise volume covering the crucial years of the Depression era. Kennedy concludes with the German invasion of Poland (September 1, 1939), which is where the 2nd volume of this set inevitably will begin.

Fun to Read, and Insightful

I'm old enough to have live through the eventful 16-years (1929-1945)covered by Prof. David Kennedy's 2-volume history of that period of modern American history; for about half of that time, I was intellectually aware of what was happening; and I have read widely about the New Deal and WW-II. However, nothing I had been exposed to prior to reading "Freedom from Fear" gave me the context and an over-all understanding of the issues and obstacles that decision-makers faced during the Great Depression, the lead-up to WW-II, and the conduct of that war as have these wonderful two volumes. Even though I know full well how these matters played out, it was fascinating to learn how they came to be, and to realize that their outcomes were by no means foreordained nor inevitable. It is said about travel: "Getting there is half the fun;" in that sense, Kennedy is a marvelous tourguide to history. One minor quibble: In true scholarly fashion, Kennedy identifies sources for his many assertions and quotations in footnotes; only a few footnotes contain additional explanatory material that adds to the story. I would have preferred that the many footnotes that merely give sources had been made into end notes, available to those who want to check them but not taking space on the pages of the narrative.