The Declassified Eisenhower

by Blanche Wiesen Cook

Reevaluates the presidency of Dwight Eisenhower, with an emphasis on his role as a man of peace, discussing his attempts to establish a foreign policy designed to permanently secure international peace

Genres: History

432 pages, Paperback

Published September 4, 1984

About the author

Blanche Wiesen Cook (born April 20, 1941 in New York City), Distinguished Professor of history at John Jay College in the City University of New York, is the author of Eleanor Roosevelt: Volume One 1884–1933, a Los Angeles Times Book Prize winning biography of Eleanor Roosevelt....Ms.Cook, who is openly gay, is also the author of Eleanor Roosevelt: Volume 2 , The Defining Years, 1933–1938, and The Declassified Eisenhower: A Divided Legacy of Peace and Political Warfare. On October 21, 2013, the historian Douglas Brinkley mentioned on the television program "First Ladies" on CSPAN, that Professor Cook was currently writing Volume 3 of her Eleanor Roosevelt series.

She received the Bill Whitehead Award for Lifetime Achievement from Publishing Triangle in 2010.

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Michael Loveless]

First of all, I never really finished this book. It was assigned in a college course I took in the 80s. I found it to be incredibly difficult to read. Part of it was my lack of knowledge at the time. This is not a book for beginners, as is indicated in another review. In addition to my lack of prerequisite knowledge, I also found the book's organization to be confusing, with the author jumping around in time in a way that I couldn't follow.

Many years later, after teaching US history and having a better understanding of the time period and people, I picked up the book again. I still found it impossible to read. If you are very knowledgeable about Eisenhower and the post-war era, and if you are willing to really work to follow where the author leads, you may enjoy this book. Unfortunately, it was too much for me.

[Bobbie]

This is an interesting well written book. Not a beginner's history book. In my opinion it would be best to have an understanding of what was out there during the period in question, before getting to the "Declassified" part. And that is what made it most interesting for me.