Eisenhower Between the Wars: The Making of a General and Statesman

(Hardback)

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Dwight D. Eisenhower achieved prominence as a military leader during World War II and as a statesman following the conflict, but less is known about his ambitions and preparation between the wars that served as the foundation for his later success. The first modern analysis of Eisenhower's career before his rise to fame, this study examines Ike's intellectual ideas concerning politics, military strategy, and history in the decades between the wars. Holland details Eisenhower's quest to make himself the best officer in the U.S. Army and to prepare for the next war--which he firmly believed was coming. Based upon the voluminous collection at the Eisenhower Library, this book includes discussion of Eisenhower's intellectual development, family life, military education, the roles of mentors and friends, as well as his political and international experiences. Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, Ike labored thanklessly in an army marked by budget cuts and incompetence. Despite this atmosphere, he persevered to become a pioneer in mechanized and aerial warfare, the author of an official history of World War I, the creator of the first industrial mobilization plan in American history, a one man public relations section for the War Department, and the organizer of the Philippine army. Through it all, Ike remained a man with a big heart, a man equally able to work with presidents or privates without losing his common touch.

Reviews

"Matthew Holland has made a very useful contriubution to scholarship on Dwight D. Eisenhower....[H]ollan's account of the neglected period of Eisenhower in the inter-war years adds weight to the revisionist interpretaion....[t]he overall argument is persuasive. Holland's account makes plain that the president of the 1950s was not Ulysses Grant, a malleable military figurehead, but a leader with considerable political skills and solid accomplishments and experience which provided impressive credentials for his presidency."-Intelligence & National Security
An interesting and often insightful look at the professional and social forces that helped shape Eisenhower as a soldier between the world wars....a useful read for anyone intersted in the development of the U.S. Army in the period, or the history of the ETO.-The NYMAS Newsletter
Eisenhower Between the Wars is a solid piece of revisionist work on an area of Eisenhower's life that has received too little attention: the interwar years...fills a long-term need in Eisenhower scholarship...Matthew Holland's book makes an important contribution to our understanding of Dwight Eisenhower. Future Eisenhower scholars will want to consult this book and consider its arguments carefully.-The Journal of Military History
Matthew Holland has made a very useful contriubution to scholarship on Dwight D. Eisenhower....[H]ollan's account of the neglected period of Eisenhower in the inter-war years adds weight to the revisionist interpretaion....[t]he overall argument is persuasive. Holland's account makes plain that the president of the 1950s was not Ulysses Grant, a malleable military figurehead, but a leader with considerable political skills and solid accomplishments and experience which provided impressive credentials for his presidency.-Intelligence & National Security
"An interesting and often insightful look at the professional and social forces that helped shape Eisenhower as a soldier between the world wars....a useful read for anyone intersted in the development of the U.S. Army in the period, or the history of the ETO."-The NYMAS Newsletter
"Eisenhower Between the Wars is a solid piece of revisionist work on an area of Eisenhower's life that has received too little attention: the interwar years...fills a long-term need in Eisenhower scholarship...Matthew Holland's book makes an important contribution to our understanding of Dwight Eisenhower. Future Eisenhower scholars will want to consult this book and consider its arguments carefully."-The Journal of Military History

Author Bio

MATTHEW F. HOLLAND is Center Director at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Tucson, Arizona. A former officer in the U.S. Army, he is the author of America and Egypt: From Roosevelt to Eisenhower (Praeger, 1996).