The Age of Eisenhower

The Age of Eisenhower is a page-turner masterpiece about what we Americans can accomplish when we try to be and do our best. Will Hitchcock tells the remarkable story of how a values-laden boy from Kansas grew up to and through being a professional soldier to becoming one of the most important—and best—leaders in modern history. There are few of us, regardless of age or persuasion, who have not been touched or influenced by the decisions, deeds and sweep of Dwight David Eisenhower. There are also too few of us who know that. Until now. Until this book, which, I believe, will be read by millions—and forever.

—Jim Lehrer, former co-host of the PBS NewsHour

Download Image

William Hitchcock has given us an absorbing account of an era that looms large not only in the long history of the West but in our time. Dwight Eisenhower helped create a strong, dynamic, and in many ways enviable America. There were flaws, yes, and dreams deferred—but taken all in all, Ike’s achievements on the battlefield and in the public square of peacetime are towering, and we live still in their long shadow.

—Jon Meacham, author of Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George H.W. Bush and American Lion

Download Image

Eisenhower’s steady hand, deep experience, and seriousness of purpose served America well during eight perilous years. William Hitchcock’s insightful and stimulating study couldn’t be more timely.

—H. W. Brands, professor of history at University of Texas at Austin

Download Image

William Hitchcock has written the best book yet to appear on the Eisenhower years. Elegantly written and evocatively narrated, The Age of Eisenhower examines Ike’s domestic and foreign policy challenges, and persuasively emphasizes that he was one of our most consequential presidents. Ike’s integrity, thoughtfulness, prudence, self-discipline, and civic-mindedness remind us of the qualities that make for presidential greatness.

—Melvyn P. Leffler, Edward Stettinius Professor of American History, University of Virginia

Download Image

"Ike draws you in," writes William Hitchcock in The Age of Eisenhower, a masterful account of that most consequential of postwar presidencies. Having labored long on a book about Ike's vice-president, I thought I knew all about the 34th president and the era of McCarthyism, Little Rock, Happy Days and Khrushchev. But Hitchcock's lucid style, clear-eyed analysis and knack for telling detail pinned me to my chair. I emerged, a long weekend later, awed by Ike's performance—and the author's gift for crafting such a tale.

—John A. Farrell, author of Richard Nixon: The Life

Download Image

William Hitchcock has written the study of Dwight D. Eisenhower’s White House years that I’ve always wanted to read--a thoughtful, informed, deeply engaging portrait of this crafty, slightly mysterious man. There’s a lot that’s new, even revelatory, about Ike, including the surprising ways in which his life as a soldier shaped his consequential Presidency.

—Jeffrey Frank, author of Ike and Dick

Download Image

Like the supposedly conformist and complacent 1950s, too long eclipsed by the drama and turbulence of the 1960s, so has Dwight Eisenhower too long been dismissed as a distracted codger compared with the youthful president who succeeded him, John F. Kennedy. Now William I. Hitchcock's trenchant and compelling book convincingly redresses the balance. He reminds us of the gravity of the issues at stake in the 1950s - including increasingly violent clashes over civil rights and the prospect of nuclear Armageddon -- and persuasively portrays Eisenhower as an engaged and thoughtful leader who deeply shaped the nation's destiny for decades to come.

—David M. Kennedy, Professor Emeritus, Stanford University

Download Image

At a moment when inspiring leaders are hard to find, William Hitchcock brings one of our national heroes back to life in the pages of this beautiful book. Dwight Eisenhower was a man of many limitations who lived during a very trying time in our history, but he nurtured the integrity, intelligence, and discipline to help navigate our nation through a world war, a cold war, and an early civil rights struggle. This book is biography at its best, and an inspiration for our age.

The Age of Eisenhower