The American People in World War II: Freedom from Fear, Part Two

by David M. Kennedy

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.

Genres: History, World War II, Nonfiction, American History, War

528 pages, Paperback

First published October 3, 2003

About the author

David Michael Kennedy is an American Pulitzer Prize-winning historian specializing in American history. He is the Donald J. McLachlan Professor of History Emeritus at Stanford University[1] and the Director of the Bill Lane Center for the American West. Professor Kennedy's scholarship is notable for its integration of economic analysis and cultural analysis with social history and political history.

Kennedy is responsible for the recent editions of the popular history textbook The American Pageant. He is also the current editor of the Oxford History of United States series. This position was held previously by C. Vann Woodward. Earlier in his career, Kennedy won the Bancroft Prize for his Birth Control in America: The Career of Margaret Sanger (1970) and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for World War I, Over Here: The First World War and American Society (1980). He won the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for History for Freedom from Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929-1945 (1999).

Reviews

[Phrodrick slowed his growing backlog · Rating 3 out of 5]

David M Kennedy is very capable of a five-star history. Part I of this two-part series, Freedom Fear is more than ample proof. This, Volume II, The American People in World War II is not a 5 star read. In sum: Despite the title, this is old school top-down history with very little about the American People. Much of that grumpy. The coverage of World War II is: very little new and a few unevenly argued opinions. The war in the Pacific is almost not covered at all and his major source is the 50 plus year old work of Samuel Eliot Morison. Not bad history in its day, but there has been a little scholarship since then. Parenthetically, he also over depends on Churchill.

Evidently, he feels that the Chinese were utterly without any consideration and should have been sacrificed to keep the US out of World War II. He dismisses, out of hand the notion that the Pacific Fleet was set up as deliberate bait for a Japanese attack, but believes Roosevelt should have allowed for more Japanese atrocities in Asia as a reasonable price for peace.

The European Theater gets some detailed coverage. There he allows that Russia, being far more numerous in the amount of war being fought and the losses sustained that the Democratic Allies had little choice but to give them too much of what they wanted from the post war world. A lot of what Kennedy has to say reads as common sense, until you realize that Stalin was as murderously crazy as Hitler. Kennedy gives us a Stalin as rational thinking, reasonable man.

It is entertaining to read him disparage the slowly weakening and dying Roosevelt, until you tally how many times Kennedy admits that this same man got it right. In this volume he even calls out Roosevelt as a failure in his handling of the quickly stale issue of the Depression. Except that in volume one he makes it clear that the alternative to Roosevelt, was no plan and that so much of what Roosevelt attempted was sill borne or over turned, that he is to be scored on what was a random execution of a plan already riddled with randomness. Rather like failing a doctor for your decision to not listen to much of his advice.

What little of the home front is covered, is mostly top down. Who was appoint to run what bureaucracy, how few were the women who went into uniform or war work and how much the unions and the companies did to marginalize them. All true, but covered elsewhere. Rosie the Riveter may be an over blown myth, but she existed and besides, she was our myth. There are some glimpses of what this could have been as he discusses, that it was clear that the US would need into the end of 1943 to be properly organized, equipped and trained to effectively fight WWII, but some how he is critical when it did take that long.


At 440 pages it is not too much of a challenge for a historian to cover America’s WWII. Anthony Beevor attempted to cover all of WWII in less than 800. I expect better of Beevor. I expected better of Kennedy.

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I set my goal for 2024, I grossly underestimated the impact of the Normandy Scholars Program. I’m drowning! At least the books are good….

[Jeff Rosendahl · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have to say that I'm disappointed in this book. I've read David Kennedy's Freedom from Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929-1945 and thought it was great depiction and analysis of America during the Depression/New Deal era. So I had high hopes for this "part 2." I expected much talk of the "home front" immediately prior to, during, and immediately after WWII. I ended up with some political analysis of America during WWII, but mostly a poor, one-volume history of the conflict focusing on America's role in the Grand Alliance. The fact that Kennedy relies heavily on Morison for much of his Pacific War discussions just adds insult to injury. There's no excuse for a book published in 1999 to not provide a broader analysis. While we do get some insights into FDR and the country, and how the war changed both, it wasn't enough for me. Kennedy even says at the beginning of the biography that WWII literature is extensive, so why didn't he give us more details from more sources in a narrower scope?

[Katie Hanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

ALL THE STARS FOR THIS ONE.

Masterful work of historical scholarship, totally deserved the Pulitzer Prize it won. Please, friends, if you like American history AT ALL--do yourselves a favor and read this book. You won't regret it.

(Even though it's 433 pages long.)

[AngieA Allen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is part II of Freedom From Fear by the same author, David Kennedy, and part of the Oxford History of the United States. I read this one first for two reasons; I thought it would be more of a look at home front America during WWII and it only has 433 pages compared to 858 pages in part I. Don't judge. Then I discovered that this separate volume is that last 400 pages of the first one. You won't need them both although part II is easier to hold! The first book I read in the Oxford series was "Battle Cry of Freedom" about the Civil War and I found it so compelling, I wanted to read the whole series. I purchased most of the books only to find they are by different historians and when I started reading "The Glorious Cause" about the Revolutionary War, it was not nearly so attention grabbing and I haven't finished it yet. This contribution was a lot easier and I found it excellent for a non-scholar such as myself.

Kennedy begins with the issue of neutrality and how it caused so many issues during the end of the 1930s. He then moves into the way Roosevelt has to negotiate a fine line between involvement and neutrality while still maintaining our relations with allies. He discusses Churchill, too, and how he knows that he has to hold out until the Americans get involved; Britain is the last bastion between Hitler and the collapse of the western democracies. He moves well between the war in Europe and the war in the Pacific and how Americans mobilized for war. There is a good bit about what life was like on the home front woven well with the battle strategies, generals from both sides and how it all came together. It became just as compelling to me as "Battle Cry of Freedom" and I am better for having read it. This is more advanced than a truly elementary look at the war, but one need not be an expert to appreciate it. It gave me an excellent overview and many of the sources cited will make good follow-up reading for the topics I found most interesting. I found having a highlighter ready most helpful in recalling things to study in more depth later.

[Kirby McDonald · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is truly amazing that Kennedy managed to fit as much information as he did into so few pages. This book is not for the faint of heart. However, if you want a complete overview of World War II America this is your bible.

[Marshall Smiland · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've always been fascinated by the history of World War 2, an epic struggle that can easily and truthfully be described as a classic battle of good versus evil. It was also a war that changed America and the rest of the world forever, as Kennedy so skillfully uses this book to point out. Far from a dry work of scholarly history that makes one fall asleep, this book reads more like a novel, captivating the reader in awe and emotion. Patton, Bradley, Eisenhower, and Nimitz are all described as they were: giants among men .I found his criticisms of MacArthur to be a little biased, but his treatment of Truman and the decision to drop the A-bomb were remarkably thoughtful and objective. I was reminded of my grandma telling me how she cried tears of joy when the bomb was dropped and Japan surrendered, because she knew that my grandfather (who was scheduled to be part of the Kyushu invasion) was finally coming home. As chronicled in the book, similar experiences took place in nearly every American home. The war was finally over, and the dark forces of evil had been defeated. Five stars.

[Jodi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like Kennedy's style for the most part. His distaste for MacArthur was amusing and obvious, but having no strong feelings either way, it didn't bother me. Kennedy does get pretty dry in parts, but makes up for it in other places with more stimulating prose. Kennedy is great for an overall look at the war, but one has to look elsewhere for more depth. It would be impossible to cover everything in one tome and I believe Kennedy did it as well as it probably could have been done.

[anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this in a weekend. By Sunday, I WAS World War II.

[Abby]

for class :)

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ah - all the lucidity, cogency, and narrative that the academy tossed away over the past 20 years.