The Glory and the Dream vol 1

William Manchester bookends this sprawling, epic US history with two protests in the heart of Washington. He opens in 1930 at the rise of the Great Depression, with veterans across from the White House coldly shunned by President Herbert Hoover when asking for advance relief from the Great Depression, then brutally attacked by troops and national guardsmen led by Douglas MacArthur. He concludes with President Richard Nixon's second inaugural in 1973 at Watergate's rising, Vietnam demonstrators audible blocks away amidst calls for national unity and self-reliance. In between, across 1300 pages, (excluding index and exhaustive bibliography) "The Glory and the Dream" chronicles the American Century's meatiest, most eventful years (1932-72). Manchester details a diary for and about what he called the "swing generation" but whom ex-NBC-TV anchorman Tom Brokaw (who cited Manchester as an influence) christened "the Greatest Generation." These men and women endured and thrived through what, against Manchester's narrative, seemed (except for the relatively tranquil late 1950s) a non-stop whirlwind of hardship. Painting in broad strokes by economic numbers Manchester reveals compelling pictures of the Depression, bank and crop failures, Franklin Roosevelt's election and the New Deal, World War II, and the Korean and Cold Wars. He also includes near month by month chronicles and analysis on America's roots and involvement in the Vietnam War and Watergate, which takes up most of the book's final third. And of course, he addresses the still-shocking days of rage, murder, and decaying social fabric in the late 1960s. Manchester's storytelling is expertly paced, foreshadowing careers of 20th century icons like Nixon, JFK, Marilyn Monroe and even the Edsel. He traces their steps to the national stage and devotes personal "Portrait of An American" sections to many (including Dr. Benjamin Spock, Edward R Murrow, and Ralph Nader). He does this deftly balancing international, social, and economic views of day to day life, worked, and socialized, even addressing political and social extremists (50s beatniks, 60s hippies, John Birchers). Isolationist vs. internationalist foreign policy views, themes as recent as last month's Iraq election, pops up throughout the book; virulent opposition to FDR's war mobilization leads to the opposition to the Truman Doctrine and Marshall Plan. Vietnam's civil war slowly creeps across several administrations beginning with Dwight Eisenhower's, reaching the heart of American experience as the decade and book close. Anyone knowing or having lived through part of the last half-century can reference America's seismic events at a high level. To Manchester's credit he reached deeper into the causes behind pop culture and historical touchstones like Nixon's "Checkers" speech, 1968's Vietnam My Lai massacre, the oft-overlooked 1936 hurricane crushing New England (and ineffective warnings against it), and Japan's 1937 sinking of the USS

This is quite simply the best book I have ever read. I first read it in 1975 in a couple of marathon reads. The material is so well integrated and intesting as to make in enjoyable and memorable. The ending is a downer, given what was happeing in the country at the time. Seen from another 30 years, Viet Nam and the societal meltdown doesn't look as bad. It's about time for an update.

This book is exactly what its title says: a history of American from 1932 through 1972. The book is thorough and long, and yet fluently readable. You certainly won't be aware that you're reading a book of more than a thousand pages. Manchester strikes a good balance between the major political events and the lives of ordinary Americans. Most impressive is Manchester's political even-handedness. He regards no one as a villain or a hero (well, FDR comes close, but almost everyone who lived through those years considered FDR a hero). Having been written in 1973, the book does show some effects of the Viet Name debacle; there is a tendency to assume a moral equivalence between the communist countries and the democracies. Nowadays only the most mindless America-haters believe that any such equivalence ever existed, but remember that in the aftermath of Viet Nam, such feelings were easy to adopt. But Manchester never loses his objectivity or his ability to take the long view. In examining the Red Scare - McCarthy era, for example, he manages to treat each individual case on its own merits, something very few writers have been able or willing to do. Manchester's choice of topics is invariably apt: the things which seemed important at the time are the things which he treats as important. The only event which struck me as deserving of more attention than he gave it, was the Hungarian uprising of 1956. Manchester doesn't completely understand the music of the 60's but no one over 35 (at the time) did! The book was written at a time when faith in big government solutions to all social and economic problems was taken for granted. Also, Watergate had not yet played itself out when the book was written, although he gives it plenty of attention. But all of my reservations are minor. I don't know of any single book which is so effective in telling the reader what it was like to live in America during those 40 years, and also so effective in describing America's role and behavior in the international community during those same years, as this one. The next time you're tempted to read a self-help book by the latest anointed guru whose insights might justify a short magazine article, read this book instead. You'll walk away with a much better understanding of the world you live in, and how it got that way.

Anyone fortunate enough to read the first few chapters of this terrific work by William Manchester will no longer wonder why he is considered one of the finest historians writing about the 20th century. From the opening description of the tensions in Washington in the early 1930s with the conflict over the so-called "bonus marchers" to the ending essay on the removal of Richard Nixon from the Presidency in disgrace in 1974, there simply isn't a dull page in the book. As for anyone who hasn't experienced this author and his superb prose style, there is no time to waste!This truly is a masterful and magisterial historical narrative of the period of time from the onset of the Depression to the climax of the Watergate scandal; all the color and detail one would want from a work purporting to cover such a momentous time span in our recent national melodrama is here in spades. His prose style is at once both erudite and immensely readable, and he always seems conversational even when discussing matters that are delicate or controversial. Whether discussing the momentous details of FDR's "New Deal", the daring and cunning of the Japanese in carrying out the attack on Pearl Harbor, the sad and sorrowful political potshots taken by scurrilous swine like Joe McCarthy during the House Un-American Activities Committee or the quizzically vengeful approach taken by insiders during the Nixon years, Manchester consistently steers us knowingly and safely through the rocks and shoals of domestic history, avoiding veering into the controversial reefs and coral that can rip us to shreds with partisan political revisionism and politically-correct views. As he does in other books such as "American Caesar" and "The Death Of A President", Manchester always satisfies the reader's curiosity without being salacious, gossipy, or unfair. He takes great pains to be objective and as thorough as possible, and the sources he cites are always impeccable. If I have any criticism of the book at all, it relates to its long length, as I read the two-volume hard cover version a friend gave me as a birthday present. It is really a small quibble, however, for though it was along read I came away from the several week reading adventure feeling much better informed, and with a much better perspective on many of the troubling issues that have transpired in the fabled years since the Depression. I heartily recommend this book, but advise you to find yourself a comfortable armchair to escape to with book in hand. You are going to want to devour it. Enjoy!

I was required to read this book back in high school for a history class and I remember that I was shocked to see the massive size of the book. It looked more like a dictionary. We were only required to read a few sections, but it was still intimidating. However, after a few pages you begin to get engrossed in the tale Manchester weaves. He merges the pop culture of the eras he talks about with the history making it very accessible for the average reader. It is a vibrant, energetic book that is very addictive. Even if you are not interested in history, I highly reccomend this one :) After my history class, I eventually ended up buying the book and reading it from cover to cover.