Eisenhower

First published in 1990, this new edition of Stephen Ambrose's impressive biography condenses the earlier two volumes into one, with some minor revisions, and several new sections. Dwight D Eisenhower was one of the outstanding leaders of the 20th century, in Ambrose's words, 'a great and good man'. A West Point graduate, he proved a brave, decisive and disciplined commander, whose successful campaigns in North Africa, Sicily and Italy culminated in the D-Day Landings (about which Ambrose has written in his bestselling Band of Brothers). As President he made peace in Korea and steered the US through one of the most dangerous decades of the Cold War (even if, in retrospect, the danger seems exaggerated). He was the only president of the 20th century to preside over two full terms of peace and prosperity. On the debit side, his was an era of political repression and stifling conformity. His running mate through both campaigns was Richard Nixon, whose presidential candidacies, in 1960 and 1968, Ike supported, though he had reservations. His political judgement could certainly be shaky - he maintained that Ronald Reagan was less right-wing than people thought, and he did little to rein in the excesses of Senator McCarthy - though in private he despised the man. He sent the first American personnel to Vietnam (along with massive financial aid for the ill-fated French effort) and remained hawkish on south-east Asia throughout his life. Still, he is hard to dislike, and there seems to have been a generous streak of decency running through him. Of course, this is a sympathetic account, which stops just short of hagiography, but Ambrose draws on extensive research (including numerous interviews with Ike himself) to produce a vivid, informed and comprehensive life of the career soldier who became president. Surrounded in book form, as in life, by the pre-eminent figures of modern history - Roosevelt, Churchill, de Gaulle, Khrushchev - Eisenhower easily holds his own. (Kirkus UK)