Eisenhower books?

[Fifty]

Yo is there any Eisenhower biographies out there that don't focus on military minutiae? I mean obviously military stuff had a lot to do with the dude but I just don't want to have to subject myself to too much reading about battles and whatnot, though I'm interested in the dude.

 

[Sharwood]

I read several as part of a class in the second-half of last year. I'll try to find their names for you, but I can't remember which ones were full of minutiae, and which weren't. There were several on specific episodes as well, such as one extremely good, short book on the Suez Crisis. If you're interested, I'll find those as well.

 

[Padma]

Here's a brochure, not a full book. It was published by the US Army Center for Military History, so it does have a little of the "battle minutia", but not very much. It is out of print, but is viewable at http://www.history.army.mil/brochures/Ike/ike.htm.

 

[Sharwood]

Alright Fifty, sorry this took so long. These were the three best books on Eisenhower I read last year. All of the others were chock-full of military minutiae, which these are not. Political minutiae, you might have to deal with.

Ambrose, Stephen and Brinkley, Douglas. (1997) "Chapters 8 and 9" Rise to Globalism, New York: Simon and Schuster

Statler, Kathryn. (2006) The Eisenhower Administration, the Third World, and the Globalization of the Cold War Lanham: Rowan and Littlefeld

Kingseed, Cole. (1995) Eisenhower and the Suez Crisis Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press

Rise to Globalism is a basic university textbook, but good nonetheless. Unfortunately, it's not terribly detailed. Statler and Cole both focus on specific periods, but are good reads, especially Cole. I thought Cole's book was one of the best books about the Suez Crisis I've ever read, and I've read dozens.

Unfortunately, all the books dealing with Eisenhower's career as a whole, rather than simply his time as President, are teeming with exactly what you want to avoid, or I could recommend a biography or two. The best is probably:

Larson, Arthur. (1969) Eisenhower: The President Nobody Knew London: Leslie Frewin

You might want to read that, and simply skip the chapters dealing with the war and Eisenhower's time as head of the army in Europe.

 

[Uncle Anton]

Stephen Ambrose did a fair deal of research on Eisenhower. Having said that, as with all work down by Ambrose, you need to take what he's published with a grain of salt the size of Siberia.