Overview

"""Newton's contribution is as cogent an inventory of Eisenhower's White House years as I've ever read. He blends masterful writing with historic detail and provides the value-added of Ike as the man and the leader."" --Chuck Hagel, Distinguished Professor, Georgetown University; U.S. Senator (1997-2009) Newly discovered and declassified documents make for a surprising and revealing portrait of the president we thought we knew. America's thirty-fourth president was belittled by his critics as the babysitter-in-chief. This new look reveals how wrong they were. Dwight Eisenhower was bequeathed the atomic bomb and refused to use it. He ground down Joseph McCarthy and McCarthyism until both became, as he said, ""McCarthywasm."" He stimulated the economy to lift it from recession, built an interstate highway system, turned an $8 billion deficit in 1953 into a $500 million surplus in 1960. (Ike was the last President until Bill Clinton to leave his country in the black.) The President Eisenhower of popular imagination is a benign figure, armed with a putter, a winning smile, and little else. The Eisenhower of veteran journalist Jim Newton's rendering is shrewd, sentimental, and tempestuous. He mourned the death of his first son and doted on his grandchildren but could, one aide recalled, ""peel the varnish off a desk"" with his temper. Mocked asshallow and inarticulate, he was in fact a meticulous manager. Admired as a general, he was a champion of peace. In Korea and Vietnam, in Quemoy and Berlin, his generals urged him to wage nuclear war. Time and again he considered the idea and rejected it. And it was Eisenhower who appointed the liberal justices Earl Warren and William Brennan and who then called in the military to enforce desegregation in the schools. Rare interviews, newly discovered records, and fresh insights undergird this gripping and timely narrative. JIM NEWTON is a veteran journalist who began his career as clerk to James Reston at the ""New York Times."" Since then, he has worked as a reporterat the ""Atlanta Constitution"" and as a reporter, bureau chief and editor at the ""Los Angeles Times,"" where he presently is the editor-at-largeand author of a weekly column. He also is an educator and author, whose acclaimed biography of Chief Justice Earl Warren, ""Justice for All: Earl Warren and the Nation He Made,"" was published in 2006. He lives in Pasadena, CA."

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<p>Praise for Jim Newton's Eisenhower: The White House Years <br> Newton's book is thorough and reasonable....What makes it valuable now is the timing: We need this book and its insights to judge the vicious and counterproductive politics of these days. This is a book worth reading. <br>--Richard Reeve, LA Times <br> An essential narrative....[Newton's] objective is to tell the story, and he does so well, inviting us to form our own opinions and giving us a sense of an era that seems both quaint and comfortable in our own age of harsh polarization. <br>-- The Wall Street Journal <br> Drawing on declassified documents, Newton's narrative, especially of the many international crises, is clear, brisk, and insightful, a timely study of a master of consensus politics with lessons for today's polarized Washington. <br>-- Publishers Weekly <p> [Newton's] well-researched account shows that Eisenhower was an engaged, decisive leader guided by some bedrock moral and political bel

<p>Praise for Jim Newton's Eisenhower: The White House Years <br> Newton's book is thorough and reasonable....What makes it valuable now is the timing: We need this book and its insights to judge the vicious and counterproductive politics of these days. This is a book worth reading. <br>--Richard Reeve, LA Times <br> An essential narrative....[Newton's] objective is to tell the story, and he does so well, inviting us to form our own opinions and giving us a sense of an era that seems both quaint and comfortable in our own age of harsh polarization. <br>-- The Wall Street Journal <br> Drawing on declassified documents, Newton's narrative, especially of the many international crises, is clear, brisk, and insightful, a timely study of a master of consensus politics with lessons for today's polarized Washington. <br>-- Publishers Weekly <p> [Newton's] well-researched account shows that Eisenhower was an engaged, decisive leader guided by some bedrock moral and political beliefs . . . A well-done presentation that helps correct enduring perceptions about an effective but misunderstood presidency. <br>-- Booklist <br> A truly great book, spirited, balanced, and not just the story of President Eisenhower but of an era. <br>--Bob Woodward <br> Jim Newton brings President Eisenhower to life, and we walk with him page by page as he's transformed from epic General to two-term President. Newton navigates a fascinating journey from military leader to novice politician to one of the most beloved Presidents in our history. <br>--John F. Kerry, U.S. Senator <br> Jim Newton does a masterful job illustrating the forces that confronted Dwight Eisenhower during his years in the White House, from nuclear politics to race relations to the federal debt and deficit. He paints a vivid portrait of a president struggling to find middle ground--sometimes successfully, sometimes not--but always with the good of the country in mind. While many Americans are intimately f

<p>Praise for Jim Newton's Eisenhower: The White House Years <br> Drawing on declassified documents, Newton's narrative, especially of the many international crises, is clear, brisk, and insightful, a timely study of a master of consensus politics with lessons for today's polarized Washington. <br>-- Publishers Weekly <p> [Newton's] well-researched account shows that Eisenhower was an engaged, decisive leader guided by some bedrock moral and political beliefs . . . A well-done presentation that helps correct enduring perceptions about an effective but misunderstood presidency. <br>-- Booklist <br> A truly great book, spirited, balanced, and not just the story of President Eisenhower but of an era. <br>--Bob Woodward <br> Jim Newton does a masterful job illustrating the forces that confronted Dwight Eisenhower during his years in the White House, from nuclear politics to race relations to the federal debt and deficit. He paints a vivid portrait of a president struggling tot

Author Information

"JIM NEWTON is a veteran journalist who began his career as clerk to James Reston at the ""New York Times."" Since then, he has worked as a reporter, bureau chief and editor of the ""Los Angeles Times,"" where he presently is the editor-at-large. He also is an educator and author, whose acclaimed biography of Chief Justice Earl Warren, ""Justice for All,"" was published in 2006. He lives in Pasadena, CA."

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