Eisenhower 1-2

Volume I: 1890-1952 Volume II: 1952-1969 Dwight Eisenhower was not exactly born into poverty, but the family’s circumstances were at least austere. He was one of seven children; his father, a railway worker. But the family was strong and unified, the youngsters energetic and ambitious. Ike made it to West Point, where he excelled in sports. He was a natural leader. But it was at Leavenworth years later, as a student at the war college, that his intellectual talent showed itself. He graduated first in his class. The author draws in a wealth of previously unpublished information to give us this beautiful portrait. As a result Eisenhower emerges as complex, one who as the author states, . . .was a good and great man. In his second installment of the life of Eisenhower, Ambrose paints a man, both decent and complex, whose presidency is increasingly regarded as one of this century’s most successful. Wide-ranging and inclusive, the book covers Eisenhower’s rejection of advice to use nuclear weapons, his thinking on defense policy and the Cold War, his actions on civil rights and his views on Communism. We also see Eisenhower in action with Nixon, Truman, Churchill, Khrushchev, de Gaulle and other world leaders.