- MP3 CD
- Publisher: Blackstone Audiobooks; MP3 Una edition (Oct 2010)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1441761624
- ISBN-13: 978-1441761620
- Product Dimensions: 18.8 x 13.5 x 1.5 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
Between 1929 and 1945, two great travails were visited upon the American people: the Great Depression and World War II. This text 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 the author 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. Nor was the fabled prosperity of the 1920s as uniformly shared as legend portrays. Countless Americans, especially if they were farmers, African Americans, or recent immigrants, eked out threadbare lives on the margins of national life. For them, the Depression was but another of the ordeals of fear and insecurity with which they were sadly familiar.
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
About the Author
David M. Kennedy is the author of OVER HERE: THE FIRST WORLD WAR AND AMERICAN SOCIETY, which was a finalist for the Pulizter Prize, and BIRTH CONTROL IN AMERICA: THE CAREER OF MARGARET SANGER, which won the Bancroft Prize.
--This text refers to the Paperback edition.
--This text refers to the Paperback edition.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
There is much to like about David Kennedy's history of the United States during the 1930s and early 1940s. His book is an excellent overview of the political and economic history of the period. His examination of the New Deal is both insightful and judicious, while his description of America in the Second World War is gripping and informative. Throughout the book Kennedy offers a penetrating analysis of events, discerning approaches that reshaped many of the fundamental relations that existed between the American people and their government.
Yet in some respects the volume is something of a disappointment. The book is a contribution to the superb 'Oxford History of the United States' series, which has set a high standard with its earlier volumes. It is by this measure that Kennedy's book is wanting; it is hardly the comprehensive examination of its topic that the earlier volumes were, as his focus on politics and economics gives short shrift to American culture and society during the period. Moreover, his prose often seems excessively grandiose. Efforts to create soaring metaphors often become too labored and fall flat, making for a stark contrast with the clear descriptions and jargon-free analysis they buttress.
Nevertheless, Kennedy's achievement with this book is impressive. He has provided a well-written account of America's efforts to deal with some of the greatest challenges that the nation ever faced. Readers seeking a history of the period would be hard pressed to find a better and more readable book with which to start.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Professor Kennedy has given us a monumental work on a critical period in the history of the United states and the world. Kennedy displays an intuitve understanding of the causes of the great depression. He gives us a new and positive inter- pretation of Herbert Hoover. In Kennedy's view the ''Great Engineer'' is a closet liberal who paved the way for the new deal. Kennedy clearly is an admirer of Franklin Roosevelt,but is not blind to his hero's shortcomings. The author frankly admits that the new deal did not end the depression and that during WWII Roosevelt was decieved by Joseph Stalin. Kennedy gives a superb account of the political radicalism of the thirties complete with unforgetable portraits of Huey Long and Father Coughlin. The account of the second world war also rises to the occassion. I found this book to be a fascinating read and I highly reccomend it. Thank you Professor Kennedy.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Kennedy's prose surges to climax after climax as he takes the reader through the traumas and transitions of Depression and World War 2. He is especially good capturing the social calamities of the Depression, the labor struggles and the brave tentativeness of the New Deal (to at least secure the lives of the citizenry, in the absence of a successful economic remedy). The book is revealing on many matters: the radicalism of politics in the mid to late1930s (a 2% 'magic' tax advocated back then resurfaced in Australian fringe politics only recently ); the focus by Americans on the Depression as an internal issue; and the chimeral character of Roosevelt. The half of the book devoted to the War does not flag, but there is less insight into the lives of those at the 'home front' and perhaps too much battle description. Against that, the account of the nation's reluctant shift from isolationism into world conflict is superbly done. In the wonderful Oxford series so far, Freedom From Fear stands beside the great Civil War volume, Battle Cry of Freedom.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Essential reading
Brilliant for those studying the Depression and War between 1929 and 1945. I'm an undergrad studying this subject at honours and this is our essential reading selected by our... Read more
Published on 17 Mar 2010 by Jess Owen
Seller and Product first class
This book was of superb quality and arrived in excellent time I would recommend this seller to all other customers.
Published on 6 Mar 2010 by Debbie
Top-notch account of the period
A vast, illuminating study of an extraordinary period in American history, "Freedom From Fear" is not just very sound in its judgements but is written with great verve,... Read more
Published on 26 April 2002
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