 A Great American History for Starters, 2008-04-10
If you are a relatively new and inexperienced reader of American history, especially of the 20th century, this is the one book you should read as a foundation. The book's contents are accurate, the style is readable and entertaining, the perspective is unusually unbiased compared to current history writers. It's what a good history book should be.
Most compelling to me as someone born in the 1950s is the incredible sense of context the book delivers. Born after World War II, I was living through events in the 1960s and 1970s that seemed crazy until I read this book and found how much of that present flowed out of the past described in Manchester's book. For a young reader of today (circa 2000), the book still provides a strong foundation for current events. While history doesn't repeat itself, as Mark Twain is alleged to have noted, history rhymes. With this book, younger or inexperienced readers will begin to hear the rhymes and perhaps draw the reasons for why things are happening as they are today.
This is one of the best history books I've read in a 50 year reading life (so far!). It is impeccable in its scholarship, but accessible and enjoyable in its style. Everyone living today should read this book. It would give us a common ground to disagree from!
The Hobo Philosopher, 2007-09-02
The Glory and the Dream is a two volume set of over 1600 pages. Mr. Manchester calls it a narrative history of America. It covers the years from 1932 to 1972. And I mean "covers". There are 37 chapters, almost one for each year.
These two volumes, as with all history books, contain a wealth of information, but Mr. Manchester's books seem to contain more information, if that is possible, than other history books. He is overwhelming.
Every time I pick up one of his books I end up re-reading the whole thing. And for some reason the man's style is always able to keep my interest. His feelings and intensity come through and not necessarily with his prejudices attached. He is just a good writer, plain and simple.
This set begins in the year 1932 with the Bonus Army marching on Washington D.C. It is a fascinating and tragic tale.
The year 1932 was "rock bottom" for America and the Great Depression.
When I picked up this first volume I thought it was the most radical thing that I had ever read. I thought that the book contained every corruptible thing about America that had ever been written. But now I realize it is, more or less, plain old American History. Since that time I have read more and more corruptible things.
I think reading William Manchester's account of things is what set me off on reading history.
William was a marine and served in the Pacific in W.W.II. He refused to become an officer - which has to say something for his character.
His style makes reading a learning history a pleasure.
Case closed - The best American history ever written, 2006-03-31
This is the book I recommend to people who say that they hate History as a subject. When I was reading Manchester's account in the beginning of the book about the Bonus Marchers in 1932, I could feel the heat and humidity of pre-war and un-airconditioned Washington D.C. And Manchester conveyed the suffering of these veterans and their desperation in clear and concise language. I don't think that any historian has written about the Depression in as moving and compelling a manner as he does. And this is only the begining of the book. There's more great passages in his description of the home front during WWII. He recounts forgotten stories such as the "I want to go home" riots by GI's at the end of the war in Europe.
I disagree with one earlier reviewer who thought that a weakness in the book was Manchester's alleged liberal bias. In fact, his account of the Alger Hiss affair is unabashed in showing Hiss's guilt and in highlighting Nixon's diligence in pursuing the truth.
I completely wore out the copy I bought back in 1980. I first read it in the hospital when I was recovering from elective surgery. I was so ensconsed in it that I finished it during my three day stay.
Superbly Readable History, 2005-12-27
William Manchester (1922-2004) provides a highly readable look at the USA from 1932-1972. This gripping narrative is written in the style of general history, yet readers come away with a profuond understanding of the times and events. The narrative begins with the nation in the depths of the Great Depression, with millions hungry, homeless, riding the rails, and looking for jobs that didn't exist. Enter Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal, which greatly improved conditions. Then what followed was the Second World War, the post war boom, McCarthyism, Civil Rights, Vietnam, etc. The author does more than merely describe events and major personalities; he captures the feel of the various decades, looking at social conventions and changing mores over this 40-year period. Manchester even includes vignettes of major figures like Walter Reuther, Eleanor Roosevelt, Marilyn Monroe, etc. This is a superbly readable and slightly liberal two-volume narrative about the USA from the Depression to the end of Vietnam.
US History as Historical Epic in Magisterial Manchester Work, 2005-02-05
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 Panay which foreshadowed Pearl Harbor. He draws dimensional character studies amidst the era's scandals (the fall of Eisenhower right hand man Sherman Adams as one example). He allows you to understand personalities and issues behind history's strongest feuds: President Harry Truman against union leader John Lewis (or MacArthur, or Joseph McCarthy...), between Southern governors and other leadership against Dr. Martin Luther King, the Freedom Riders, the Kennedy administration, and finally against the Black Panthers' vicious 1960s anarchy. Finally, he chronicles the "silent majority" generation gap between Nixon/Agnew's divisive, reactionary leadership team and a generation's angry youth.
Before his death last year, Manchester wrote whole volumes on major figures included here (Winston Churchill, MacArthur, JFK). But given the relatively short time each is presented (except for FDR, who dominates the book's first half ), Manchester masterfully retells individual personal style, social time, major accomplishments, blunders, and closure to their lives and histories. "The Glory and the Dream" is filled with protests after violent counter protests (which Manchester respects even when he does not agree), well-drawn, memorable characters more remarkable for being real life characters, and insightful side comments on issues like the role of the vice-presidency and American tolerance of dissent.
At its publication, Manchester himself called "The Glory and the Dream" the culmination of his career, and for once it was not hyperbole. Anyone wishing to understand American character must start here; "The Glory and the Dream" is the finest history-based book I've ever read, and one of the finest in any genre.
Absolutely essential.
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